Martin, Tenn.–Located east of Martin in Weakley County, Rea Farms dates to 1919 and is the newest farm to be included in the Tennessee Century Farms Program.
Schoolteachers Benjamin Harrison Rea and his wife, Etta Gladys Ross Rea married in 1912 and purchased about 101 acres seven years later. The family grew corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, sweet potatoes, and hay, raised hogs and dairy cattle, and cultivated apple and peach trees. During the Depression years, the Reas spent the winters with relatives in Pomona, California, while the Sudberry family cared for the farm.
Ben was a founder of the Martin Church of Christ and helped convert the Hyndsver School into a community center.
After his marriage to Reba Prince in 1935, son Charles Hue Rea began farming full-time with his father, and “together they bought an AC tractor and an AC self-propelled Gleaner cab-less combine.” In addition, Charles built a horse barn (pictured), where he raised, trained, and sold Tennessee Walking Horses. Reba was active in the Old Salem Home Demonstration Club. The couple had two boys, Paul Keith Rea and William “Bill” Charles Rea, and, like their father before them, they began to work full-time on the farm after they had married their spouses. The family phased out the farm’s dairy operation in favor of expanding the shorthorn cow/calf operation.
When Rea Farms, Inc., was created in 1975, the farm consisted of approximately 242 acres, 50 steers, 70 cows, 50 calves, 200 brood sows, 1500 head of hogs, and 9 boars.
In 1987, Rea Farms won the Woodmen of the World Conservation Award for soil conservation management. Paul and Bill became the farm’s owners in 1994 and moved the entire hog operation indoors. Sons Steve (Paul), Shannon (Bill), and Andy (Bill) joined them working on the farm when they began their own families. Over the years, the Reas been very active in 4-H, FFA, and the Weakley County Farm Bureaus.
In 2007, Shannon and his wife, Kelly Gardner Rea, won the Excellence in Agriculture Award from Tennessee’s Young Farmers and Ranchers. From 2000-2017, fourth-graders in the county toured Rea Farms as part of Farm City Day. Today, the farm, which produces corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, cattle, and swine, is owned and worked by Bill and his sons, Shannon, Andy, and Terry. Bill’s grandsons William and Benjamin are the fifth generation to live on and work the family farm. Pre-1960 buildings still standing are the farmhouse (recently restored), concrete silo, potato house, milk barn, and livestock barn.