[434] Cocke County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

Release Date: April 20, 2011
Contact: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947


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

Dwight L. Bundy Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)— The Dwight L. Bundy Farm, located in Cocke 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.
In 1904, William Cornelius “W. C.” Wood and his wife, Jenny Teague, moved to the Denton community in Cocke County. They purchased a water-powered mill on the Pigeon River that ground wheat and corn, and they also operated a sawmill and a handle factory. The Woods had seven children. In 1907, W. C. and his son-in-law, Isaac Green, purchased the 150 acres that would become the Dwight L. Bundy Farm. W. C. also was a music teacher who traveled to mountain communities to teach shape-note singing. He also is credited with starting the first Sunday school in Denton.
In 1919, W. C. and Jenny’s daughter, Zora Wood, inherited 16 acres and the home place. In 1939, she and her son, Dwight Bundy, born in 1922, purchased 15 acres from her brother, Oscar. In the 1950s, Zora built a chicken house and raised 5,000 chickens at a time, selling them to Burnett’s, a poultry processor in Morristown, Tenn.
Dwight started helping his mother on the farm as a teenager and continued to work the land until his late 70s. He raised tobacco, corn, cabbage and tomatoes, using mules to do the heavier work and plowing until he finally purchased a tractor in the 1970s. He was married to Ella Mae Norwood Bundy, and they had three children: Michael, Margaret and William Keith. His children have fond memories of working with him in the fields. They recall “walking behind him and trying to step in his footprints as he plowed the fields and hearing him call out commands of ‘Gee,’ Haw’ and ‘Whoa’ to the mules.” With the plowing done for the day, the children said, they could ride the mules back to the barn.
The remodeled farmhouse dates to a period before the Woods purchased the land, and a 1940s-era tobacco barn and the chicken house remain part of the complex. A new springhouse was built in the 1990s to house the pump that brings spring mountain water to the house for drinking and cooking.
Today, the great-grandchildren of the founders own the family acreage. Michael Bundy, Margaret Bundy Busler and William Keith Bundy operate family gardens and occasionally have horses on the farm. There also is a beef cattle operation under the ownership of the fifth generation, Whitney Bundy and her husband, Kenny Strange. She is daughter of William Keith Bundy and his wife, Donna.
The Dwight L. Bundy Farm is the 11th Century Farm to be certified in Cocke 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. In September 2011, MTSU will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with special events and activities throughout the year—kicked off by a Blue-Tie Centennial Gala on Friday, Sept. 9.