The Edmisten Farm ~ A Thanks Given Story ~ Part 1

Thanksgiving is a time of family, food, heritage, and tradition. Many folks make time to travel to the old home place. The old home place, the farm, and the heritage of the valley that has become our new campus will be the stories that will unfold over the next few days. This is Part 1.

Readers and community members will remember that a large portion of our campus was know as the Edmisten property. This was their family farm.

I had the opportunity to visit with Joe Edmisten and his sister Betty Edmisten Church earlier this fall. Joe told me some wonderful history, shared great stories, his writings, photos, and also gave me this 195o's era aerial photo. It is the oldest aerial I have seen of the Perkinsville Valley.

In the photo below you can orient to the location and the time. Bisecting the center of the photo is Old 421. Near the upper right corner you will notice a circular drive and open field. That is Mountlawn Memorial Gardens just after it was created as a cemetery for Boone.

Perkinsville was truly the outskirts of Boone. If you click to enlarge this photo you might be able to recognize many other features from the fifties.

If you follow Old 421 to the left or West your will see how little development there is along that part of town. The road making a right angle on the left off of 421 is Highway 194. Not too far up that road is Perkinsville Baptist Church. You will notice there is no Hardin Park school, no Newmarket Shopping Center, no Hardees or Wilco at that major intersection. The small store at the intersection was Jones Minute Mart.

But back to the Edmisten farm. I have zoomed in and cropped down to the major portion of the farm. The farm house, barn, and family garden are on the left side of this photo.

This zoom takes you in on the family cemetery. If you want to orient to the current campus, our Webcam view is from the edge of that plot.

The photo above gives a better orientation to the size and location of the original Edmisten Family Farm on our campus.

The home and working farm are on the left or west side of the property.

Now that you know where the Edmistens were, we will begin to explore what it was like to live on this farm by the New River in Perkinsville Valley. I hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving journey over the river and through the woods to the Edmisten Farm.