[489] STATEWIDE PROGRAM RECOGNIZES CLAIBORNE COUNTY FARM’S CONTRIBUTIONS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 16, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947

STATEWIDE PROGRAM RECOGNIZES CLAIBORNE COUNTY FARM’S CONTRIBUTIONS
J. D. Campbell Farm Brings County’s Tennessee Century Farms Total to 31

(MURFREESBORO)—The J. D. Campbell Farm in Claiborne 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.
According to CHP records, the descendents of the J. D. Campbell Farm may trace their origins to Scotland, where the Campbell clan is an ancient one. This family came to America in the 17th century, traveling through Virginia and North Carolina. As early as the 1790s, they came into in the area that would become Claiborne County, when it was carved from Grainger and Hawkins Counties in 1801.
The farm’s ownership originated in 1821, when two brothers, George Campbell and Barnett Campbell, purchased 75 acres for $100. Barnett married Mary Brooks, and their five children were Louisa, Eldridge, Andrew, John and Toliver.
The next owners of the property were John David Campbell, the 11th son of Eldridge and Emeline Campbell, and his wife Nellie Lanham. They were the parents of Minnie, Media, Pearl, Lon, Roy, Silas, Linnie and Irene. John David Campbell was often referred to as “Dock” because many “neighbors considered him an old-timey animal doctor,” the family reports. He was said to be knowledgeable about plants and herbs that could be used for medicinal purposes and he also served as a doctor for the African Americans.
Nellie, “self-sufficient and hardworking,” was responsible for overseeing the daily activities of the house, planting the garden, sewing clothes, making soap and candles. In addition, she taught the children to read, per the family.
A sawmill was located a few feet from the old farmhouse. On the 75 acres, the family grew a wide variety of crops, including corn, grain, cereal, legumes, peaches, apples and walnuts. They also raised beef and dairy cattle, chickens, turkeys, ducks, wild game and horses.
In 1956, Nellie deeded Bethel Baptist Church an acre of land from the farm. Two years later, Nellie deeded the old farmhouse and the surrounding acreage to daughter Media. Media owned the property until 1987 when she was severely burned in an accident and died from her injuries. After Media’s death, her five children divided the property; however, Norma Faye Whitaker Lanham bought out her other siblings.
Today, Norma Faye Whitaker Lanham and husband William B. Lanham continue to own and live in a house they built in 1983 on the property. Their daughter, Teresa L. Lanham Wamsher, and their oldest grandson, Christopher, live in the old farmhouse.
Faye and William also continue to work the land and operate a greenhouse known as Lanham’s Greenhouse. In the greenhouse, perennial and annual flowers and a variety of garden vegetables including beans, tomatoes, potatoes and corn, are grown.

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Faye sells many of the plants and vegetables at local markets. Bill and Faye write that farming “is full of rewards for them, their family and their community.”
The J. D. Campbell Farm, now 188 years old, is the 31st Century Farm to be certified in Claiborne County, Hankins confirmed.

About the Century Farms Program

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.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: To interview the farm’s owners or request a jpeg of the property, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.