Farming was the life and survival of early Wake County. As early settlers entered and settled the land that is now Wake County, farming became the chief occupation in the area once shelter was secured. Today, we see our farms disappearing at an alarming rate. According to county officials Wake lost 20% of its farmland in the last 9 years. At the current rate all unprotected lands will be developed in the next 25-50 years. An ordinance called the Farmland Preservation Program aims to conserve Wake County’s nearly 700 farms and help combat North Carolina’s disappointing ranking as the second highest state in the nation for farmland loss.
While we as genealogists can not effect much change in the face of this sweeping progress, we can do what we do best. We can shine a light on the local heritage farms that remain; recognize and write about their important place in our history and survival; and drop the names of the farms and their stewards so that current and future researchers and relations can recognize their importance in family stories.
It takes alot of grit, drive and gumption to build and run a successful farm for any length of time. Do you realize that as you commute from the outer reaches of Wake County, you drive by a multitude heritage farms in our midst? There are a forty-nine Century farms and a subset of nine Bicentennial Farms that have stood in Wake County since its very early days, some even predating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These farms are recognized by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and listed below.
The Century Farms programs recognizes farms with 100 years of continuous agricultural heritage. The Wake Century Farms are listed below as they appear at the NC Agriculture website. Though their locations are not named here it is obvious that most of Wake is represented as it would have been in the early days. -
Adams Farm: David & Jan Adams (1820)
Adams Vineyards: Joyce C. Adams, John Q. Adams IV (1871)
Charles Baker Farm: Charles Lee Baker Jr. (1910)
Bowden Brothers Farm: Phillip Bowden, Benny Bowden, Danny Bowden (1790)
Bowden's Bend Cattle Farm, LLC: Steve Bowden, Wanda Pierce, Joanie Bowden (1790)
Wakelon Angus Farms: Jill Fowler Bright (1743)
Talmage Brown, Carol Brown (1879)
Fred W. Burt, John F. Burt (1754)
Sauls-Baker Farm: Amy Baker Bynum (1910)
Jewel B. Christian, Joy B. Parrott (1878)
Hunt-Pearce Farm: Eva Pearce Clontz, Herman Pearce Jr. (1894)
Cooke Family Farm: Donald K. Cooke (1882)
Stephenson Farm: Laura Baker Costa (1910)
H. Harold Cotton
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Thomas Ray Dean, Katherine Adcock Dean (1795)
W. Graham Dean (1919)
The Dickens' Sherron Hill: Betty Medlin Dickens (1912)
Robert Matthew Dickens Farm: Donald Dickens, Virginia Dickens, Thomas Dickens, Claudia Dickens (1907)
Nancy Ballentine Elliot, Ross Stocks (1779)
David Ferrell, Beth Ferrell (1890)
Sugg Family: Martha Sugg Field (1887)
Wakelon Angus Farms: James Robert Fowler III, Leigh E. Fowler (1872)
Wakelon Angus Farms: Jane Cate Fowler (1743)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Candace Olive Gray, Justin Joe Gray (1795)
Robert E. Horton, Elizabeth Horton (1850)
Pearce Farms: Frances P. Jones, R. Louis Pearce Jr.
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Katherine Dean Jones, Jack McKinley Jones III (1795)
Kirk Farms: Charles F. Kirk (1922)
Ledford: Marjorie Ledford Heirs (1860)
Bailey-Mandeville Farm: John and Wanda Mandeville (1904)
Medlin Family Farm: Clarence Medlin Jr. & Sons (1887)
Emily R. Merritt (1883)
Nowell-Morgan Farm: Sandy M. Nowell Morgan (1909)
Nowell Farms: Edith G. Nowell (1909)
Ogburn Family Farm: Tandy & Sarah Ogburn (1919)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Gypsie Dean Olive, Ronald Willard Olive (1795)
Page Farms of Raleigh, LLC: W.E.P. Properties, LLC (1916)
Dennis A. Perry (1852)
Glenwood H. Perry, Artelia Perry (1852)
Perry Farm: Ronald C. Perry (1902)
Phipps: Curtis Lee Phipps, Nan Phipps Perkins (1860)
Privette Farm: Randy L. Privette, Janet Brown Privette (1855)
Reaves Family Farms: Jerry Lee Reaves (1869)
Florence D. Sorrell, Allen, A. L. Sorrell; J. D. & W. E. Denning; W. R. Denning Jr.
Richard Baker Todd (1878)
Underhill Family Farm: John W. Underhill, Phyllis Underhill (1914)
Descendants of Zola Judson Sugg: Helen Walton (1891)
Nowell-Webb Farm: Kevin B. Webb, Melissa A. Webb (1909)
Wakelon Angus Farms: Giny Fowler Wheeler, Steve E. Wheeler (1869)
The
Bicentennial Farms program is a subset of the Century Farm list and you will see these names on both. These farms have maintained continuous family ownership for 200 years or more and have submitted a separate application for consideration in this group. There are some 200+ year farms that do not appear here if they have not applied. The list follows and again does not note locations. -
Adams Farm: David & Jan Adams (1820)
Bowden's Bend Cattle Farm, LLC: Joanie Bowden, Wanda Pierce, Steve Bowden (1790)
Bowden Brothers Farm: Phillip Bowden, Benny Bowden, Danny Bowden (1790)
Burt Farms: John F. Burt (1756)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Thomas Ray Dean, Katherine Adcock Dean (1795)
J.C. Rowland Farms, LLC: Martha Rowland Fish, Julia Rowland Yeargan, Virginia Rowland Miller (1761)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Candace Olive Gray, Justin Joe Gray (1795)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Katherine Dean Jones, Jack McKinley Jones III (1795)
Partin-Dean Family Farm: Gypsie Dean Olive, Ronald Willard Olive (1795)
One of the farms on the Bicentennial Farm list has received a lot of press and has an interesting story. You can read about the Burt Farm's 270 year and ten generation history in the articles linked below.
Wake County farm is older than the Declaration of Independence. (NC Ag Blog)
Local farmers being pushed out of Wake County as demand for land soars. (WRAL)
If you have Burt ancestors, there are several Burt Cemeteries referenced in the Holly Springs section of our Wake Cemetery Survey c1978 image files. Check this link.
Another farm over 200 years old but not on the list is the Lazy J Ranch sheep farm in Zebulon. A recent news feature from WRAL highlights the Wake Board of Commisioners efforts to establish a conservation easement to preserve the farm and save it from devlopment in the future. The Lazy J owner is named as Patrick Johnson in the Indie Week article below.
"Wake County is planning to partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to acquire the easement, which totals more than $1.3 million. Wake County’s contribution is $350,000, with $281,500 coming from bond funds and $68,500 from the state Department of Transportation 540 settlement funding."
I hope to get some time in the future to get back to this post with research and locations for each of the farms above. If you get inspired to dive into this research, let me know I will publish your efforts here with attribution to you for your work.
Farming is our history and our future!
