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Our earliest ancestors who settled in Virginia about 1630 and
later moved to North Carolina in the early 1700’s were believed to
have grown tobacco.
In 1804 our ancestors moved to Tennessee and settled a few miles
from our present day farm location and purchased many acres of
land and so began our family’s history of tobacco growing in
Tennessee.
Our family’s heritage of growing tobacco as a cash crop continued
until 2002 when after 150+ years and many, many generations of
tobacco farmers it all came to an end. After raising tobacco for
over 38 years myself, I was the last one in the family to grow
tobacco for farm income. It was a heart wrenching decision to make
but with the politics and the never ending obstacles in producing
a tobacco crop in the 21st century I felt it was the
only practical option. I still grow a little for the pure
enjoyment of 'working' the crop. It is in my blood and my earliest
memories are of being in the “tobacco patch”.
With the loss of tobacco as a cash crop for farm income and with
my years of working at preserving heirloom and old open-pollinated
varieties my
interests naturally lead me towards preserving the rare tobacco
seed varieties of
long ago. I can remember my grandfather talking of some of these
old varieties. So I began to search out and hopefully locate some
of the old varieties and grow out to see if they matched the
original historical documentation and if so, place them back into
growers hands to insure their continued preservation.
As time allows, it is our hope and desire to add historical
information on growing, harvesting, curing etc.
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