[248] Macon County Farm Joins State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 11, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

MACON COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
Charlie & Flora Hire Farm Becomes County’s 19th Designated Century Farm

(MURFREESBORO)—The Charlie and Flora Hire Farm in Macon 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 November 1909, Charlie and Flora Walton Hire founded a farm of 52 acres north of Lafayette. With their three children, Carl, Elizabeth and Coyn, they raised dairy cows, hogs, chickens, goats, corn, tobacco, wheat, hay, cotton, cane, fruit trees and timber. They were also beekeepers.
Aside from their varied farm products, they also sold oak railroad ties, hewn by hand with a froe on the farm, in Scottsville, Ky., which was 16 miles away. The ties, 8 inches by 8 inches by 8 inches and 8 feet long, were sold for $1 each in groups of four as the mules could only transport four at time.
“These first-generation owners saw many changes in farm life,” Hankins said. “One of the most important was the installation of electricity on the farm in October 1948.”
According to the farm’s records, with the purchase of a refrigerator, the family could stop cooling milk and butter in the well. Moreover, Charlie was also a grafter of apple trees and developed a type of apple his family called “strawberry,” which matures in early July. The Hire family also was known for growing a variety of sweet potato, called “golden nugget,” for nearly 100 years.
The farm passed to Coyn Hire in 1978. He and his wife, Calcie, also known as “Calca,” with their two children, Twyla and Brenda, raised corn, hay, and Hereford cattle. Coyn purchased about fifty more acres near to his father’s farm and the two worked closely in everything. During the 1970s, Coyn and Calca entered tobacco, honey and hand-made quilts in the Macon County Fair for which they won several blue ribbons.
Nearly 100 years after its founding, Brenda H. White, granddaughter of Charlie and Flora Hire, became the owner of 120 acres, 52 of which are of the original farm. She and her husband, Joseph D. White, who works the land, currently raise tobacco, wheat, and soybeans. Additionally, several original buildings remain to tell the story of farming in Macon County in the 20th century.
The Charlie and Flora Hire Farm joins 19 other certified Century Farms in Macon 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 the farm’s owners or request jpegs of the farm 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.