[170] Hickman County Farm Joins Ranks Of State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 26, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947


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

Prince Lane Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)— Prince Lane Farm, located in Hickman 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 have owned and kept family land in production continuously for at least 100 years.
Farms established in 1910 are now eligible to become Century Farms, and that designation applies to Prince Lane Farm, which was established by Joe Tyler Prince in September 1910. His father, Owen Alexander Prince, bought the farm for him and each of his seven children. Joe and his wife, Mary Jane Whiteside Prince, had 10 children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Joe built on to an existing two-room cabin with a central dog trot by adding an upstairs and a room to the rear that served as a kitchen and eating space. On 130 acres, the family raised corn, hay, cattle, hogs, sheep, turkeys and chickens and had a small garden for the household needs. In 1919, Mary Jane purchased a piano from Sears and Roebuck. To make the $5 monthly payments, she sold eggs.
When Joe became ill, his sons Edwin and Edward assumed the farm work at a relatively early age. After Joe’s death in 1941, Mary Jane, along with her daughters, crocheted, knitted, embroidered, quilted and made their own clothes. Mary Jane quilted 10 quilts for her family, seven for her children and three for her three oldest grandchildren. Both she and her daughter, Annie Prince, were members of the Piney Home Demonstration Club and entered quilts, pies and cakes in the Hickman County Fair.
After the death of Mary Jane, the land passed to Edwin A. Prince and his wife, Blanche; Annie Prince; and grandson Edwin Wayne Prince and his wife Jewell. Edwin Wayne had three children, Jane Ambrose-Herron, Tabby Plunkett and John Prince. On 130 acres, they continued to raise hay, corn and soybeans and operate a cow/calf operation.
During the next 15 years, Edwin Wayne acquired the land owned by his parents and his aunt. By 1988, he owned all 130 acres of the original farm of Joe Tyler Prince as well as an additional 220 acres. Edwin and Jewell remain very active on the farm, tending to the cattle and other daily chores. They also raise hogs, sheep, chickens, corn, soybeans and hay.
Their children were very active in farm life as well. Jane was a 4-H state champion in 1983 and in 1984 and earned a trip to the World Poultry Conference in Helsinki, Finland. Attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, she received a degree in food science and technology. After graduation, she returned to Centerville.
Tabby was a 4-H winner in the swine project in 1989. She also showed hogs and steers and had a small herd of ewes from which she produced market lambs for showing. Like her sister, she also attended UT-Knoxville, where she excelled in dairy foods-judging, winning first place at the 1994 National Collegiate Dairy Foods Judging Competition. In 2002, she went back to college at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, where she earned a master’s degree in library and information science. She now works with the Hickman County School System.
John was very active in citizenship, leadership, swine, poultry, beef and lamb projects. He raised and produced the state grand champion hog in 1991. He, too, attended UT-Knoxville and earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics in 2005; he now works for the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
There are several old structures standing on the Prince Lane Farm. The original house of Joe Tyler Prince remains standing and is used for storage. Joe Tyler Prince built a barn in 1919 that is used by the family for horses, mules and cattle. Also on the farm, which overlooks the Piney River, is a buggy shed dating to pre-automobile days. In the flood of May 2010 water rose to four feet in the shed.
The farm gets its name from the road built by Edward and Edwin Prince. With no equipment available at the time (1927), the twins built the road by means of a flip scoop and a team of mules. Prince Lane Farm is the 18th Century Farm to be certified in Hickman 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 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 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 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.