[155] Greene County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

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

Redland Farm II Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—Redland Farm II, located 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 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.
In 1852, William Hutton purchased 213 acres of land from James D. McBride. He and his wife, Nancy Clark Hutton, had a large family of eleven children, and the family raised wheat, corn, tobacco, chickens, hogs and cows.
Fifty-six years later, in 1908, Charles and George Hutton, two sons of the founding couple, became the owners. George and wife Dana Sauls Hutton had no children, so he gave his share of the farm to his nieces and nephews. Charles married Bessie Ottinger and they had five children.
In 1947, Leona [Hutton] Lauderdale acquired the land from her father and uncle. She and her husband, William Alexander Lauderdale, had one daughter, Barbara. Leona and William owned 43 of the original 213 acres on which they raise Angus beef cattle and pasture land.
In 1995, more than 140 years after the founding of the Redland Farm II, the current owner, Barbara Belcher, and husband Carl own the property. Barbara is the great-granddaughter of the founders, William and Nancy. They live on the farm with their daughter, Rebecca, son-in-law Rick Tipton, and grandson Joseph. Barbara and Carl are very active on their 43 acres and raise Angus and pasture just as her parents did. Carl has been a director of the Greene County Farm Bureau for the past 19 years. The Belchers also own Redland Century Farm (founded 1881). Barbara inherited farms from both her mother and father and the two are in close proximity.


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 Farms 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.