Greene County Fair

02/05/2026

This video was showcased at the Tennessee Association of Fairs Convention in Murfreesboro last month. Our Champion of Champions win for 2024 provided us with this opportunity. The video was viewed by representatives from every fair in Tennessee during the convention's banquet. We are already well in to our planning for the 2026 Greene County Fair July 20th-25th! It'll be Fair Time in East Tennessee before you know it!

11/26/2025

Like many Century Farms, the Kilday Farm on Lick Creek in Greene County, founded in 1898, has evolved from raising a variety of crops and livestock to producing hay and cattle. Amos R. Kilday and Mary Alice Phillips Kilday had nine children, and the family raised grain, hay, to***co, corn, cattle, and horses. Amos passed away just five years after the farm was founded, and when Mary Alice died in 1927, her obituary in the Greeneville Democrat-Sun stated that with the help of her older children, she was able to pay off the farm’s debt “and one of the finest farms in the upper Lick Creek valley remains as a memorial to her and to the foresight of her husband.”

Son Marion Loften Kilday inherited the farm of about 400 acres. He continued to produce the same crops and livestock. Loften and his wife, Junie Smith Kilday, had a son and three daughters, one of whom died as an infant. Loften was a longtime deacon at New Lebanon Baptist Church. The third generation, under son Robert David Kilday, added dairy cattle.

Today, Kay Kilday Hayes, a great-granddaughter of the founders, owns the farm with her husband, Michael L. Hayes. Several generations work the land together. A former tenant house is still on the property, and the family plans to renovate it to use for grandchildren or other family members. Welcome to the Tennessee Century Farms Program!

10/30/2025

Third call to let us know if your farm is still an active Tennessee Century Farm!

If you have NOT already e-mailed ([email protected]) or commented, please do so, and help us spread the word. See details in original message below. Thanks again!!

(Photo is of Bussell Farms, Smith County, TN)

(Original Message, 7/22/25: Hello fellow Century Farm families. Carroll Van West, program director and Tennessee State Historian here. Some maybe have already heard that I am working on a new book about the Frontier Century Farms, to be released by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in the summer of 2026 as part of Tennessee’s 250th. As part of the book, we want to list all current Century Farms by county, and I would like for that listing to be as accurate as possible.
So, please help! We need confirmation that your farm is still in the family, still is agriculturally productive, and still has at least 10 acres of the original founders’ land.
It would be best if you respond to our program coordinator, Krystal Marin, at [email protected]. List both your county and your farm name. And if you know of others in your county that are still active, sure share those too, but we always need the county and the farm name. Or, you can respond to this post in the Comments, but please list your county and your farm name, whichever path you choose. Thank you!)

08/17/2025