022 SMITH COUNTY FARMS JOIN RANKS OF STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 11, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947


Young Farm and Stonewall Heritage Farm Recognized for Ag. Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—Two Smith County farms have been designated as Tennessee Century Farms, reports Caneta S. Hankins, director of the Century Farms program at the Center for Historic Preservation (CHP), which is located on the campus of MTSU.
Both located in the Stonewall community, Hankins said the Young Farm and the Stonewall Heritage Farm join 41other certified Century Farms in Smith County.
In 1878, Lewis Hartford Young founded the Young Farm of Stonewall. A Civil War veteran, Lewis was in Company K of the 13th Tennessee Calvary. A man of many talents, Young was a steamboat captain on the Caney Fork River, running from Carthage to Sligo, and also served as a deputy sheriff in Smith County.
Married to Frances Elizabeth Armistead Young, the couple had one son, Lewis Joshua Young. The Young family produced corn, hay and tobacco and raised cattle, hogs and sheep. In 1904, Lewis Joshua Young acquired the farm. Along with his wife, Evelyn Jane Smith, the couple reared three children—Ossye Sue Young Nixon, Thelma Elizabeth Young Manning and Loyd Donald Young.
In 1956, Loyd and his spouse, Mary Sue Young, bought out his sisters’ share of the property. From 1963 to 1992, the family worked and lived elsewhere, but Loyd continued to supervise the farm. During this time, a tenant lived on the land and cared for livestock and raised a variety of crops.
In 1996, Mary Sue and Loyd’s son, Donald, built a house on the farm and is clearing fields and fencerows with plans for part-time farming after retirement. Another son, Kevin Scott, is currently making plans to also build a house on the land.
Today, the farm maintains a zinc lease with the Mossy Creek Mining Company and participates in the tobacco buy-out program. In 2001, Loyd passed away and Mary Sue became the sole owner of the farm. With the return to the farm of their sons, the family will continue ownership and agricultural production for a fourth generation.
James Hargrove Smith Jr. founded the Stonewall Heritage Farm in 1896. On 50 acres, he raised hay, corn, tobacco and cattle and in 1898, he donated land for Stonewall Methodist Church. While managing the farm, James and his brother owned and operated Smith Brothers General Store in the community, a popular marketplace for local produce that also was one of the first places in the county to sell mechanized farming equipment.
James was married to Carrie Dossett Brimm Smith and they had five children. James’ son-in-law, Will Orange, married to Mae Smith Orange, acquired the farm in 1939. As the parents of four children, the Orange family cultivated corn, tobacco and hay and raised cattle.
In 1946, Robin Bellar and Era Orange Bellar, granddaughter of the founders and daughter of Will and Mae, became the third owners of the property. During the Bellars’ ownership, the farm produced cattle, hay and tobacco. Robin and Era had four children and their daughter, Shirley Bellar Jones, became the owner in 1993.

Today, Shirley Jones leases the farm to brother Jacky Bellar, who raises cattle on the property. Shirley also reports that the farmhouse is being remodeled by the fifth generation of the family, her daughter Janice and husband Bob Givens.
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 (TDA) began the Tennessee Century Farm Program in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial. Today, the TDA provides a metal outdoor sign to 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 more than 1,000 Century Farms across the state and all 95 counties are represented.
“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, please visit its Web site at http://histpres.mtsu.edu/histpres. 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.


—30—



• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with the owners of these farms, or to obtain jpegs of the farms for editorial use, please contact the Center for Historic Preservation at 615-898-2947.