[205] Sullivan County Farm Joins State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 20, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947

SULLIVAN COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
Houston Farm Becomes County’s Newest Tennessee Century Farm

(MURFREESBORO)—The Houston Farm in Sullivan 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.
Near the historic Piney Flats community, Charles D. Deakins purchased a farm of 206 acres in 1903. He and his wife, Mary Isabelle Cole, had seven children and the family raised sheep, dairy cattle, horses, pigs, chickens, corn, wheat and hay, along with peach, pea, and apple orchards. The Deakins’ operation also included a cider business, blacksmith, gunsmith and cobbler’s shop. Roads led from the farm to the Holston River and to the Piney Flats and Bluff City communities.
After the death of Charles D. Deakins in 1918, daughter Virginia Pet Houston and her husband, James William Houston, acquired most of her parents’ farm. Through buying out her siblings’ shares, the Houstons obtained 160 acres of the original 206. They and their three children, Charles Wayne, Mary Frances and Frank Helms, raised dairy cattle, horses, mules, bees, wheat, corn, hay, chickens, pigs, tobacco, fruit orchards and kitchen gardens.
According to the family’s reports, Mary Frances was quite active in her school athletics program and was on the state championship basketball team in 1938 at Mary Hughes High School. Charles was a magistrate of the county court and served on the state election committee for 20 years, including logging time as president of the committee.
Mary Frances and her husband, Audra Malone, became the third generation to continue family ownership of the farm. They acquired 143 acres of the farm in 1983 and raised dairy cows, Black Angus cattle, corn, wheat, hay, tobacco, orchards, pigs and kitchen gardens. The Malones, as well as the Houstons before them, were members of the Farm Bureau and were involved in the Home Demonstration Club and 4-H Club either as leaders or members.
In 2008, the current owners, John N. and Patsy Starnes, acquired the land that is now called Houston Farm. Patsy is the great-granddaughter of the founder through her mother’s side of the family. At age 93 her mother, Frieda Houston, is the widow of Charles Wayne Houston, the grandson of the founder. John and Patsy, along with Frieda, live on the land that has been in the family since early in the 20th century.
A brick home, built in 1903, and other buildings, including a tool shed, smokehouse, granary, corncrib and barn remain on the property. Patsy Starnes said she remembers many stories from her grandmother, Virginia Pet Houston, including the one about her father, Charles D. Deakins, saving his money in several boxes to pay for the two-story brick house.


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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 jpegs of the farm, 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.