EDITORIAL CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947
Overton County family farms join state’s Century Farms Program
136-year-old Leck Gore and Bob Gore Farms recognized for agricultural contributionsMURFREESBORO, Tenn. —The Leck Gore Farm and the Bob Gore Farm in Overton County have been designated as Tennessee Century Farms by the Century Farms Program at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University.
Caneta S. Hankins, director of the Century Farms Program, says these new honorees share the history and heritage of the F. M. Gore Farm, which was certified as a Tennessee Century Farm in January 2006.
All three farms originated with the same family. In 1870, Francis Marion Gore established a 150-acre farm west of Livingston, Tenn., where he cultivated corn and hay and raised cattle, hogs, mules and sheep. He and his wife, Sarah Boyd Gore, had 10 children, and their youngest son, Robert Marion Gore, became the next owner of the land. He married Hettie Isabell Ray Matthews Gore, and the couple had one surviving child, Lester D. "Leck" Gore.
When Lester Gore took over the family farm, he operated his own blacksmith shop and made his own farming tools. In the 1930s and '40s, Lester Gore also improved the farm by purchasing a tractor and building a barn and corncrib.
The Gore family reports that Lester Gore also worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service office, now known as the Farm Service Agency, and helped with progressive farming efforts such as constructing and managing ponds and planting seeds more efficiently. He received a certificate of recognition from the agency for his contributions to American agriculture.
When Lester Gore died in 1977, the land passed to his wife, Lydia May Goodpasture Gore, and their three children: Reba Ann Flatt, Agnes L. Carr and William Glenn Gore.
Today, these three siblings, the great-grandchildren of the founders, own the Leck Gore Farm. Co-owner William Gore and his three children, Gary, Martha and Margaret Gore, live on this newly designated Tennessee Century Farm. Gary Gore, who with his sisters are the farm's fifth generation, works the land and primarily raises cattle.
Agnes Carr, a great-granddaughter of farm founders Francis Marion and Sarah Boyd Gore, owns the new Century-designated Bob Gore Farm. She and her husband, Earl Carr, operate this part of the original Gore Farm, where they raise cattle and maintain and use the barn constructed in 1933 and corncrib built in 1949. Since 1991, Agnes Carr’s siblings, William Gore and Reba Ann Flatt, also have held partial ownership of the land.
The Century Farm Program recognizes the contributions of Tennessee residents who have continuously owned, and kept in production, family land for at least 100 years. Since 1984, the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU has been a leader in the important work of documenting Tennessee’s agricultural heritage and history through the Tennessee Century Farm Program, and continues to administer this program.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture began the Tennessee Century Farm Program in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial. Today, the TDA provides a metal outdoor sign for Century Farm families, noting either 100, 150 or 200 years of “continuous agricultural production.”
To be considered for eligibility, a farm must be owned by the same family for at least 100 years; must produce $1,000 revenue annually; must have at least 10 acres of the original farm; and one owner must be a resident of Tennessee. There are currently more than 1,000 Century Farms stretching across all 95 of Tennessee's counties.
“The Century Farmers represent all the farm families of Tennessee,” said Hankins, “and their contributions to the economy, and to the social, cultural and agrarian vitality of the state, both past and present, is immeasurable. Each farm is a Tennessee treasure.”
For more information about the Century Farms Program, visit its website at http://www.mtsuhistpres.org. The Center for Historic Preservation also may be contacted via mail at Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132, or by telephone at 615-898-2947.
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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with any the owners of these farms please contact the Center for Historic Preservation at 615-898-2947.
