Walter Lee Scott Family Farm  1908- December1933

Background information.  Walter Lee Scott and Ruth Fontaine Scott lived in the oldest Stith settlement in Stith Valley, Meade County, except for 2 years in 1913 and 1914 when they lived in Van Buren Arkansas. There they raised seven children until they moved to Brandenburg in December 1933 for Walter to take a job as Deputy Sheriff.  Walter and Ruth pictured about 1929 at their farm in Stith Valley. The view is form behind their house looking to the North-East across the garden in winter.  The garden fence is in the near background.  Children at the farm in October 1924.

Scott Hill Farm  By Walter Charles Scott
History

To get the Scott Hill Farm in the Historic Farm Program would have been about like registering a cow, only worse, so it never got done! The farm did qualify by having more than 10 acres (212 acres), and the income was a little over the minimum of $1000. per year. I did find that Richard Stith and his brother William came to this country in 1804 and picked this place to build a house and barn and settle down. Richard got in touch with the owner and bought 450 acres here in 1811. The farm stayed in the Stith family until my dad, Walter L. Scott and his father bought the farm from the Estate of Aunt Lucinda Stith in 1911 -- exactly 100 years later.

While the legal ownership of the farm in the Stith family was 100 years, they started living here seven years earlier. While the farm was still owned by Aunt Lucinda Stith until her death in 1909 and the Estate until 1911; Aunt Lucinda had moved to Guston several years earlier to live with her sisters. Dad and Mom had moved here in 1908 and I was born April 11 1909, one week after Aunt Lucinda died. I was away from the farm about 25 years going to school and in agricultural work in about 20 counties, but am finishing my 82nd year here this April 11, 1991.

William Stith and his wife Nancy and my great grandfather Jim Hardaway were buried in the graveyard on top of the hill.

The farm has no historic buildings on it. The log house that Richard Stith built, burned in 1944 and the log barn was used for firewood after my Dad built a new barn in 1917. The Tenant House that Uncle Jesse Stith built in 1865 for his nephew was torn down in 1975 for room for my daughter Ann's new house.

The new barn that my Dad built burned April 11, 1927 and was replaced by the present barn. Dad went with John Burnet to Fort Knox and bought a barn from the Reservation for $50.00. (John knew his way around there from buying "war surplus" clothing or anything he could sell at his store at the corner of #333 and #1600.) John Burnet took his one and a half ton truck and about 5 or 6 neighbors took their teams and wagons and they took the barn apart and hauled it down here and helped rebuild it. With a new metal roof that cost about $50.00 the barn still stands here. A few rafters did not stand the move and were hurriedly replaced by some straight Sassafras poles from the woods. The old barn has a few bullet scars from target practice at Fort Knox but otherwise just an old barn. We added a Milk Parlor on the west side, about 8 ft. of shed roof on the North side, and about a 40 by 40 ft. feeding floor on the East side, with the concrete floor extending on through the barn.

Uncle Jessie's combination corn-crib and granary, and the old meat-house got gone while I was gone, I don't know what happened to them. The crib and granary were each about 8 by 16 ft. with a 10 ft. drive-way between them and all under the one roof. You hung either the wagon grain-bed or the hay frame up over-head when not in use. The floors of the crib and granary were about 18 inches above the ground so rats could not dig dirt up in them. The sides of the crib were of oak plank, nailed on "up and down" and was well ventilated, while the granary was double-boxed with 18 inch wide poplar plank so it would hold wheat or other small grain.

Since we have been here (1948), we have built the house, the tobacco barn (40 by 60 with a 16 ft. shed). a tool shed (24 by 72), and a metal crib (18 ft. diameter - 3000. bu.). We had a well dug (172 ft.) and have a 1.5 hp. pump and unlimited water. The pump, at present, has been in the well 35 years with no maintenance and at one time was furnishing water for the Milk Parlor, stock water, the house and two trailer houses. We have built a concrete entrance to the spring and plan to finish the project some day but that is just something that does not have to get done!! We did get about a mile and a half of road made through the woods that we are proud of. It gives access to the top of the hill, our picnic area, plenty of firewood and the graveyard.

This was Hardin county when Richard Stith came here in 1804 but this part of the county became Meade County in 1826.

Walter C. Scott