290 STATEWIDE PROGRAM RECOGNIZES GILES COUNTY FARM FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 18, 2008
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947

STATEWIDE PROGRAM RECOGNIZES GILES COUNTY FARM FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Curry Farms Becomes County’s Newest and 27th Designated Century Farm

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—The Curry Farms, Bethel, located in Giles County, has been designated as a Tennessee Century Farm, reports Caneta S. Hankins, director of the Century Farms Program at the Center for Historic Preservation, which is located on the MTSU campus.
“Just north of the Alabama state line is a farm that, like many other across the state, was founded by a woman,” reported Hankins, regarding Francis Virginia “Jennie” Easter Meadows, who became the owner of 237 acres when her parents, Samuel W. Easter and Mary P. Easter, bought a parcel of land on Feb. 16, 1883, for $5,000.
On the same day, they sold it to Jennie for $5. Jennie was married to Dr. John Andrew Meadows, who had served as a medic during the Civil War and then became a medical doctor. During her ownership, the farm mainly supported cotton and dairy cattle. Jennie and her husband were the parents of five children.
In 1943, the land passed to four of the siblings—W. E. Meadows, G. S. Meadows, Margaret M. Davis and R. G. Meadows. They raised cotton, hay and dairy cattle. The family remembers that the milk cows were driven about two miles to be milked.
The third generation to own the property was the granddaughter of the founder, Johnnie Marjorie Meadows Curry. During the 1960s and 1970s, she continued to buy shares of the farm from her relatives. Johnnie married Robert E. Curry and they had four children, Robert Michael Curry, Carroll Meadows Curry, John Timothy “Tim” Curry and Bernard Stone Curry. Under Johnnie’s ownership, the farm produced corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, grain sorghum and cotton. In 2000, cotton was grown on the farm for the first time since 1974.
The next owners of the farm were the founder’s great grandsons and her great-great-grandchildren. In 2004, Tim Curry, the great-grandson of the founder, became the sole owner of the land. Today, he manages the operation and mainly produces corn silage, shelled corn and soybeans.
Curry Farms, Bethel, is the 27th Giles County property to be certified as a Tennessee Century Farm, Hankins said.
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 CHP 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, noting either 100, 150 or 200 years of “continuous agricultural production” to Century Farm families.

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.
“The Century Farmers represent all the farm families of Tennessee,” Hankins said, “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 interview the farm’s owners or secure jpegs of the property, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.