For 150 years, the Pittman family has owned and operated their farm in Gnaw Bone with no plans to stop.
On March 5, the Pittman family received the Sesquicentennial Hoosier Homestead award for 150 years of commitment to Indiana agriculture, according to a press release from the Indiana Department of Agriculture.
Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Bruce Kettler presented the award to Jerry Pittman and his family on March 5 at the Indiana State Museum.
“For generations, each of the families honored today have been committed to Indiana, to agriculture and to their families,” Crouch said in the press release.
“The past year has been challenging in many ways but our agriculture industry remains strong. Hoosier farmers are a big reason why Indiana remains the 10th largest farming state. I was grateful to have the opportunity to present this award to these historic farming families.”
Jerry Pittman, his mother Wilma, his sister Brenda Harvey, his daughters Jerrica and Leigh Ann and nephew Greg were all there to receive the award on behalf of the family.
This is not the first time the Pittman family farm has been recognized by the state with a Hoosier Homestead award.
The family first received the Centennial award in 1976. There’s a sign in the yard of the home on the farm where Jerry and Wilma currently live.
Now the yard will soon get another sign recognizing the Sesquicentennial award.
The Pittman farm was one of 51 farms recognized at the award ceremony. It was the only farm to be recognized from Brown County.
To receive the state recognition, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years and be made up of 20 acres or more, according to the department of agriculture.
The farm must also produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products each year.
Jerry is the fifth generation to farm the land his family has called home since 1867. He plants about 150 acres of corn and soybeans each year on that farm and a couple of other tracts of land. He also has about 50 acres of hay that feeds 10 cattle.
“I am still doing it as long as I can,” he said.
Jerry said last week that winning the award was exciting and he was proud the farm received the award again.
“I am not one to blow my own horn or anything, but I am proud of the fact we have stayed here this long and God has blessed us with this piece of land. It’s been good to five generations now,” he said.
Because the family won the Hoosier Homestead award in 1976 for having their farm for 100 years, the state notified Jerry again of the eligibility to receive the 150 year award. He submitted the application last fall.
After the state department of agriculture checks records and approves farms for the Hoosier Homestead, awards are distributed twice in a year, once in March and again in August at the state fair.
The Pittmans first arrived in Brown County in 1850 when Jerry’s great-great-great grandfather Thomas Pittman moved here from Ohio with his wife and seven children. He settled down the road from the current farm near Gnaw Bone.
One of Thomas Pittman’s sons served in the Civil War and when he returned to Brown County in 1867 he bought the land where the farm stands now. One of the original structures from the 1867 farm still stands on the property that Jerry said he uses to this day.
When Jerry’s great-grandfather passed away, he left the farm to Jerry’s grandfather. His grandmother then left the farm to Jerry’s dad. Jerry is now half owner of the farm with his mother Wilma.
“We plan to keep this farm in the family,” Pittman said.
His daughters Jerrica and Leigh Ann both said they are interested in continuing the family farm. His daughter Jerrica recently built a home on the farm land where she lives with her family.
“We are here and plan to stay indefinitely,” Jerry said.
“I tell people it’s the best place in the world to live right here in Brown County, in Gnaw Bone, Indiana. I would never move. I will die here and probably my children feel the same way.”
