Cousins; The below write up was sent to me by hardcopy from cousin Lisa Martin. I ask her if it was permissible to share it with CRC Cousins and she graciously agreed. I think you will enjoy it. I typed it from the hardcopy. I think that each of you will enjoy this where she is applying for Century Farm. It is very informative. We wish her luck. It sounds like a place we may want to visit during one of our meetings. Thank you, Lisa! Bobby Prosser prossergenealogy@comcast.net The Chestnut Ridge Farm is located on the Elk Ridge near the intersection of Moore, Lincoln, Marshall, and Bedford Counties. The farm started out being in Lincoln County, until Moore County, with Lynchburg being the county seat, was formed in 1871. In the early days the community of Chestnut Ridge supported a store, post office, stagecoach station, a school and a couple of churches. Chestnuts were collected at the ridge and sold to passing motorist on the nearby Dixie Highway. All the chestnut trees in the area died of a blight in the 1940's. If families could not get needed supplies on the ridge, they would go to: 14 miles to Fayetteville [county seat] in Lincoln County, 8 miles to Petersburg in Marshall County, 11 miles to Shelbyville [county seat] in Bedford County, or 21 miles to Lynchburg [county seat] in Moore County. Researching the history of the Chestnut Ridge Farm was complicated because one has to search in two counties. Records were first sought in Lincoln County, because the Chestnut Ridge Farm's early land deeds were recorded there. An early pioneer, James Prosser from North Carolina was believed to have settled in the Chestnut Ridge/Mulberry Creek area after Tennessee was opened up as a new state in 1796. It was first thought that the Chestnut Ridge farm land came from James Prosser [1791-1854] and his wife Frances Richardson Prosser's [1802-1858] estate. James Prosser was a slave owner and his property was valued at $3000 [a large sum in those days] in 1850 in Bartlett Hollow behind the Chestnut Ridge Farm. We believe there was a James Prosser home site on Bartlett Hollow Road, where an early Prosser Cemetery was recorded to have existed. farm animals have desecrated the cemetery site and it is hard to tell a cemetery was ever there. Searching Lincoln County courthouse records at the courthouse and archives, we thought that the Chestnut Ridge Farm was a piece of the James Prosser property, but in fact, James Prosser's son, James Asberry ["Berry"] Prosser[1824-1885] bought Chestnut Ridge farm of 180 acres for $1200 from his father-in-law's estate. James Asberry ["Berry"] Prosser married Rebecca W. Bagley [1832-1898] in 1848. Rebecca's father, John R. Bagley was a prominent farmer in the area who also had slaves. Berry was the fourth son, in a family of fourteen children. Berry was one of the founding county commissioners when Moore County was founded in 1871, representing the Chestnut Ridge Community. There was an early roadbed on this property with two houses in the hollow, that led to the James Prosser property on the backside of this property. Now only house foundations and wells exist of the two dwellings. In 1880 census records of Moore Co., freed slaves were recorded living with the Prosser family. Berry also donated a log house and some land for a meeting place for a church and school. We don't have information on how long the school existed, but we have a donation list, that the community collected money for a well to be dug at Chestnut School. There is a Chestnut Ridge Church of Christ on the donated property, and the cornerstone on the right hand side reads: October 7, 1882. Although the church is covered with vinyl siding, there is a architectural style to it, that is reflected on several old farmhouses in the ridge area. The congregation still meets there. It is hard to visualize the effort it took to farm this steep rocky hillside farm. A wooden box discovered at the Chestnut Ridge Farm,that is referred to as the "Prosser Box", is a time capsule of information about the everyday operation of the farm. The "Prosser Box" contained thousands of papers such as: a farm journal dating from 1869, receipts from various local businesses, including Elk Valley Distillery [in Kelso, dated 1896], Motlow and Co. [dated 1905], a Buick car registration dated 1918, more farm journals dating 1910-1929, and 1941, 1946-1950. The farm journals list the early Prosser's having mules, horses, cattle, and growing tobacco and corn that would have supplied Jack Daniel's Distillery. During WWII, papers show a 38 Ford "C" type among war gas rationing papers. Mules did the heavy labor, as there is no evidence of a tractor on the farm in the early days, the hillsides are so steep. A story from the family grapevine says Berry Prosser was killed in 1885 by a tornado in a house in Fayetteville that was said to be built "tornadoproof". He is buried in our Prosser Cemetery at the Chestnut Ridge Farm. Berry's son J. J. [John Joseph or "Johnny"] Prosser took over the operation of the 236 acre farm in 1885. Johnny was Berry's fifth child [second son] of 11 children. Johnny built a sizable frame house with two rooms in 1890, then quickly added on two additions, His mother, Rebecca lived there until her death in 1898. A wedding took place at the Prosser home place in 1900, when Johnny's sister Ezella married there. A metal roof [tile type] was installed in 1916. Gas lighting was installed in the main house in 1919, in which an original light fixture still exist on the front porch. The Prosser's were known to take in boarders, and teachers, and also had tenant families living in the two houses in their hollow. The Prosser Cemetery contains several Prossers alon! g with other family and friends, burial dates ranging from 1876-1918, with several unmarked graves. The Chestnut Ridge area was a hub of activity, with many farmers participating in a cooperative among themselves. Earl C. Prosser managed a grocery store/post office[later became Dunn Bros. Store] on the ridge, in which Johnny grew a lot of produce for. Johnny was known to go to markets in Petersburg and Fayetteville. The Prosser's had 12 apple trees, peaches, pears, cherries, blackberries, grew Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, corn, pumpkins, watermelons, tobacco, wheat, straw, hay, oats, rye, cane, and made molasses and honey. They listed as having Jersey cows, a slaughter/dairy income, mules, horses, hogs, sheep, turkeys, chickens [with egg income] at various stages of time. The Prossers were frugal, but had a steady income during the Great Depression and World War Two. Johnny Prosser's first wife Fannie Pigg Prosser died in February 1929, and while he was in mourning he took a trip out West. Many inland people yearned to visit the ocean in those days, Johnny, at the age of 69, drove his Chevrolet alone to see the Grand Canyon National Park and Carlsbad Cave [automobile permit dated August 26, 1929, Number of firearms:0]. The next year he married a long time acquaintance from Fayetteville, Della Bell Brents Prosser. He was 70 and she 44, this was her first marriage. At age 3 years old, Della and her sister, Millie Bell [Cochran] age 4, were orphaned in Diana [Marshall Co.] in 1889. The girls went to separate homes, in which Della was placed with a prominent Brents family in Fayetteville. O. O. and Maude Brents, who did not have children, officially adopted Della in 1923, when she was 34 years old. When Mr. Brents died the next year, he left his family well off with several real estate properties. Della had supported herself working several ! years at Wright's Jewelry on the Fayetteville Square before she married. Besides running a farm, Johnny was president of First National Bank in Petersburg, he was very active in the community, and was a mason of high rank. He taught Sunday school for sixty years at the Chestnut Ridge Church of Christ, that adjoins their property. Johnny passed away at age 86, leaving the farm to his wife Della. Della and Johnny had been married 16 years. In Johnny's will it states that if Della was to remarry, the farm would be "sold at public outcry" [auction], and proceeds go to nieces and nephews. Della was able to manage the farm with the help of a tenant farmer named John Raby for 26 years after her husband's death. Della's nephew, Henard O. Cochran and his wife Elizabeth "Lib" Bellamy Cochran [of Lewisburg, Marshall Co.] stepped in a couple of years and cared for Della in Lewisburg until her death in 1973. Because Johnny and his first wife Fannie, and his second wife, Della, had no children, the property was willed to Henard O. Cochran and some Prosser nephews. Henard settled with the nephews, and purchased the property outright. Henard O. Cochran had grown up on another stretch of the Elk Ridge, in the Marshall County area called "Possum Trot" [or Luna], and had made trips up to the Chestnut Ridge area to see his aunt and uncle when he was a boy. When he visited this farm as a boy, he would say "the rolling hills had corn as far as the eyes could see". In 1924, Henard joined the United States Navy at the age of 16, he was absent from Lewisburg for 22 years, with periodic visits home. He retired from active duty as Lt. [j.g] in 1946, then serving ten years in the reserves. His duties while in the navy was supporting the medical field as a pharmacist's mate, basic training was at Quantico, VA., and Hampton, Portsmouth, VA. [twice], he received a lot of medical training on the east coast, served on hospital ships and in navy hospitals and with medical supply. His duties took him to places like Nicaragua, Charleston, S. Carolina, Newport, R.I. [twice], San Pedro, CA. [several time], Balboa, Canal Zone, ! Guam in the Pacific, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, Mare Island,Ca. [several times], Brooklyn, N. Y. [twice], Newport News, VA., San Diego, CA., Pearl Harbor, Philadelphia, Memphis [Millington-twice] TN., San Bruno, CA., Baltimore, MD., San Francisco, Fleet Hospital # 114 in Samar, Philippines, then released from active duty out of New Orleans in 1946. Henard married Vivien, a Swede from Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1933. Henard, Vivien, and Wayne [age 2] was present at Pearl Harbor during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Henard was in the harbor on the U. S. S. Dobbin on that fatal day. A promotion prevented him from going on to North Africa or Europe. He spent alot of the war in the South Pacific Theatre. A collection of over 300 war letters, photographs, and scrap books document their many travels. When he returned from the war, he got reacquainted with his family, worked at Hunter and Scott Furniture Store on the Lewisburg Square, where he grew to appreciate fine furniture. Henard! attempted to save his childhood home and farm at Possum Trot, but wit h his father ailing, the farm fell on hard times and was sold. Henard lost his older brother Howard, first wife Viven, and father Thomas Cochran all around 1955. He supervised the construction and operation of a new water treatment plant, because of his chemistry and lab experience in the navy. He also became the building inspector for the City of Lewisburg. He then married Elizabeth "lib' Cochran. Lib had gone to business school and she worked for the American Consulate in Bern, Switzerland, during the war. They had met through working for the City of Lewisburg. She later managed the office at Walker Die Casting. When he retired from the city, he spent alot of his spare time refinishing antique furniture, and working on the Chestnut Ridge property 30 miles southeast of Lewisburg. He labored on reconstructing floor joist, patching windows, and attempted to get the 1890's structure livable. We remember him cursing at the thistles that had taken over the pastures. The old barn! had to be abandoned due to storm damage and disrepair. A tree seems to be the only thing holding up the barn. He and his son, Wayne, worked hard to mend the fences to hold the cattle again. Henard would even get his grandkids to drive him up to the ridge to work, having limited eyesight due to cataracts. Wayne followed his father into the United States Navy in the electronics field, serving 20 years during the Vietnam Era, retiring from service in 1980. Wayne, Ruth, and two children, Lisa and Troy lived in and around many military installations. Some places they lived were: Brunswick, GA., Memphis [Millington], TN. [twice], Alameda [San Francisco] CA., Denver, Colorado, Rota, Spain, Virginia Beach, VA.. Henard passed the Chestnut Ridge Farm over to his only son Wayne, before his death from lung cancer in 1981. Renovations were being started at the ridge house, when a house in Lewisburg that the Cochran's rented caught fire, due to a wall heater catching fire. All was not lost, as a church group from the First United Methodist Church in Lewisburg scrubbed down their belongings in an abandoned Kuhn's building on the square. They rented another house and proceeded with the ridge renovations. Wayne and Ruth Cochran with two children in college, employed ridge neighbors and frien! ds to help renovate the 1890's home that had not been lived in for ten years. The original tin roof had to be replaced, and of course, all electrical, plumbing and heating system had to be installed. When their son Troy was out on college breaks, he would help with renovations on the house. Troy would also cut down sugar maples and sell the lumber to Jack Daniel's Distillery for college money. The Cochran's raised cattle and sold timber from the forest that covers two thirds of the property. Wayne worked as an engineer at Heil Quaker in Lewisburg, AEDC in Tullahoma, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, doing contract work for NASA. Ruth continued to work with [high school] special kids in Marshall County Schools for 23 years. Wayne had always been an avid hunter and gun collector, and that is why he enjoyed his farm so much. The first known tractor on this farm was a 50's vintage Ford, Wayne used during the 80-90's, to help grow a vineyard. The Cochran's would host turk! ey shoots to raise funds for the local Lions Club. Wayne served in the Petersburg Lions Club as president, and taught Sunday School at First Methodist Church in Petersburg. Wayne died of a heart attack on his beloved farm in 1997. Today the Chestnut Ridge Farm is looked after by Ruth Cochran, her son Troy and family, and daughter Lisa Martin and family, and Elizabeth "Lib" Cochran of Lewisburg. The land is leased out to a local farmer with cattle, and every 10 years lumberjacks come by and cut lumber. Many pieces of antique furniture that Henard lovingly restored, are in the homes of Wayne and Ruth, Troy and Lorie, Lib Cochran, and Crawford and Lisa Martin. The grand kids, Cooper, Abbey, Kelsey, and Trevor love to frolic around the fields and explore nature. The Chestnut Ridge Farm is the stage for Cochran homecomings, birthday and holiday events.