[525] Green County Farm Certified As Tennessee Century Farm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 29, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

GREENE COUNTY FARM CERTIFIED AS TENNESSEE CENTURY FARM
State Program Recognizes Redland Farm for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—The Redland Farm in Greene 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, Robert Henry Lauderdale paid $75 for 200 acres on Little Sinking Creek in Greene County. He and his wife, Ellen Hogan, and their five children raised corn tobacco, wheat and cattle. Their son, H. H. Lauderdale, acquired 44 acres of the farm in 1933. With wife Della and their son, W. A., tobacco, Angus cattle, hay and corn were some of the crops and livestock.
According to the family’s records, “It was a farming operation where it was all you could do to make enough money to pay the taxes.”
Since 1995, the great-great-granddaughter of R. H. and Ella Lauderdale, Barbara, and her husband, Kenneth Belcher, have owned and operated the farm. They work 44.5 acres of the original 200 and have an additional 319 acres on which they raise hay and Angus cattle. Kenneth and Barbara reside on the family land, along with their daughter and her husband, Rebecca and Rick Tipton, and their son, Jordan, who represents the youngest generation to call the farm home.

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, 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.