By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

John Blalock assists his 5-year-old son Justin feed some of the replacement heifers on the family’s 150-year-old farm in Wood County. John has hopes his son, and his niece, will continue the ag operation in the future. The Blalock farm was one of many recognized earlier this month in TDA’s Family Land Heritage Program. -- Staff photo by Kramer

March 30, 2006 - When Richard Parks Mayo purchased 474 acres in Northeast Texas in 1855, near present-day Quitman, it’s possible he never imagined what the place would look like 150 years later.

Part of Mayo’s original farm, now the Blalock Farm, was recently honored as a 150-year farm in the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Family Land Heritage program. 

The farm took on the Blalock name when Mayo’s daughter, Susan, married Milton Blalock and received 50 acres of the homestead from her parents. Today Mayo’s great-great-grandsons, John, 45, and Byron, 49, work on the farm and run the operation under the guidance of their mother, Mrs. Robert Blalock (Patricia).

The farm was cultivated based on necessity. Helen, Mayo’s great-granddaughter, said even while she was growing up, “we always grew our own food.”

In fact, a garden has been grown on the property every year since its beginning. The vegetables grown in the garden are still canned and used, despite the fact that John said he could buy them cheaper at a grocery store. “It’s just not the same,” he compared.

In addition to the garden, several aspects of the farm, that was originally used for cattle, corn, and cotton, have remain relatively unchanged in the last 100 to 150 years.

The original house, a dirt-floor cabin, was replaced around the turn of the 1880s. Later, in the 1940s, the lumber from the second house was used to build a newer house. 

Pecan trees, planted nearly 100 years ago can be found  on the property, in addition to old wooden plows and an old cistern.

The family is proud to be continuing what their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents started.

“My parents, and grandparents before them, were just plain farmers,” said Helen Sauls, 88, the great-granddaughter of the property’s founder. She said they chose the farming way of life because that is what they were able to do, it was all they knew.

Several aspects of the farm have changed. There is 209 of the original 474 acres left in the family. The houses that sharecroppers once lived in are gone. The orchard that was cultivated in the 1930s is gone. The syrup mill has ceased operations. Dairy cattle no longer dot the landscape. And while much of the farm has stayed the same, John said his grandfather would be surprised by many of the changes.

John said the lack of solid tools (everything then was made from wood), machinery, and a means to fix things always troubled his grandfather, who farmed with mules throughout his life. 

Now, John, who studied agriculture mechanization for a while (and holds a master’s degree from Tarleton State University), has a shop on the property, complete with welding tools and odds and ends needed to keep the farm’s devices working.

“I just think of what my grandfather would think if he saw that shop,” John reflected.

The farm has survived several periods of turmoil. It survived both World Wars, the Great Depression, and several oil conflicts, but it managed to find some luck throughout the years.

In the 1940s, oil was discovered on the property. John said his grandfather, who did not have a retirement plan, was finally able to work a little less.

“That was some relief to the farming,” said Alice Pearl, 81, another great-granddaughter of the farm’s founder.

Through the good and the bad times, the family said the farm has been able to survive because the family has a great interest in agricultural, enthusiasm for their family, and pride in their heritage.

“I appreciate the fact it’s lasted this long,” said Helen.

“I’m just proud,” added Alice Pearl. “I think we’re proud of the place and we’d like to keep it as long as we can.”

Keeping the farm will eventually be the responsibility of the farm’s sixth generation, which includes John’s 5-year-old son, Justin, and Byron’s teenage daughter, Laura. Both are already taking an interest in agriculture matters. John said he tries to teach Justin new things and show him the ropes of farming, and Laura is active in FFA and aquaticulture.

John hopes that like him, through education and FFA, or by some other means, the two children will keep their interest in the farm alive.

“I don’t know what it takes to keep them interested,” said John. “I’ll introduce him (Justin) to it, but I’m not going to force it down his throat.”

Regardless, the future of the farm, that John said has thus far survived because of Roosevelt’s New Deal program and answered prayers from Jesus, will be determined in the years to come. In the meantime, the tight-knit family who still has family reunions, holidays, and lunches together plans on continuing to do what they know and what they enjoy - farming.