Generations of resilience: The inspiring legacy of Butler Farms

Our Century Farm series highlights the history and legacy of America's family farms. These multigenerational operations have overcome many challenges and have lessons to share.

Joseph Butler was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1822. Like most enslaved people, many of the details of his life are lost to time.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves during the Civil War in 1863, and in 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery nationwide.

At some point after that, Joseph and his brother, John, arrived in Rutherford County, Tennessee, with their free papers and began a new life. Joseph married Martha Lillard.

In 1869, Joseph paid $5,000 for 67 acres near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. To get a mortgage, a white man, Harrison Smith, had to cosign for him.

“My great-great-grandfather, an emancipated slave, ended up in Tennessee from North Carolina. Exactly how that happened, I don’t know,” says James Butler Jr., the fifth generation to own the Butler farm. “I’ve tried to research Harrison Smith because I would really love to know who he was, but I couldn’t find anything, and I don’t know much about my great-great-grandfather.”

He does know Joseph established a family cemetery on the original farm. He grew corn, cotton, and vegetables, and he bought more ground in 1889.

A legacy is born

Joseph and Martha had seven children. Their oldest son, Perry, was the next owner of the farm. He and his wife, Alice, who was also the child of two former slaves, had 10 children. They added horses, cattle, chickens, and goats to the farm.

“My great-grandfather was illiterate,” James says. “He wanted his kids to be able to read and write, and he was a man of faith.” Perry built Butler’s School and Butler’s Chapel on his land.

“Some of his daughters became teachers in the school,” James says. “Two generations later, there were Butlers getting doctorates. His great-grandson was a dean of South Carolina State College and an officer in the Navy. I have a son who’s an attorney. His vision of us being educated has come to pass.”

Perry’s vision of faith has also been passed down. In addition to farming and managing two pallet plants, James is a pastor at two churches. “You can’t have a successful farm if you don’t know anything about the grace of God, because if He doesn’t send you what you need, you’re just out of luck,” he says.

Perseverance

Perry and Alice’s son and James’ grandfather, Oscar Alfonzo Butler, was next to take the reins, along with his wife, Annie. He learned many things in the Butler school, including the importance of exercising his right to vote.

The 15th Amendment granted Black men the right to vote starting in 1870. However, racist Jim Crow laws, including poll taxes, made voting difficult, if not impossible. White men were exempt from poll taxes if they had ancestors who voted before the Civil War, but Black men had to pay to vote. In Tennessee, poll taxes remained until 1953.

James still has Oscar’s paper receipts from 1917, 1919, and 1920, when he paid a $2 poll tax each year. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, $2 in 1917 is equivalent to $47.45 today.

The land at the Butler farm was very rocky, but James says, “My grandfather was pretty industrious.” When a highway was built in front of the farm, Oscar leased some of his land to a rock company to dig quarries. The operation eventually closed but tons of gravel was left behind, so Oscar sold it and bought more farmland and real estate.

Lessons learned

James Butler Sr. and wife Dolores were the next generation to own the family farm. They had eight children.

James helped his dad on the farm, taking care of pigs and doing other chores before and after school. It gave him an appreciation for hard work and his family’s history, and it allowed him to save money for college.

James Sr. was a World War II veteran and a lay leader in the church. He and Dolores were also active in many community groups. He passed away in 2019 at age 94.

There were nine heirs; some wanted to sell the century farm, but that wasn’t an option for James. “That was kind of painful,” he says. He and three of his sisters bought the other heirs out and are now co-owners with James managing the farm.

Looking to the future

Estate planning became a priority after the realization the farm could have been lost after James Sr. died.

James Jr. has four children and 12 grandchildren, and along with his sister co-owners and their families, the farm has many heirs. “We’re trying to make sure it is sustainable and that it takes care of itself,” he says.

While James finds inspiration in his roots, he also looks to other Black farmers. Jim McClain is the son of a sharecropper who became a successful South Carolina rancher.

“We have become good friends, and I do own some of his Angus bloodline,” James says. “His story inspired me. You can come from humble beginnings, but we live in a great nation, and despite all, you have nothing but opportunity.”

Butler Farms is Tennessee Beef Quality Assurance Certified, and James is a Tennessee Advanced Master Beef Producer. He raises a small herd of cattle and goats on 56 acres in Rutherford and Bedford Counties and direct markets the meat.

James also revived his grandfather’s rock quarry when another highway came through. At the end of the project, the builders filled the holes and covered everything with soil, leaving new grazing land behind.

James thinks his ancestors would be proud the farm is still going. “It’s amazing when I think about walking the same property my great-great-grandfather walked,” he says. “I pray it will always be a place of connection. When future generations want to know where they come from, they’ll know this is where it all started.”