[247] Fentress County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 17, 2010
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947


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

Will Huff Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—The Will Huff Farm, located in Fentress 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.
One hundred years ago, in September of 1910, William “Will” Jack Huff purchased 110 acres for $500 in Fentress County near the Wolf River. During the next 17 years, he expanded his farm to 1,700 acres on which he raised corn, hay, pumpkins, timber and livestock. He and his wife, Gertie Patton had nine children: Emma, Fonza, Willie Jo, Mintis, Printis, Walter, Dentis, Dugan and Ampy. Will donated land where he and Gertie and other members of his family are buried.
In 1930, Dentis Huff acquired 100 acres of the family farm, where he raised hay, corn, hogs, cattle and mules. This tract of land, where his parents’ home was situated, was locally referred to as the “Old Will Huff Farm.” He and his wife, Ina Williams Huff, were the parents of Beecher, Eugene, Billy K., Johnnie, Bernice, Joan, Virginia and Margaret. Dentis and his brothers operated a barite mine from the late 1930s until the early 1950s. The mine was located on the farm and employed several neighbors.
One year before her father’s death in 1975, daughter Margaret acquired the farm. She and her husband, Gary W. Wood, raise hay, corn, tobacco and livestock. Margaret and Gary live on the farm, along with one Blue Heeler dog named “Pepper,” and manage the everyday work. Several buildings, including the barn, hog house, tool shed, smokehouse with cellar underneath and the house continue to be used for the farm’s operations.
The Will Huff Farm is the ninth Century Farm to be certified in Fentress 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. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.