[232] Crockett County Farm Joins State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 11, 2009
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

CROCKETT COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
Minglewood Farm Recognized as County’s Oldest Century Farm to Date

(MURFREESBORO)—The Minglewood Farm in Crockett 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.
Farm founders Isaac and Rachel Koonce were early settlers in what would become Crockett County. Isaac purchased 640 acres in 1818, and along with Rachel and their adopted daughter, Macy Jones Koonce, they raised various crops and livestock.
After her mother’s death in 1877, Macy Jones Koonce acquired the farm. She and her husband, John D. Burnett, along with their two children, Mallie and Samuel, continued to raise cotton, corn, cattle and hogs.
When Macy died, Mallie and Samuel each received 300 of the original 640 acres. The remaining 40 acres went to Solomon Koonce, a former slave, who lived on his land until his death at age 100. Mallie and her husband, Oscar Green Birmingham, along with their son, Bernice Albert Birmingham, raised cotton, corn, cattle and soybeans. They lived in her parents’ house and her brother, Samuel, and his wife, Mary, built a house just down the road on his acreage.
Bernice inherited 300 acres when his mother died, and then purchased another 300 acres from his cousins, the children of his Uncle Samuel and Aunt Mary. In doing so, he Bernice brought most of the original acreage together in one farm again. He and his wife, Stella Irene Stephens, had one daughter, Vivienne Irene Birmingham. They raised cotton, soybeans, cattle, pigs and chickens for eggs.
The current owner, Vivienne B. Hannum, is the great-great-granddaughter of the founders, Isaac and Rachel Koonce, who are buried in the family cemetery across the road from her house. Currently owning 183 acres of the original farm, Vivienne inherited the land in 1986 after her mother died and is the fifth generation of her family to own this property. Now 90 years old, Vivienne is no longer active in farming but engages a farm manager to raise cotton and soybeans. She currently lives in the family home constructed before 1900.
“Minglewood Farm is the oldest of 18 certified Century Farms in Crockett County,” Hankins noted.

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.
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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 this historic farm’s owner, 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.