[155] Two Wilson County Farms Join State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 21, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947

TWO WILSON COUNTY FARMS JOIN STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
Groom-Saddler and Sundale Farms Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—The Groom-Saddler and Sundale Farms located in Wilson County have 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 1870, as America was recovering from the Civil War, John C. Johnson founded a 281-acre farm in Wilson County, where he and his family raised corn, tobacco, hay, hogs, cattle, horses, mules and wheat. Married twice, John fathered 10 children. Additionally, according to the family’s records, during the Civil War one of John’s sons, Richard, served in the Union cavalry.
Siblings Ida Johnson Groom and Andy Johnson inherited the farm, now known as Groom-Sadler Farm, in 1897. Andy later sold his part of the farm to Ida’s husband, R. W. Groom. During their ownership, the old farmhouse was replaced with a “new one” in 1917 and a “new” barn was built the following year. Also, R. W. Groom installed a Delco lighting system. The family grew corn, tobacco, wheat and hay and raised hogs, cattle, mules and horses.
In 2001, Dwight G. Saddler, a direct descendent of John C. Johnson, became the owner of the property. Today, three generations live on the farm, including Dwight and his wife, Bulah Katherine Melton, their two sons, Eric and Jared, and grandchildren Evan and Ella. Dwight is the manager of the Groom-Saddler Farm and raises corn, tobacco, wheat, hay, hogs and cattle on the land that has been in his family for 140 years.
• Located two miles southeast of Cottage Home, and adjoining both DeKalb and Cannon Counties is the Sundale Farm, which was founded in 1847 by Francis Spirah Anderson. Married first to Margaret Robinson and then to Mary J. Knight, he had 12 children, and on 300 acres his family raised corn, wheat, apples, swine, beef cattle, milk cows, sheep, horses, chickens, turkeys, rye, geese, red clover and bees.
In about 1898, a Victorian farmhouse was built with lumber cut and sawn on the farm. Francis Spirah Anderson Jr. acquired the farm in 1924. His son, Spirah Turney Anderson, was on the board of the Liberty State Bank, which was one of the few banks that remained opened during the Great Depression. In the 1940s, U. S. Army maneuvers were conducted on the farm and the trainers had a lookout station located on its highest point—1,192 feet above sea level.
In 1971, the great-grandson of the founder and son of Spirah Turney Anderson, Ernest F. Anderson, and his wife, Jacqueline Hill Anderson, acquired 200 acres. Increasing their property to more than 800 contiguous acres, Ernest raises Fescue and orchard grass hay, alfalfa, hay, Chiangus and registered Hereford cattle, Tennessee Walking horses, wheat and tobacco.

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Ernest and his wife Jacqueline are both graduates of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and taught agriculture and home economics, respectively, at the high school level in Illinois and Indiana. Both also taught and retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the “professor emeritus” rank in 1988.
Over the years, the Anderson family has been active in the community and agricultural-related organizations. Ernest’s mother, Winnie Anderson, was one of several people who helped organize and lead the local Home Demonstration Club in the early 1930s. She served as president and helped raise money to purchase and build the Cottage Home Club Building.
Currently, Ernest’s wife, Jacqueline, continues to provide leadership to maintain the Club House and make it available to the community for public and private occasions. Ernest was a member of the 4-H club, and during the 1940s and 1950s his father, Spirah Turney, was a director of the Wilson County Farm Bureau.
Since 2001, Ernest has served as director of the Farm Bureau, and today, the Andersons live in the 1898 house.
“Both of these farms were honored, along with other Century Farms, at the Wilson County Fair on Aug. 27,” noted Hankins, who adds that Wilson County has more Century Farms than any other county in Tennessee.

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, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.

With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.