This Plantation Plain farmhouse, with Folk Victorian details, is part of Jeff Deal Farms. It was built by Lem Lanier. It was later owned by Joe Franklin and Emory Deal and family. Thanks to Kenneth Dixon for the history.
July is peak watermelon season in South Georgia and where watermelons are grown on a large scale, old school buses with their sides cut out are put into commission to transport this important crop.
Some of the most beautiful farmland in Georgia can be found in the fertile fields of Clay County.
Matt Brown writes: That’s what we call the dynamite house; they used to store dynamite in it. Before that various tenants lived in it. The house and barns by the road was where my dad’s farming operation was. My sister owns the land and plans to restore the house.
This was one of a row of several identical tobacco barns. All are now gone.
Located just outside Collins, this Folk Victorian house is the centerpiece of what was obviously a busy working farm at one time. Kathryn Braswell Hochman writes: “This is my father’s homeplace, known locally as the Joe Cowart Homeplace, and is where we visited my Grandmother Braswell every summer until she died in 1966. It has been rented to tenants ever since. Joseph Lumpkin Cowart (born 1849; died at that house on Christmas Eve 1938 and was buried the next day in a coffin he had made himself) had the house built in 1904 for approx. $80. It was built on the site of a log house (moved off of the property) in which the family had lived. Across the house is indeed a tenant house, and if you were to go behind it you would find a crumbling log tobacco barn. Perhaps you can tell me which is the pack house and which was used for hay. It was not a working farm by the time I came along in the 1950s.. Or rather, only the land was farmed, and by others. I should tell you that this house and the outbuildings and the land are the stuff of my happiest childhood memories. My parents are buried in the Collins Baptist Church Cemetery, and I will always have a reason to go there.“
There are a few outbuildings, including this one, which was a tenant house.
Barns with utilitarian purposes stand in a row across the highway from the main house.
I can’t be sure of all their specific uses, but a hay barn and pack house are among them.
Small, intact working farms of this type are rarer than ever. The Cowart property is a great example.
I’m not sure of the history of this house, but it’s one of the most perfectly classical I’ve yet seen. I’ve been told that it’s known locally as the Jordan Farm. Jimmy Webb writes that it’s now owned by Bob & Barbara McLendon. Barbara McLendon writes: Bob McLendon and I own this house. This farm was purchased in 1950 from a family from Chattanooga by my father, William Harvey Jordan. Prior to it being purchased, the farm was managed by Frank Worthy and they lived in the home. The cemetery is in the field located adjacent to the house. If anyone would like to see this house or visit the cemetery you can call Bob McLendon at (229) 881-3201. It is better to visit the cemetery in the winter months when there is not a crop planted in the field.
Traditionally associated with North Georgia, sorghum is gaining popularity in South Georgia, as well.
I caught this sunset near Shiloh Cemetery.