Mike and other listers, This booklet is not going to be of much value to us, based on the note below. Has anyone ever seen document that uses farm names? In my case, Pierre Clerc, advertised his products in the newspaper, etc., but never included the farm name. The only place his farm name of Hillsboro Poultry Farms was printed was on the actual products. It's not provided in tax books or deeds. If a document can be produced that does identify any of the local farms, I'm wondering if there is a way to cross reference it by combining the atlas information and the county directory information to the surname, occupation-farmer, and property description. I'll go ahead and send an email to the MO State Archives. -Kay Subj: RE: 'Farm Names', by W. L. NELSON, Asst Secretary-MO State Board of Agriculture 1917  Date: 3/15/2005 11:59:04 AM Eastern Standard Time From: [email protected] To: [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 6:25 PM To: Boeckman, LaurelSubject: 'Farm Names', by W. L. NELSON, Asst Sec-MO State Bd of Ag 1917 RE: FARM NAMES, Missouri State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin, By W. L. NELSON, v. 14, #10, October 1916, 42 pages, call #: M 630 M691b, volume 14, number 10 Below you will find my replies in blue to your questions and comments. Q 1. I am somewhat confused about the fact that the farm names listed in the above bulletin do not indicate where they are located.  Is this just an alphabetical list of farm names and/or owner names, without any type of identification?  Is the information of value to a researcher? A 1.      The book includes a two-column wide list of names, a few pages long.  The names were given as examples of names other farmers were using.  No owners or locations were attached to the names.  The book is a plea and a “how to do” for Missouri farmers to name their farms as a way to advertise their products and businesses.  It is not a directory of farms.              According to the data I found, farmers were asked to register their farm names and locations with the Missouri State Board of Agriculture by submitting written information about their farms.  Perhaps, the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City has the old Board of Agriculture registration files.  Email the Archives at [email protected] or call 573-751-3280. We do not have farm listings in either Jefferson County Atlas.  The listings are alphabetical, by owner surname.  In 1898, we do have, however, a listing of farmers in the county, when they moved to the county, and the location of the property, but the farm name, if any, is not listed.  It could be that farm names were not common during the 1890's.  ***The fact that Nelson was pleading for farmers to name their farms in his 1916 publication, tends to indicate that naming farms was not a common thing at that time. Perhaps, in later years, specialized farm names might begin to appear.**Nelson ’s project may have caused a flurry of naming, but special farm names probably became less important as the road systems developed in the 1920s.  As roads became graveled and paved, roadway numbering and naming systems developed which allowed universal and better rural postal delivery.  Once individual houses and farms were identified easily by a combination of road and dwelling numbers, special names were not needed to help locate a property.  Also, the size of family farms dwindled over time, and farms frequently changed hands and crops, making farm names seem less important, and even pretentious in some cases.  The Crash of 1929 and the Depression of the 1930s may have finished off Mr. Nelson’s efforts. Best Wishes on your project, Laurel Boeckman