For a brief historical sketch of each farm, click on the farm name.
Hayes and Hayes Farm
Betty J. Hummel
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Jennie Daniel founded the Daniel-Hummel Century
Farm on December 12, 1910 in the Fairview community. Four years earlier, her
husband Joe’s search for better work lead the couple and their nine children to
move from the Willow Grove area of Clay County to Dallas, Texas. After Joe fell
ill in 1910, he told Jennie that he had a Woodman of the World insurance policy
that she was to cash when he died and return to Tennessee with their family.
When Joe died, Jennie packed their
belongings into a single trunk and purchased train tickets to Cookeville.
From Cookeville, Jennie and her nine children made their way to Willow Grove and eventually located a 32-acre farm with a barn and two-story log home for which she paid $600.00. The previous owner had started an orchard with grape vines and apple, peach, and cherry trees. Fruit from the orchard in addition to nuts were the primary crops in the pre-Depression era years on the farm. During the Great Depression, the family lived off the farm; they grew more vegetables, hay, and corn while raising farm animals for their meat and milk. The three older boys cut wood from the farm and worked for nearby neighbors. They also dug and sold Genseng and Mayapple.
Jennie and her family suffered great loss.
Carshel, the second oldest son died at
age 18 from measles and pneumonia in 1918.
His younger brothers,Chat, died at age 26 of tuberculosis as did Tommie
at age 33. A daughter, Bussie, died giving birth to her second child.
Lewis, a veteran of World War 1, Lillie, and Harlin eventually married
and moved away. 
Jennie’s youngest child, Paul, remained at home
and married Velma Stover in 1940. The couple lived and worked on the farm,
raising cows, pigs, and chickens while selling fruit from their orchard. Paul
and Velma had two children, Betty and JT. Both children attended the elementary
school in Fairview but by the time they were going to high school, the Willow
Grove High School had been closed after the construction of the Dale Hollow Dam
in 1943. Much of their family also relocated from the area due to the lake.
Betty was active in 4-H and participated in sewing, cooking, and a strawberry
patch project.
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In 1958, Bettie married Melvin Hummel; the young couple lived and worked on the farm with Jennie until she passed away in 1962. That same year, they built a new house which remains their home. In the early 1980s Melvin and Bettie deeded to each of their two daughters, Tammy Sidwell and Pamelia Breeding, an acre of the farm on which to build homes and raise their families. Pamela and Tammy were involved in 4-H and raised their children on the farm. The three grandsons of Bettie and Melvin were also involved in 4-H. The Hummels currently raise garden vegetables, hay, a variety of poultry, and they also have a pony for their great-granddaughter, the sixth generation.
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Photo
(top): Joe & Jennie with six of their children, c. 1909.
Photo (left): Betty and Jennie around 1951-52.
Photo (middle left): Melvin Hummel with the 1962 tobacco crop.
Photo (middle right): Pam Hummel Breeding with her son and nephews.
Photo (bottom left): Velma Daniel, Betty Hummel, and Brian Breeding (Betty's
grandson).
Photo (bottom right): Melvin Hummel in the garden, 2012.
Katherine Terry Clark
Aenona Terry Harper
The Donaldson-Terry Farm is located eight miles northeast
of Celina. In 1847, William Allen Colson obtained title to 197 acres and
founded the property. He raised cotton, tobacco, corn, peas and livestock.
William married twice and had twelve children.
After the Civil War, ownership of the farm passed into
the hands of the founder’s daughter Permelia Colson and her husband John R.
Donaldson. Donaldson served as a captain in the Confederate army and actually
trained his command at the farm. The Donaldsons stopped cultivating cotton and tobacco
and concentrated on raising sheep, cattle, horses, mules, corn and hay.
Their only son, Andrew Thomas Donaldson, was the third
generation owner of the family farm. Andrew and his wife Minnie Watson
Donaldson expanded the property to 321 acres. A progressive farmer, Andrew was
one of the first in the community to use commercial fertilizer. He also planted
soybeans. Andrew and Minnie had only one daughter, Agnes Donaldson, who
inherited the farm upon her parents’ death and lived there until 1976. Agnes
married Jewell W. Terry and together with their two daughters, Katherine and
Aerona, they managed the 321 acres wisely, producing cattle, hogs, corn, hay,
tobacco and soybeans.
In 1976, Katherine Terry Clark and Aenona Terry Harper,
the great great granddaughters of the founder, inherited the property. As farm
managers, they lease the land to Ricky Melton, who grows corn, hay, tobacco and
soybeans.
John Mark Hayes
Mark
The Hayes & Hayes Farm is located west of Celina and was founded in 1902 by Mark F. Hayes and his wife Lydia Kirkpatrick Hayes. After Lydia Hayes died in 1906, Mark married Ada Arms. The 300 acres yielded corn, wheat, soybeans, tobacco, and hay and also supported swine, beef cattle, and sheep. In 1930, Highway 52 was built through the farm Mark F. Hayes had four children, and his sons Cornell and John Mark Hayes became the owners of the farm in 1944. The family continued to raise beef cattle, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans and tobacco. In 1964, the farm was part of the Proctor Creek Watershed project. John Mark Hayes and his son Mark Newton Hayes are the current owners. Today, four generations of the Hayes family live on the farm and raise beef cattle, hay, corn, wheat and tobacco. The 1915 farm house along with a woodshed from the same period, a hay barn built in 1932, and other buildings added as needed in later decades make the Hayes and Hayes Farm an excellent study in agrarian architecture of the twentieth century.
John M. King
Elaine [King] Cherry
Mary A [King]
Hamilton
The Oak Grove community of Clay County, where a school
existed as early as 1881, is home to the King Farm, established in 1889 by
George Washington “G.W.” King. King, a Civil War veteran who served in the
Eighth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, married Lucinda Copas, and the couple had
nine children. The family farmed 75 acres from the 1889 purchase along with
another 40 acres bought in 1890. Livestock and grains were the primary
commodities. H. B. King, son of G. W. and Lucinda, acquired 33 acres in 1907
and the remainder of the property in 1925. Married first to Floy Reneau and
then to Lillie Ritter, he was the father of six children.
The family recalls that H. B. King, who served on the school board for several
years, “restored and mended shoes by hand for almost everyone in the Oak Grove
community for $.05 to $20.” Lillie King, a member of the Home Demonstration
Club, “pieced and quilted quilts for as low as $1.25 each.” The Kings were
members of the Campground Methodist Church at both the early log building and
then the present building constructed in 1885, which continues in
use.
The King Farm not only had a cobbler and a quilter, but also operated a sawmill
on the farm through the years. The industry of the H. B. King family was noted
by a 1940 certificate, signed by dignitaries including Gov. Prentice Cooper,
which recognized them for “growing 75% or more of the food necessary for the
family and livestock.”
At the death of H. B. King, the heirs received portions of the property. Today,
Mark King, Elaine King Cherry and Mary A. King Hamilton are the owners, with
Mark operating the farm. Mark, the great-grandson of G. W. and Lucinda, was
honored by the Clay County Soil Conservation District in 2000 for his service.
He and his wife, Vickie, and his mother, Maddelle King, live on the farm where
he raises cattle and grows hay.
Photo: This is a picture of King Farm founders George Washington and Lucinda King.
Clyde
A. Lee
Fred Lee
On Christmas Day of 1902, P.M. Lee purchased approximately 100
acres in Clay County for $600. He
and his wife, Freelove Brown, were the parents of Harry and Hayden. The family
grew a variety of crops including wheat, oats, corn, tobacco, soybeans, and
cane, and raised cows, horses, hogs and mules. P. M. is remembered as a hard
worker and most of the land was cleared during his nearly half century of
ownership.
Harry Lee inherited the farm in 1947. Like his father, Harry grew wheat, oats, corn, tobacco, soybean s, and cane on his farm. Harry built a new farmhouse on the farm in 1951 using the yellow poplar lumber from the first farmhouse. Harry also built a number of outbuildings including barns and a corn crib. Married to Bonnie Short Lee, they were the parents of 7 children.
In 1976, their sons, Clyde and Fred Lee inherited the farm.
The brothers have raised wheat, oats, corn, soybeans, tobacco, hogs and
Angus cattle. They installed a set
of cattle scales in one barn and built a garage in 2004.
Clyde and Fred Lee along with their nephew, Michael Lee, continue the
family farming tradition.
Photo 1: Barn and crib
on the Pine Hill Angus Farm
Photo 2: First house and tractor
Lloyd R. Sweezy
Edward & Joan Sweezy
Frank Sweezy
Peggy Fox Sweezy
While more than half of the certified Century Farms have remained in the family
because of one or more generations of women owners, a small percentage of farms,
however, were actually founded by women. Using her inheritance, Isabelle
Catherine Sweezy purchased ninety acres in the Oak Grove community in 1911 for
$300.00. She and her husband, John E.
Sweezy were the parents of Mattie Bell and Newton Smith.
The family grew vegetables and grains for their table and to feed their
livestock and poultry while tobacco was the primary cash crop.
Newton Smith Sweezy acquired the farm next and increased its holdings by 100
acres. His and his wife, Della, were
the parents of sons, Elzie L. and Lloyd A. who each acquired a portion of the
farm.
Lloyd farmed approximately fifty acres with his wife Chloe Spear Sweezy until
his death in 1970 while Chloe lived until 1999.
The owners of the farm today are Lloyd R. Sweezy, Edward and Joan Sweezy,
and Frank and Peggy Fox Sweezy.
Father and son, Edward and Raymond Sweezy work about fifty acres raising cattle
and hay.
Haywood S. Anderson
Donald B. Anderson
Maurice M. Anderson, Jr.
Haywood
“Hade” Ross Wilson, married to Celina B. Wilson (also her maiden name),
purchased an estimated 154 acres south of Hermitage Springs in 1872. With seven
children the Wilsons raised dairy and beef cattle, horses, and swine and corn
for the animals with tobacco their cash crop. Until the early 1900s, the main
road between Celina and Red Boiling Springs passed in front of the farm.
Radford
Haywood Wilson purchased the farm from his father in 1920. Radford and his wife
Emma Capshaw Wilson had three daughters, Ethleen Mae, Myrlene Gray, and Oneta
Elizabeth. Utilizing the land as the first generation had, the Wilsons were able
to maintain their farm during the Great Depression and actually employed one or
two men at a time, providing them with room and board. They were also able to
send their daughters to college. After
Radford’s death in 1946, Emma acquired an additional fifty acres in the 1950s.
When Emma
died at the age of 109 in 1998, she transferred the title to the her daughters.
A year later, the three sons of Ethleen Wilson and her husband Maurice M.
Anderson, Jr. acquired the land and formed Wilson Capshaw Farms, Inc.
Haywood S., Maurice M., Jr., and Donald B. and their families manage the
farm growing hay, tobacco, and marketable timber. They also raise beef cattle.
The Wilson
Capshaw Farms, Inc. is home to several historic buildings dating to the time of
Hade and Celina Wilson. The original log house built in 1872 is being restored
by Haywood S. Anderson while the 1895 cellar and smoke house is used for
storage.