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

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

Lauderdale Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)— Lauderdale Farm, located in Sumner 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.
Samuel and Georgia Harper made a long journey by horse and wagon from Texas to Sumner County in the late 19th century. They first bought 100 acres in 1898 and acquired another 120 acres in 1902. The latter parcel, along the road from Castalian Springs to East Fork Creek, was purchased from T. W. and A. C. Harsh and remains in the family today as the Lauderdale Farm.
After Samuel’s death in 1935, the land was divided among his children. In 1945, daughter Hettie Lou and her husband, David Bates, purchased the farm from her siblings. The couple and their son, James D, raised wheat, corn, tobacco, and hay and maintained pasture land.
James D. Bates, the current owner, is the grandson of Samuel and Georgia Harper, and his sons, Dean and Gary, carry on the family’s farming tradition. They work 117 acres and raise tobacco and hay and maintain pastureland. The Lauderdale Farm is the 26th certified Century Farm in Sumner 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. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.