[226] Overton County Farm Joins State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 7, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

OVERTON COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
Ivy Hill Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions to State of Tennessee

(MURFREESBORO)—The Ivy Hill Farm, located in Overton 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 1858, the Rev. Thomas Richard Dodson founded a farm southeast of Livingston in what came to be known as Dodson’s Chapel. He and his wife, Martha Ann Johnson, and their nine children had a diverse operation on 203 acres, where they raised cotton, wheat, corn and fodder, cane, tobacco, sheep, cows, horses and alfalfa.
According to the family’s records, the farm’s founders sided with the Union during the Civil War, and during Reconstruction, in 1872, Dodson donated land to create the Dodson Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church North and a cemetery in which he and his wife and several of their children are now buried. The Rev. Dodson built a general store, which also held the Miranda Post Office from 1885 to 1915. This post office was named after one of his daughters, whose husband served as the first postmaster.
The Rev. Dodson’s eighth child, Sarah Hannah Catherine “Miranda” Emeline Dodson, married William Stanton Swallows. After her father’s death in 1893, a large portion of his land went to Miranda’s family. Miranda died in childbirth in 1894 and the land went to her husband and their four children. Along with farming, Williams Swallows served as a justice of the peace for the 1st District and as a Tennessee Legislator, as well as a being a federal census enumerator in 1900 and 1910
William and Miranda’s oldest son, Arthur Franklin “Frank” Swallows bought the property from his siblings in 1911. He continued to raise alfalfa, fescue, soy beans, corn, sheep and cattle. He and wife Mary built a new house in 1921 that still stands today. Frank gave land to build the new Ivy Hill School in 1921, which served the community until 1938. He also built a new barn with his son, Ray, in 1942.
Ray and his wife, Eva, were married in 1940 and they remodeled the school house as their home. During the 1950s, Eva was a member of the Overton County Home Demonstration Club and some of the items she made are kept within the family. Ray and Eva’s daughter were member of 4-H and won awards for sewing and cooking. Per the farm’s owners, the Swallows and Stover families “always had many entries in the Overton County Agricultural Fair.”
Active in his community, Ray served as a board member for the Overton County Farm Bureau from 1990 to 2002. He was also a member of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and was an honor guard for more than 800 funerals. Ray died in 2004.
The current owners of the family farm are Paula Swallows Stover, Sandra Swallows Elliott and Eva D. Swallows. Paula is the great-great-granddaughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Richard Dodson. The family grows soy beans, alfalfa, wheat and

—more—

IVYHILL
Add 1



corn, along with sheep, hogs, chickens and turkeys, on 96 acres of the original land. The family still uses the house and barn built by William.
Ivy Hill is part of the Upper Cumberland Quilt Trail and Paul Stover has two pieces of artwork on her barn—one is the “Eight-Point Star” and the other is the “Tree of Life.” These were the first two quilt-barn paintings in Overton County. Since putting up her two ‘quilts’ Paula has received a grant to help others in her area create their own quilt barns throughout the 14 counties of the Upper Cumberland.
Ivy Hill Farm is the second Century Farm that came from the original founders, noted CHP representative Hankins, who added that the first, the Dodson Farm, was certified in 2006 as a Century Farm. In turn, the early history of these two farms is the same until the second-generation owners.
Ivy Hill Farm is the 10th Century Farm to be certified in Overton County.

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.


—30—


• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To interview the farms’ owners or request jpegs of the farm’s “quilt barns” for editorial use, 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.