Houston County

Houston County, located in the northwestern part of Tennessee was established in 1871 and was named for Sam Houston, Governor of Tennessee and hero of Texas. The county seat is Erin, a city that legend says was named by Irish descendents who thought that the area resembled their beloved Ireland. As a result of its Irish heritage, the town celebrates with an annual Irish festival in March. Some of the industries and businesses that have been important in the county’s history and economy include timber, railroads, and most recently the Trinity Hospital that was constructed by the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Houston County has five Century Farms and the oldest farm is the Valley View Farm that was founded in 1803. For more information regarding Houston County, please go to the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture website.

For a brief historical sketch of each farm, click on the farm name.

Bateman Mill-Sullivan Farm

Beard's Triple H Farm

Twin Cedars Farm

Valley View Farm

Welker Farm

The following map is for a general geographical understanding. It does not provide the specific locations of the farms because of privacy reasons.


Map Courtesy of Carole Swann, Tennessee Department of Agriculture

Bateman Mill-Sullivan Farm

Laura Sullivan and Ralph Sullivan

Bateman Mill-Sullivan Farm was founded in 1841 by John Bateman and his wife Juliet Thompson on 1640 acres purchased from Joseph Bell.  Situated on a fork of Well’s Creek off the Cumberland River, the site was part of Stewart County at the time Bateman acquired it, and the land had been a North Carolina Revolutionary War military warrant to Sergeant Miles Knight.   The Batemans raised cows and hogs.

Like many Century Farms, ownership passed through female descendants.  In 1855, John Bateman executed a deed to his daughter, Julia, and her husband, L. R. Hooper, transferring the land to them on the condition that it would pass to her children if she were to die before her husband.   When the Civil War came, all five of the Batemans’ sons served.  One (Thomas) died during the war, and another (Patrick Henry) was captured in Gettysburg. 

The current owners of the farm are the founder's great-great granddaughter, Laura Sullivan and her husband, Ralph.  On their 500-acre farm, they produce beef cattle and hay.  Barns and a spring house built prior to 1900 still stand on the farm. 

Beard’s Triple H Farm

Guy T. Beard

In 1851, Henry Humphreys Halliburton founded a 320 acre farm in Houston County. Married to Mary Elizabeth Humphreys, the couple had four children.  The family raised corn, wheat, hay, cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens and mules.  A story the family remembers is that Margaret Elizabeth “Maggie”, one of the founding couple’s two daughters, recalled “standing in their front yard and hearing the cannons from the gun boat battle at Fort Donelson in 1862.” During the Civil War, she also recalled that Union troops came to their house and stole chickens from the hen house and meat from the smoke house while the family hid in an upstairs space between the two log rooms, watching through the chinking. 

            In 1879, Maggie became the second generation owner. Married to William Hugh Griffin, she gave birth to nine children.  The family continued to produce livestock, poultry, grains, and hay.  The Griffins were instrumental in organizing the Griffin’s Chapel Nazarene Church in the early 1900s that was located adjacent to the farm.

             Margaret Elizabeth “Lizzie” Griffin Parchman  acquired the property in 1915.  Married to Guy Preston Parchman, their two daughters were Eunice O’Neil and Nannie Ether.  Under the Parchmans, the farm diversified.  They operated a small dairy farm, but continued to raise hogs, goats, mules, chickens, corn and hay.  The Parchmans also added a grist mill for grinding corn that served the residents of the community.  They also operated a general store on the farm, from 1916 until the late 1940s, selling groceries, hardware and dry goods.

            In 1981, Eunice O’Neil Parchman acquired the land.  She and husband, Travis Elbert Beard,  had ten children.  The Beards were  active in the Farm Bureau and farm supported a cow/calf operation  and hay.  Their son, Guy Terry, managed the farm.  

            In 1996, Guy Terry Beard became owner of the farm.  He and his wife Sue and their sons, Scott and Trevor, have been active in agricultural related organizations.  Scott and Trevor were members of the 4-H Club and both showed steers in Houston and Montgomery County Beef Shows.  Terry and Sue are members of the Farm Bureau.  The farm currently is in hay and pasture and Angus cattle and chickens are the main products.  The original log house that dates back to the founder’s ownership is still standing and several outbuildings including the smokehouse, a corn crib and a chicken house, are reminders of the traditions maintained by the men and women who have owned the Beard’s Triple H Farm for 157 years.  

Photo (top): Henry Halliburton, the founder of the farm.

Photo (bottom): Nannie Ether Parchman Fussell and Eunice O'Neil Parchman Beard (front row), Henry Grady Griffin, Guy Preston Parchman and Margaret Parchman (back row).

Twin Cedars Farm

Sara O. Dickson

            The history of the Twin Cedars Farm records the social and economic transformations experienced by Tennessee farmers of the twentieth century. James and Martha Hinson established the property, which is located twelve miles southeast of Erin, in 1833. On their 730 acres, the Hinsons produced tobacco, corn, wheat, swine and cattle. The family records that “life must have been bery rugged” for “there was land to clear, roads, schools and churches to build.” James and Martha were the parents of nine children, but only three of their sons survived them. These three young men, James, Thomas and Jerome, became the farm’s second generation owners.

            James and his spouse Susan Jarnagin farmed about a third of the original farm, raising tobacco, corn, wheat, geese and livestock. James served in the Confederate army for two years and held local office in Houston County and with the Tennessee conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He donated land for the construction of Martha’s Chapel Church and named the site in honor of his mother.

            James and Susan’s daughter Alice Hinson Wyatt and their son T. A. Hinson became the farm’s third generation owners. They continued its diversified operations. Alice left her 83 acres to her daughter Mabel Wyatt Dickson, the wife of Joseph N. Dickson. The Dicksons later purchased the other 83 acre tract of family land. With approximately 165 acres at their disposal, the Dicksons worked the place for the next 74 years. “They witnessed many technological changes during their life,” the family remembers, “they courted and were married in a buggy and lived to see men walk on the moon.” Active in community and church work, Mabel was a housewife, who “helped with the farm work in addition to making a garden, canning and preserving food and making clothes for the family.” Joseph was an agricultural leader in Houston County as an organizer of the county’s Co-op and as the first president of the county’s Farm Bureau. Instrumental in obtaining electricity for the community, “he also helped obtain telephone service for this area around 1940.”

            At her father’s death in 1985, Sara O. Dickson inherited one portion and purchased another portion of the farm and “now has the pleasure of carrying on the heritage of this land.” She manages the property and James L. Stanfill works the land, with his labor yielding tobacco and hay. Sara reports that a three room farm residence, built around 1870, is in poor condition, but is used for storage.

Valley View Farm

Suzanne McCampbell
Bennetta M. James

In December 1803, Hugh Dickson paid $150 dollars for a 150-acre tract of land in Dickson County. Located eight miles southeast of Erin, in what is now Houston County, the land supported corn, hogs and cattle. Hugh and his wife Mary Cowan Dickson had nine children. Over the next 20 years, Hugh purchased 243 more acres of land.

            In 1847, Hugh and Mary’s son, Hugh James Dickson, acquired the farm. Under his ownership, the crops included corn, rye and wheat and cattle, hogs, horses, mules, oxen and sheep were raised. Hugh James and his wife Holly Frances Turner had nine children and their son, James Wiley Dickson, inherited the land in 1873. He and his wife Bennetta Edmondson were the parents of three children. The couple’s son, Benjamin Hugh Dickson, became the fourth owner of the family farm.

Under Benjamin’s ownership, some of the farmland was donated to the community to build the Yellow Creek School. In 1939, the farm was a Test Demonstration Home and Farm for the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Benjamin and his wife Susie Agnes Hinson had three children and their daughter, Edna D. Mallory, became the fifth-generation owner. Along with her husband Jesse D. Mallory and their two children, Suzanne Rose and Bennetta Dickson, the farm mainly raised hay and cattle. In 2003, the Dickson family and their descendents celebrated the farm’s bicentennial with a community barbecue that was attended by about 200 friends, relatives and neighbors.

Today, the great-great-great granddaughters of the founder, Suzanne Rose McCampbell and Bennetta M. James, are the owners of the farm. Along with their spouses, Allen A. McCampbell and Russell B. James, they manage the farm and raise cattle and hay. The farm has many buildings and structures that remind the community of the rich history of the 200-year-old farm such as a farm house built in the 1880s, a smokehouse, a well house, a Delco house, a servants’ cabin, a log barn, stock barn and a corn crib. Also, a primary family house, equipment shed and second family house still stand on the land today. 

Photo (top): The farm house on the Valley View Farm.

Photo: This smokehouse on the Valley View Farm dates back to the 1880s.

Welker Farm 

Otho Welker

John William Welker, Sr. established a farm in 1850 in the part of Dickson County which later became Houston County in 1870.  He and his wife Elizabeth Latham Welker and three children produced tobacco, corn, and hay on 150 acres.  During the Civil War, the Welker’s house was burned by Union soldiers.  John Welker was taken prisoner and spent  10 months in Rock Island, Illinois, until his release in October of 1864.

            John’s and Elizabeth’s son, John William Welker, Jr. became the next generation to own the land. He was first married to Caladonia Parrott and his second wife was Hortense Smith.  The two marriages produced nine children. Walter Welker acquired the land in 1937.  He and his wife, Pearl Shelton, were the parents of four children, including the current owner, Otho Welker.  Welker and his son, Tim, work the 150 acre farm, raising hay and Black Angus cattle, and continuing the name and farming tradition.   Patsy Welker Martin, family historian and genealogist,  is responsible for the research on this farm as well as another Welker Century Farm, owned by Bobby and Juanita Welker, located in Montgomery County.

Photo: A View of the Creek on the Welker Farm.