The farm owned by Tom and Lana Sue (Lewallen) Jones south of El Dorado Springs has been named to the list of Missouri Century Farms.
Lana Sue said she saw something about Century Farms, knew the farm had been in the Jones family over a hundred years and decided to look into it. She soon had the application which she and Tom filled out. After a while, back came the acceptance letter.
The farm, due west of Osiris and southeast of Montevallo, is located on the Cedar and Vernon County line. About 100 acres of the farm are in Vernon County. 42.5 acres are in Cedar County.
Saturday morning, Tom, while giving the Sun a tour of his home place, stopped in a trail between two cornfields recently harvested by Daniel Wasoba, motioned north toward the stand of small trees and said, “The county line goes somewhere right through here.”
Henry and Genora (Ingram) Jones purchased the farm in 1907. They raised eight children there – five boys: Herb, Dewey, Tom, Denny and Brad, and three girls: Ruby, Anna and Lennie; one son, Krugy, died at an early age .
The current Tom, whose middle name is Henry, remembers his dad, Herb, and his uncle, Dewey, cultivating corn with horse drawn cultivators. Herb had a cultivator he had to walk behind. Dewey was modern and had one he could ride. Tom remembers riding on the tongue of his dad’s cultivator. He also remembers fishing in the creek while they cultivated and putting his catch on a forked stick. When it was time for dinner, he released his catch and went to the house with them.
Tom also remembers butchering day when his parents and uncles hung a beef or a hog in the big oak tree southwest of the house. Until recently a pulley remained there that they used to lift the animal. Tom remembers when they butchered two Spotted Poland China sows that had gotten too big to have pigs. The sows, estimated at 400 lbs. each, were so big that they dug a pit in which to scald them.
Herb and Edna Mae (Steward) Jones raised four children on that farm: Nora Mae, Howard, Anna Jo and Tom.
Henry and Genora attended Glade Springs Missionary Baptist Church (which was started in 1868) located a couple of miles north just on the east side of the county line. The children joined after they were saved.
Herb was a deacon there. Edna Mae was a member. Tom and Nora Mae are still active members.
Tom H. has retired from a career as a construction superintendent all over the United States. He and Lana Sue last lived in New Mexico. Their son, Kirt, still lives there. Their son, Kragg, and his family live in El Dorado Springs.
The Missouri Century Farm program’s history dates back to 1976 as a result of the Missouri Committee for Agriculture that was co-chaired by James B. Boillot, Director, Missouri Department of Agriculture, and Elmer R. Kiehl, Dean of the College of Agriculture, University of Missouri. The committee’s purpose was to organize the American Revolution Bicentennial celebration in Missouri.
One activity that was initiated by the committee was the “Centennial Farm” project, which awarded certificates to persons owning farms that had been in the same family for 100 years or more. Interest in the program continued after 1976. The College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and University of Missouri Extension planned a 10-year update in 1986 called the “Century Farm” program. This program has been sustained as a yearly event with over 100 farms recognized each year. In 2008, the Missouri Farm Bureau became a program co-sponsor.
JONES FARM BARN – Tom’s uncles, Tom and Dewey, added the west part of the barn as a drive-thru so the could scoop corn into a bin and drive on out. The loft of the barn had a horse powered hay fork that would pick up a load of loose hay and lift it into the loft using what was called a hay rope. When the loaded hay fork got into the desired position in the loft, it would be tripped dropping the load of hay. Then the hay was forked to the side by hand for long-term storage and winter feeding.
Facebook Comments