| The Mansfield Farm, located outside of Dresden, 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.
In the fall of 1910, William Emerson Mansfield purchased 26 acres of farm land in Weakley County. Here, he and his wife, Alice Bowlin Mansfield, raised their children: Althal, who died at age nine; Adriane, Coytez and William Harrell.
Cattle, sheep and hogs were raised, along with the growing of corn, tobacco and strawberries. By 1917, the Mansfield Farm was successful enough that William purchased an additional 41 acres.
After William and Alice Mansfield’s deaths, the farm was transferred to the three surviving children.
In 1989, Coytez Mansfield and his wife, Lucille, purchased all of William Harrell’s land and all but 10 acres of Adriane’s portion. Coytez and Lucille had two children – Garry Lain and Robert Wade Mansfield – and used the farm for pasture land and to grow corn and beans.
In 2003, Coytez and Lucille sold 7.3 acres to their granddaughter, Denver Ann, and in 2012 they sold her an additional 18.7 acres. Denver and her husband, Josh Melton, live on the farm with their two children, Creed and Colt. They manage their family’s historic farm with her father, Wade Mansfield.
Wade oversees the crop rotation where he grows corn and beans while the Meltons work with the pasture and horses.
With the addition of the Mansfield Farm, Weakley County has 25 certified Century Farms.
For more information about the Century Farms Program, visit www.tncenturyfarms.org. WCP 4.24.12 |
