[509] Lauderdale County Farm Joins Ranks of State's Century Farms Program

For Release: June 15, 2011
Contact: Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947


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

Wiley Farm Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

(MURFREESBORO)— The Wiley Farm, located in Lauderdale 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.
The Wiley family is well-known in Lauderdale County. Author and Civil War historian Bell Irvin Wiley was born in 1906 in Halls and was appointed to the Civil War Centennial Commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Wiley’s father, Ewing Baxter Wiley, was a teacher and pastor. William Walker Wiley, a brother to Ewing and an uncle of Bell’s, purchased a 62-acre farm west of the Halls community in 1908. He and his wife, Josephine Elisa Whitson Wiley, were the parents of Myrtle, Linnie, Bessie, Robbie and William Edwin. The family raised cotton, cows, pigs and chickens along with corn and mules.
The next owner was William Edwin Wiley, a son of William Walker and Josephine Wiley. On his 35 acres, he raised cotton, corn, cows, pigs, chickens and mules. He married Bettie Agnes Ledsinger, and their children were named Henry Edwin, received Celia Jane and Wendell Walker. In 1940, William Edwin received a Certificate of Recognition from the Tennessee Home Food Supply Program for growing 75 per cent or more of all the food necessary for the family and livestock on the farm. Recognition came again to the Wiley family when William Edwin’s aunt, Annie Bass Wiley, was named “Tennessee’s Mother of the Year” in 1957.
In 1981, Wendell Walker Wiley acquired part of the family farm on which soybeans are the primary crop. Wendell and his wife Jane, live on the farm, which is worked by Paul Bowles and primarily grows soybeans. The Wiley Farm is the ninth certified Century Farm in Lauderdale 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.