The farm started somewhere in the late 1800’s when Papa Jim bought the land. Jim and Mamie were the first to settle here and had all six of their children while living here. They eventually moved as the “home place” was two small for a family of eight!
The second generation to take root on the farm was Will and Edna who purchased 28 acres, including the home place in 1940. They later bought an additional 14 acres, then later another 88 acres, and finished off the farm with the last purchase of 50 acres. They raised their four children in the home place house and lived there until they both passed. Edna was a homemaker and Will was a farmer and school bus driver.
Two of their children, the third generation, Bill and sister Betty both purchased land and built houses on the farm. Bill purchased additional acreage and built his house with his wife, Betty in 1970. Sister Betty built her house on the farm in 1986. As you can imagine, there is a lot of confusion in having two “Bettys” in the same small farm town. When going to the cleaners, pharmacy, you-name-it, they always have to clarify if they are “Sister Betty” or “Wife Betty” to get their orders right.
Bill and Betty had two children while living on the farm; Angela and Billy. Bill is referred to as “BigUn” and my Billy is referred to as “LittleUn” by friends and family. I think it started when he was little by the “old timers” just to keep from getting confused between Bill and Billy. Once grown, both Angela and Billy built houses on the farm--the fourth generation.
Billy and I have a 30-acre piece of land on the back side of the farm. We live in a log house that sits beside a pond which is often referred to as the “family lake”. The six-acre pond was originally built by granddaddy Will back in 1953. It was stocked with catfish and grandma Edna liked to fish with her cane pole there. Rumor has it that you had best watch out when you heard her yell, “I got one!” as she would swing it wildly around and take you out with one good smack of a catfish! Billy has many memories of swimming and fishing in that lake with all his cousins while growing up. There is a story of one of his cousins who spotted a “purple snake” in the lake that gets told from time-to-time. Once while Billy and I were still dating, we picnicked one spring day out by the lake. Billy went fishing and caught himself a nice snake. He couldn’t get rid of that sucker! I decided then-and-there that my potential future children would not swim in that lake!
My husband, Billy built our house in 2005. It’s a log house made of Eastern white pine and Southern yellow pine. Billy and I were married in May, 2007 and completed the lower level of the house with the anticipation of one day having children. Our first, Kimberly, was born in 2009 and little William followed twenty-two months later in 2011. We hope that they will one day live on the family compound as well.
Granddaddy Will raised cattle on the farm and also had various pigs, chickens, and roosters. When Bill was younger he taught his sister Betty how you can feed a cat by squirting milk from the cow. There are other stories of the “big-brother” type shenanigans that Bill would pull with his sister Betty where cow patties were concerned.
Grandma Edna always had a large crop garden which included corn, string beans, butter beans, beats, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, squash and all other Southern veggies you can imagine. She also made butter, sweet milk, and buttermilk. She would sell produce, butter, and milks to the local town’s folk which would often times be delivered by one of the kids via bike. The fields have been planted with various crops over the years but now it is mainly used for wheat, soy beans, corn, and sunflowers. Each family also has their individual veggie gardens that produce enough to keep our freezers full. Nowadays there are no animals raised on the farm except for the porch cats and hunting dogs.
I love to hear the stories of how it used to be around the farm and how they did things over the years. It seems like times were slower then and that left more room for love. I guess there is a part of me that is an “old soul” and connects with those times. I hope to learn more about the way life used to be lived, make it apart of the way I live now, and pass those lessons on to my children.
Welcome to our family farm!
