130-year old Dock Southern Farm emerges from pandemic with new purpose

Cindy Southern Marion's family farm near Dobson in north-central North Carolina was built on a foundation of tobacco and cattle, and its history has a musical soundtrack. Her grandfather, Dock Southern, met his future wife, Mecie Miller, when she played guitar at a barn raising on the farm. Mecie's brother, Will Miller, was a noted banjo player.

As a result of Dock and Mecie's marriage, the Southerns became willing participants in an ongoing legacy of talented singers, pianists, guitar players, and banjo pickers—as much a product of Dock Southern Farms as black Angus cattle. Today, Cindy's three adult children, Will, Jack, and Peyton, all work professionally as musicians and songwriters.

Those skills weren't much in demand on a recent spring day as Cindy and Will worked to install fencing around a garden that was being tripled in size, part of an effort to tailor the small farm — 25 acres — into an agritourism destination for the 21st century.

"This is good," Will says of a visitor taking photos of him sinking fence posts. "Jack needs to see who does most of the hard labor around here." Jack is in Asheville, North Carolina, playing with his band, Jack Marion and The Pearl Snap Prophets, while Peyton is at New York University finishing a master's degree in musical theater writing.

When told later of Will's comment, Jack has a good-natured retort. "Take a picture of the fence around the big pasture," he says. "There's a vanity side we like people to see because Will didn't have a hand in it."

Not be outdone, Peyton also weighs in. "I've done a lot of the most dangerous work on the farm" she says, "being the person who can fit into small spaces and test whether old upper floors and beams are going to hold."

Cindy and her three children didn't grow up on Dock Southern Farms. They lived about 15 minutes away. Her grandparents lived on Dock Southern Farms, then it was used by a great-uncle to run cattle for years. As a girl, Cindy kept goats on the farm for a 4-H project.

The strong attachment Cindy and the children have developed for the farm now is a result of dual hardships — Cindy's divorce eight years ago and the beginning of the pandemic more than two years ago. The divorce caused Cindy to move into her grandparents' "new" old house (circa 1948) on the farm. In 2020, all three of her children joined her there when music venues shut down and Peyton's college classes moved online.

Once a 225-acre farm, Cindy and her brother Craig (also a professional musician) own the 25 acres that are left. Along with her grandparents' house, the property includes a barn, granary, machinery shed, and the original 1890 farmhouse, all of which had suffered from disuse.

Cindy, who retired as a nutritionist last fall, imagined a future for Dock Southern Farms where visitors could see and learn about goats, donkeys, beehives, and home crafts such as quilting. She also envisioned it as a venue for weddings and, true to her family's roots, music and theater.

Home Work

Before those dreams could materialize, a lot of work was needed. Cindy kept a wish list on the refrigerator and plugged away at it as time allowed. Then suddenly, in the spring of 2020, a labor force arrived that was semi-willing to work for room and board.

"Initially after we got here, we were kind of bored," says Will, who uses his mom's maiden name to perform as Will Southern in Austin, Texas. "I did the pandemic thing where you play your music online, but after about two weeks that was not a viable idea. So, we started working on Mom's list."

Will wasn't the only one uncertain what this turn in their lives would mean.

The experience inspired Jack to write the as-yet unreleased song, "Dock Southern."

The past is never the past
We're still holding on to the reins
The more things change the more they stay the same

The farm experience also sparked the creative process for his sister. Peyton and cowriter Caitlin Thomas have written a musical, Swear by the Moon, about a Tennessee woman who comes home to fight for the survival of the family farm.

"There is very much a lot of my mom in this matriarch," says Peyton, who is working in a musical writing residency program in Upstate New York this summer.

In "Great Big World," the character Rosie sings about the emotional pull of the family farm.

"I can see why, you might not understand,
What it feels like, to love a piece of land.
It ain't chic, ain't always excitin',
But it's mine and that's worth the fightin'."

Cindy is quick to point out that while the experience has been wonderful, the four of them weren't holding hands and singing happily 24-7 during their months together.

"There were some short tempers at times," Cindy says. "We'd be out in the dark doing fence posts by the headlights of the tractor and everyone's about to cuss in three different languages."

Pumpkin Patch Events

In the fall of 2020, by the seat of their pants, and with the help of family and friends, Dock Southern Farms held its first event, a pumpkin patch. They hadn't had time to grow their own pumpkins so purchased them from another farm.

"We had a lot of socially distant games such as 'steer' roping, ball toss, and the pumpkin patch," says Cindy. "It was an opportunity for people to be outside with their kids."

An unqualified success, the family moved forward with plans for 2021 and beyond. In addition to now growing their own pumpkins, they have planted flowers for cutting and apple trees, and they purchased bees. Goats are in the works now that most of the fencing and pasture work have been finished. Eventually, they hope to renovate the 1890 farmhouse enough that it can house quilt displays and demonstrations of quilting and flax spinning.

The major purchase at Dock Southern Farms this year was a 38-hp. John Deere tractor and a front-end loader. "When I first got divorced, I wanted a man with a tractor," Cindy says. "Then I decided it was in my own best interest to buy my own tractor."

Cindy and her children received a crash course in farming by learning to use a tractor, replacing building supports, roofing, running a chain saw, and putting up fence. Will gives a lot of credit to several area farmers for their advice and to websites for how-to videos.

Even though all three of Cindy's children have returned to their musical careers, they've committed to returning to the farm regularly, often together. They'll work on major building projects and big events, like the pumpkin patch.

Fifty yards up the hill from Cindy's house is the small but stately two-story farmhouse, built in 1890. Uninhabited for more than 45 years, the five-room home needs lots of work but still feels solid. Wood beams from the original, even smaller log home are visible in the ceiling. Wrapped around the front and one side of the house is a porch that catches plenty of breeze coming over the hill.

Standing on the porch looking down over the barnyard, pasture, and garden, it isn't hard to imagine this platform as a stage for a concert, or a play, or even a storyteller mesmerizing an audience as to what a barn raising was and the new possibilities it represented.

Heather Barnes also contributed to this piece.