FARMS OF ETOWAH VALLEY'S PAST

EARLY TIMES    ~    LATER TIMES
Honoring Etowah Valley's agricultural heritage . . . What was the Etowah Valley like in its heyday as a farming community?  

Number of Farms
Some helpful information comes from the 1900 Census, Mills River Township - District 46 - west and south of the Mills River (south prong).  District 46 included the Etowah Valley area.  
161 of 197 Heads-of-Household list 'farmer' as occupation.  These 161 self-sustaining farms represent 82% of the households in District 46 in 1900.  Of the 161 farmers, perhaps approximately one-third (54) of these were located in the Etowah Valley area.  This number is simply an estimate at this time.

The FARMS page is a work-in-progress and will be updated as information and photos are discovered.  Farms are presented alphabetically by family name along with a year that represents the earliest known date of the farm, based on information currently available.

The early farms are just being discovered.  Many more to add as time goes by.
Please contact the website if you would like to share information or photos 
​about Etowah's farm history.
FARMS OF EARLY TIMES
Eade
1890's
Farm Home of 
Charles Hardinge Eade (1868 England -1942) and Emma Martha (Mable) Reece Eade (1875-1970). 

Married 23 Oct 1890 in Transylvania County, Charles age 23, Emma age 14.  Children listed in 1910 Census: Cible, William, Charlie, Christina.  Also listed as other household member:  John Wason.
Photo courtesy of W. Edwin Redden who purchased some of the Eade farm property the 1980's.
English
Farm home of Charles and Annie English
Gash
1880 - 90's

Farm Home of
Joseph Leander Gash, wife Margaret Indiana Stewart Gash and their children - Pink Margaret, Pearl Gillie, Mamie Stewart, George Alfred & James Leander.  Joseph and Margaret were married in 1871 in Georgia.
Photo courtesy of Gash descendants.
Jeudwine
later, McCall
1880's
Farm home of
the Jeudwine's of the 1880's Welsh Colony, John W. and Henrietta (or Harriette) L.
In the 1900 Census, John Jeudwine listed his occupation as "Teacher of Music."
John was born in England.  Henrietta was born in South Carolina.
Later 1915, this was the home of Isaac & Virginia Shell McCall from Hickory NC.
Orr
early 1800's
Farm home of 
John and Jane Clayton Orr were married in January 1800 in what later became Transylvania County.
More photos and  information on  the  Historic 1800's Orr Cabin Homeplace that once stood on Etowah School Road.
FARMS OF LATER TIMES
Fullam Dairy
1985
"The Fullam family, as every dairy farmer in the county, has a long tradition in the dairy business.  George and Ellen Crook Fullam had the first independent dairy on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville.  In 1948, the family moved to Mills River.  The family farm expanded in 1985 with the purchase of a farm on Pleasant Grove Road, along the French Broad River.  The Etowah tract is on the plat for the proposed Seven Falls development."

"... in 2005, when the Fullam family began a creamery at the dairy."

Source:
2007 Times-News article, "Hanging On" by Jennie Jones Giles     blueridgenow.com/article/20070305/NEWS/703050309?p=1&tc=pg
Sky Brook Farms
Squawkiss
Valley Ranch
[aka, Squawkissed] 
​
Robert Hayes Gore Sr. (1886-1972)  acquired tracts in the 1930s and 1940s totaling 1250 acres in nearby Crab Creek TWP.

His son Joseph Anthony Gore (1919-2003) of Ft. Lauderdale,  Florida built Squawkissed Valley Ranch in the mid-1940s.

From Joseph's 2003 obituary:
"After retiring, he raised Angus cattle in Hendersonville, where he and his wife [Patricia Ann] have spent spring and summer during the past 30 years."


Photo right:
Real Estate Sales Brochure (2003 ?), year ​to be identified
Whiteside Farm
​circa 19....
The Whiteside home was located on Brickyard Road across from the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches.  Today, as you enter the Etowah Library parking lot, the home sat just to the left of the large tree on the corner.  "Lizzie" Whiteside raised chickens which she sold along with their eggs to the Farmers Federation in Hendersonville.  She was also an accomplished seamstress.  In the early 1950s, in her 70's, she purchased a new car and her grandson Roger Whiteside taught her to drive.  Photo and text courtesy of Janice Greer Sumner.

Thomas Tuff and "Lizzie" are buried at Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery.
More about Tuff Whiteside.

Thomas Tuff     b.  4 Nov 1874  -  d.  18 Mar 1962
Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dalton     b.  27 Aug 1878  ​-  d.  9 Nov 1960​