[260] Van Buren County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

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


VAN BUREN COUNTY FARM JOINS RANKS OF STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM

Sparkman Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)—The Sparkman Farm, located in Van Buren 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.
On Dec. 23, 1905, John B. Sparkman wrote his last will and testament that gave land to his three sons, Frank, Willy and Lynville. The farm is located in the community of Sparkman, named after the many families by that name, including early settlers George and Berthina Goddard Sparkman, who began farming in 1823.
John B. Sparkman and his wife, who died in 1894, had six children. Their sons inherited the land after his death in 1910, and their three daughters, according to his will, were to receive “two hundred and fifty dollars each, to be paid in one and three years from my death, which I consider their equal part of my estates.” He made note that one of his daughters, Hattie Cruise, already had received part of her inheritance, which consisted of a mule colt worth $30, a horse worth $50 for her husband, Jon and an additional sum of cash that would be subtracted from her $250.
Frank Cheatem Sparkman inherited 75 acres of his father’s land along the Caney Fork River. He and his wife, Corrie, had two children, Franklin and Tabitha. After their mother’s death, the children received the land. Franklin H. Sparkman died in 1997, and his share of the land went to his sister, Tabitha Sparkman Hollingsworth. That same year, she sold the property to her children, Donald Hollingsworth and Dorothy Madewell. Donald raises hay, poplar pine and other forestry products on 40 acres. The Sparkman Farm is the fifth certified Century Farm in Van Buren 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.