[153] Warren County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

WARREN COUNTY FARM JOINS RANKS OF STATE’S
CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM

Loafers Rest Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—Loafers Rest Farm, located in Warren 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 at Middle Tennessee State University.
The Century Farms Program recognizes the contributions of Tennessee residents who continuously have owned and kept in production, family land for at least 100 years.
Warren County, named after General Joseph Warren, the first general killed in the American Revolution, was established in 1807. Originally consisting of 900 square miles, it was reduced to 433 by the creation of Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, and Buren and Grundy counties. For the sum of $250, George Hulett purchased 130 acres of land in Warren County in 1888 “on the waters of Barren Fork of Collins River.”He and his wife, Ann Hulett, had two children, Margie and Leslie, and raised corn, hay, hogs, cows and horses.
More than 50 years later, Loyd Burks, grandson of the founder and son of Margie Burks, acquired the land from the heirs. In 1961, for the price of $1, Loyd’s wife, Roscie Deans Burks, purchased one half interest of the farm to make her an equal owner. The couple had one daughter, Jewel Dean. By this time, the farm had increased to 210 acres. Loyd, Soil Conservation Farmer of the Year for 1988, raises hay and Black Angus cattle, and lives on the farm today.
In 2009, Jewel acquired 100 acres of the original farm established by George Hulett. She and her husband, Kenneth Medlen, also raise hay and Black Angus cattle with the help of their two children, Becky and Tracey. Three generations of the family carry on the traditions begun more than 120 years ago.
Loafers Rest is the sixth Century Farm to be certified in Warren County.
Since 1984, the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU has been a leader in the important work of documenting Tennessee’s agricultural heritage and history through the Tennessee Century Farm Program.
For more information about the Century Farms Program, please visit www.tncenturyfarms.org. The Center for Historic Preservation also may be contacted at P.O. Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132 or 615-898-2947.

• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To interview the farm’s owner or request jpegs of the farm for editorial use, please contact the CHP directly at 615-898-2947.




Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.