[017] Perry County Farm Certified As Tennessee Century Farm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 13, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

PERRY COUNTY FARM CERTIFIED AS TENNESSEE CENTURY FARM
State Program Recognizes Contributions of 105-Year-Old May Farm

(MURFREESBORO)—May Farm, located in Perry 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.
Along Simmons Branch at the East Fork of the Buffalo River, William A. Bone and wife Mary Ellen established a farm of 295 acres in October 1905, where they raised peanuts, hay and had a large herd of cattle on their land.
Similar to other Perry County farmers of the day, they also cut timber from the hardwood forests, which are one of the county’s greatest resources, Hankins noted.
Per the family’s reports, barns were added and two family cemeteries are located on the property. In January 1905, the only child of William and Ellen, an infant daughter, died and was buried in Bone Springs Cemetery. Having no surviving children, the land the Bones lived on for nearly 50 years passed to their relatives, Ivory and Bonnie May in 1950.
The Mays, with their three children, Joe, Jim and Melanie, raised hay and cattle and also rented land for row crops. In 1997, Joe became the third owner of the farm. Today, Joe and his son, Britt, raise cattle, hay and corn on some of the acreage of the farm whose boundary, as the original deed indicates, “meanders” along the Buffalo River.

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 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.