[375] Pickett County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

For Release:  March 7, 2012

Contact:  Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

Smith Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

MURFREESBORO — The Smith Farm in Pickett 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 MTSU.

The Century Farms Program recognizes the contributions of Tennessee residents who have owned and kept family land in continuous agricultural production for at least 100 years. 

Porter Franklin Smith purchased 120 acres southeast of Byrdstown in 1903 and added another 250 acres in 1910. Smith was born in Overton County in 1858 and married Sibbie Hill in 1886; the couple had 10 children. Smith was a logger by trade and died in 1911 when struck by lightning. Sibbie, who had five children under age 14 when her husband died with the youngest only three, remained a widow for 25 years.

The couple’s son, Eather Lansden Smith, acquired 132 acres of the property between 1934 and 1959. He and his wife, Omogene McDonald, had seven children: Ann Smith Garrett, Kay Smith Savage, Jane Smith Green, Laura Smith Lewis, Linda Smith Koger, Billy Smith and Bobby Smith. The family grew tobacco, corn and hay while raising cattle, hogs and chickens.

In 2002, the five Smith daughters acquired the family farm. Today, Brian and Tabith Lee (Jane Smith Green’s granddaughter) rent and live on the farm with their two children while Laura Smith Lewis manages the farm, which produces cattle and hay.

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.

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