Roberts Farm
Winston D. Roberts
Changing priorities in agricultural production, from corn cultivation in the early 1800s to dairy farming at the turn of the century to cattle production today, characterize the history of the Roberts Farm. Established by Thomas Roberts of Virginia on land located ten miles southeast of Shelbyville, the Roberts Farm dates to 1811. Thomas and his wife Betsy Lacy began farming with 117 acres and they purchased 114 additional acres in 1819. Similar to many early Middle Tennessee farmers, they produced corn, hay, and cattle.
Thomas and Betsy’s only son, Thomas Lacy Roberts, was the second generation owner. He married Priscilla Parker and they raised eleven children. Together the family operated a 400 acres farm, which yielded corn, hay, cattle, and timber. The crops produced at the Roberts Farm would change during the third generation ownership of Columbus Daniel and Fannie Ferguson Roberts. But when the founders’ great grandson Claude D. Roberts assumed ownership of the property during the twentieth century, he added dairy cattle to the farm’s products and also operated a grist mill in the Raus community.
In 1969, Claude and his wife Pauline’s only child, Winston D. Roberts, inherited 104 acres of original family land. Winston and his daughters, Carol and Dorothy, presently manage a farm which specializes in cattle and hay production.