[081] Statewide Program Recognizes McMinn County Farm's Contributions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 10, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947

STATEWIDE PROGRAM RECOGNIZES McMINN COUNTY FARM’S CONTRIBUTIONS
121-Year-Old Kyker’s Shady Hill Farm Brings County’s Century Farms Total to 41

(MURFREESBORO)—The Kyker’s Shady Hill Farm in McMinn 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.
In 1888, Fletcher Garrison and Amanda Buttram Garrison established a farm northwest of Niota. The couple’s children were Bessie, Arthur, Frances, Ben, Maude, Mae, Almeda, John and Charlie. On the 116-acre farm, the family raised cattle, hay, corn, hogs and chickens.
According to the family’s reports, Fletcher constructed a “front” onto a cabin to make more space for his large family. The addition included a parlor, master bedroom and foyer with a stairwell leading to two upstairs bedrooms.
The second owners of the farm, Bessie Garrison Jenkins, daughter of the founder, and husband Otis acquired the farm in 1949. Their three children were Robert, Richard and Joan. The family grew hay, corn and pasture and also raised dairy cattle as well as hogs and chickens for their table.
Otis and Bessie dismantled the original log cabin and added a kitchen, bathroom and dining room with two upstairs bedrooms to the house, the family reported, and they also remodeled the dairy barn and constructed a hay and stock barn in the 1950s.
In 1982, the great-grandson of the founder, Benjamin Frank Kyker, acquired the land. Today, Frank, wife Nancy, their daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Nathan Hill and a family friend, Richard Kleint, work the land.
“This farm is the 41st Century Farm to be certified in McMinn County,” Hankins noted.
Frank and Nancy Kyker received their Century Farm metal sign and certificate at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum on Aug. 10 from Century Farms director Hankins, who delivered a special presentation that evening on the Tennessee Century Farms program.

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.


—more—



KYKER
Add 1




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 request jpegs of the farm, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.