[202] Lake County farm joins ranks of state's Century Farms Program

For Release: Dec. 13, 2012

Contact:  Caneta Hankins, Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

Marijac Farms Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

MURFREESBORO — Marijac Farms in Lake County 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. 

Sandy Hines purchased 241 acres in 1859 in Obion County. He and his wife, Polly Ashburn Hines, had eight children and grew cotton and corn and raised cattle and hogs. In the spring of 1862, the Battle of Island #10 took place directly across from the farm.  In 1879, Pembroke Gunn “P.G.” Hines, one of Sandy and Polly’s sons, acquired the farm. He and his wife, Elizabeth, continued row cropping and raising livestock.  P.G. Hines was Lake County’s first county clerk when it separated from Obion County in 1870.  

P.G. and Elizabeth’s daughter, Maynie Hines, was the next generation to own the farm. Maynie and her husband, John Clark Jackson, then passed the farm to their daughter, Mary.

When Mary married Jack Foster Fields, Jack began to manage the 241-acre farm, where he raised regulation Black Angus cattle. One of his cows gave birth to Aberdeen-Angus heifer triplets, which became an attraction at the Chicago International Livestock Exchange in December 1952. A newspaper article from the Lake County Banner also noted that Marijac Farms had sold a cow and a calf earlier in 1952 for $6,300. Jack Fields, was an honorary Future Farms of America chapter farmer also owned and operated a large grocery in Tiptonville.

After Jack and Mary passed away, their son, John F. Fields, inherited the farm in 1975.  John and his wife, Lyn Freeman, are active in civic and church affairs like his parents. John, the fifth-generation owner, manages and works the farm, growing cotton, soybeans, wheat and corn.

Since 1984, the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU has been a leader in the important work of documenting Tennessee’s agricultural heritage and history through the Tennessee Century Farms Program.

For more information about the Century Farms Program, please visit www.tncenturyfarms.org. The Center for Historic Preservation also may be contacted at Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132 or 615-898-2947.

• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To interview the farm’s owner or request jpegs of the farm for editorial use, please contact the CHP at 615-898-2947.

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