[365] Gibson County Farm Joins Tennessee Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 16, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

GIBSON COUNTY FARM JOINS TENNESSEE CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM
The Homeplace Recognized for Agricultural Contributions During Its 129-Year History

(MURFREESBORO)—The Homeplace in Gibson 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 1881, Lizza Waddell Moore, along with her sisters, received acreage west of Trenton, Tenn. She and her husband, Charles Henry Claybrook, with their four children, farmed their 178 acres.
In 1925, about 111 acres passed to their son, Clarence Moore Claybrook, and his wife, Allie Dee Harris. With their six children, they raised cows, hogs, cotton and corn.
Since 1986, the great-granddaughter of the founder, Tina Claybrook Smith, has owned 111 acres of her ancestor’s farm. She and husband, Douglas Samuel Smith and their daughters, Carol Anne and Jan Marie, live on the farm and raise cotton, soybeans, wheat and corn.
“With The Homeplace, Gibson County now has 28 certified Century Farms,” Hankins said.

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 farm’s current 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.