The Keener-Johnson Farm on Boyd's Creek Road in Sevier County, Tennessee, is a listed Tennessee Bicentennial Farm and the oldest historic family farm yet identified in Sevier County. The farm landscape represents a rural historic district that demonstrates agricultural change and continuity for well over 150 years. The farm gains additional significance for the contribution its history makes to the understanding of the roles of farm women in the maintenance and perpetuation of historic family farms in Tennessee. The farm's history begins in 1785 when John McCroskey received a North Carolina land grant of 3,000 acres, most of which was centered along Boyd's Creek in present-day Sevier County. John McCroskey shared the grant with William & Samuel McGauhey, also of North Carolina. In 1806, John Sharp, Jr. received a land grant from the State of Tennessee for part of the original McCroskey grant. Conflicting titles such as this one were not uncommon; in the great majority of cases, the Tennessee title was recognized as legitimate. Certainly part of the controversy ended when Robert Scott McCroskey, the son of John McCroskey, married Mary McChesney Sharp, the daughter of John Sharp, Jr. Robert and Mary Sharp McCroskey began to farm at the present location of the property by circa 1830. Their child, Mary Narcissa McCroskey, inherited 168 acres of the farm and after her marriage to Adam Harvey Keener. They built the present historic dwelling seen in the photograph above, the Keener House, in 1853. The dwelling, although remodeled throughout the next century, remains largely intact and at its original location. As the farm's oldest surviving building, it is a landmark for travelers along the highway as well as for the subsequent history of the farm.
Adam Harvey Keener was a miller by trade and during the 1850's he constructed and operated a gristmill and sawmill along Boyd's Creek, east of the dwelling. Similar to other farmers in the county, the Keener's raised small grains, livestock for their own consumption, and corn. After Adam Harvey Keener's death in 1891, his wife Mary M. Keener assumed ownership of the property and managed the farm for the next 11-12 years, dependent on the help of her adult children. After Mary M. Keener's death in 1902, the farm passed to her son Joseph A. Keener and his wife Hannah Clark Keener. It was probably Joseph and Hannah Keener who made the first substantial additions to the family's historic dwelling by adding a Victorian-styled porch. Joseph A. Keener continued farming and operating the sawmill, but he also became a local postmaster and opened a small post office in the front of the house, by the Boyd's Creek Road. Income from the post office was an important source of cash for the family. (The post office was demolished circa 1960.) Joseph A. Keener died in 1914 and farm management passed to his wife Hannah Clark Keener who would also continue to manage the post office. She lived on the farm for the next thirty years and became an active participant in the property's conversion into a modem progressive farm.
This modernization began in earnest after Hannah Clark Keener gave the farm to her daughter, Georgia Neva Bell Keener, in 1919. Georgia Keener married a returning World War I vet, Charles Wright Johnson, in 1919 and they settled on the farm, living in the historic Keener House with her mother. But, the Johnson's assumed the everyday management and operation of the property. Like other women across Tennessee interested in and active in Home Demonstration during the 1920's and 1930's, Georgia Keener Johnson became an active breeder and seller of chickens. Her first chicken coop in 1920, the design of which was standardized plans drawn by the University of Tennessee Extension Service, was small but turned enough profit that by 1930 the family had constructed a much larger rectangular-shaped chicken house. Four years later, when the family decided to build a garage along the road facing the house, they installed electricity and a hatchery in the basement so more chicks could be produced for market. Tenants played an important role in helping Georgia Kenner maintain her flocks and in 1935 the family demolished the old log tenant house that stood behind the dwelling and replaced it with a concrete block tenant house, with electricity. The family also branched out into fruit production and set up a fruit stand along the new state highway (now Tennessee 338) in front of the house. The fruit stand is no longer extant but the orchard, located behind the chicken coops, is still exists. The Johnson's sold apples, pears, cherries, watermelon, cantaloupes, and grapes, all grown on the farm. Another important product of the farm in the mid-20th century produced by Georgia Keener Johnson was flowers. She grew a variety of flowers that she sold at the roadside stand as well as at markets in Sevierville.
The transformation of the domestic complex of the farm from 1920 to 1935 was paralleled by changes in the farm's work complex, located to the northwest of the dwelling. The Johnson's built two large bams and a corn crib, along with a water tank and water system for their livestock. During these years, the Johnson's raised small grains, corn, tobacco, strawberries, peanuts, and a wide range of livestock, including dairy cows, beef cattle, sheep, hogs, and mules. They also raised a truck garden, some of which was sold at the fruit stand but also sold weekly at the historic Market Square in Knoxville. From 1940 to 1950, however, the family began to focus its production strategy on hay and beef cattle. As participants in the local chapter of the Soil Conservation Service, the Johnson's terraced their fields, fenced others with wire fence or permanent tree lines, and built ponds. The field patterns found today on the farm reflect both the family's reliance on new government land conservation programs but also its shift toward more agricultural specialization, in their case livestock production.
In 1967, Charles W. Johnson, Jr. and his sisters Mary Johnson Bolton, Barbara Johnson Cox, Christine Johnson Posey, and Louise Johnson Posey inherited the farm from their mother Georgia Johnson. Charles W. Johnson, Jr. and his family resided on and most recently worked the farm. Their agricultural commodities were beef cattle, hay, and corn. But the farm is now surrounded by recent development and threatened by demands for new houses, new schools, and new roads in Sevier County. As a result, the number of family farms in Sevier County continues to dwindle. The commendable efforts by the Johnson's to continue farming and to maintain their link with the county's agricultural past brought about an effort to document the farm's history. Compared to other known Tennessee Century Farms in Sevier County, the Keener-Johnson Farm has several areas of special significance in agricultural history. First, it is the oldest identified historic family farm in the county. Second, its many surviving buildings from 1920 to 1940 document the transformation of rural life and farm production brought on by the progressive agricultural movement and how that movement impacted the roles of both women and men. And, for these reasons and its significant history, the Kenner-Johnson Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on March 18, 1999. All of the information above was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration and can be viewed here:
npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/fdc8cb4e-7103-40df-b06...
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
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