Scroggins Family Farm: a proud legacy spanning 138 years

The 2021 Century Farm honoree from Carroll County, Scroggins Family Farm, boasts five generations of family ownership going back to the late 1800s.

“August 5, 1884 my great-great-grandparents John and Phoebe Weston bought the farm from some distant relatives,” began Danny Scroggins, current owner of Scroggins Family Farm. “They got 360 acres for $150. They went on to have eight kids. In 1928, Phoebe had passed away and John’s health was failing, so he cut up the farm into three pieces and divided among his children. The best part of the land was a 60-acre tract where the house was. That’s the chunk I have today.”

John gave the 80 acres to the east to one of his daughters and her husband. And he gave 220 acres across the creek to another son. “The reason he did this was, as they liked to say about him, he was ‘horse poor.’” Danny said. “Everybody got their piece of the farm but it had a mortgage attached to it. The part I have today was given to my great grandpa Hugh Weston.

“I was three when he died and I still remember him,” Danny continued. “The story goes that he went off to World War I and then came home to marry Ica and his dad said ‘you’re gonna live here and I’m going across the creek to build a new house.’ My grandpa Hugh moved in and never left.”

Hugh had five children and left the farm to Danny’s great uncle, Luther Weston and his grandmother, Lucille Scroggins. “Lucille was married to Harry, my other grandfather,” Danny said. “When my great Uncle Luther died in 1987, my mother and father, Donnie and Edith Scroggins, got Luther’s portion of the land.”

In 2012, Danny’s grandmother passed away and he got her half of the farm. His mother and father had already given him their part. “So, I now had the whole farm,” Danny said. “I’m the fifth generation owner of this land and my trust is set up so my kids will get it when I’m gone, making them the sixth generation.”

When Danny turned his application into the folks at the Century Farm Program in Little Rock, he included photos of every single generation since the first owners. “They told me no one had ever included photos of all of the past family members who had owned the farm,” he said. “On top of that, the home I live in started construction in 1910. Every generation, including my kids who are the sixth generation, has lived in that house.”

Danny is in possession of a picture of the entire family in 1907. “All the kids and the horses and everything,” he said. “And they are all standing and sitting in what is today my front yard. The house in that picture burned down in 1909, but it is standing in the same place the new one was built in 1910.”

Originally the old farm had two barns, a chicken house and a silo. “One of the barns and the silo were torn down when my dad was a little boy,” Danny pointed out. “We had a horrible flood in 2013 and that basically destroyed the other barn. So, me and my sons tore the barn down and cleaned everything up. We are fixing to build a new barn, this time away from the creek so it can’t flood.”

When not on the farm, Danny works as a logistics manager for Butterball Turkey, having been in the poultry business for thirty years. He worked in different positions at Tyson for 13 years and then took a job with Butterball. “On the farm I sell hay, I have five horses and run a few calves every summer,” Danny noted. “Because I work full-time

I can’t really do much more than that. I used to have a lot of cattle but with the job I can’t really handle it because I’m so busy. I had to decide what was more important, farming or the job that pays all of the bills.”

When Danny was remodeling the house he came across some hidden treasures from his family’s past. “I kept digging up glass and other stuff out in the yard,” he said. “I even found a horse bit out in the back. I asked my dad about it and he said ‘Yeah, we used to shoe horses out in the backyard there.’ When the big flood washed away the barn we actually found a wagon buried under it! I love finding these things because everything has got a story. I found out they used to stack hay on that wagon and eventually it just sank down into the ground.

“I’m a sentimental guy,” he continued. “I’ve got my Grandpa Scroggins pickup from the fifties. I got my Grandpa Sherman’s 1951 tractor. I’ve got two big craftsman chairs that belonged to my great grandpa Weston. I had them restored to preserve them. I have a rocking chair that was my grandmother on my mom’s side. My daughter’s bed was both my mother and grandmother’s bed. Basically, I don’t get rid of nothin’.”

For Danny, farm life is like no other. And it begins with having a passion for it. “I love the soil and I love the land,” he enthused. “That’s what farming is to me. Just a total love of the land. It’s a passion. I will die spending every last dime I have on that farm. There’s nothing that makes me happier than to make something better. And that’s why I’m so proud of what I’ve done with the house and land and what all the generations before me did, too.”

Danny acknowledges that some people feel romantic about a life on the farm, but many don’t really understand it. “Everybody loves the idea of having a farm,” he said. “They come out on a Sunday and say ‘boy this sure looks nice.’ But they have no clue what goes into it all, how much work there is. People watch TV shows like Yellowstone and they say they want to be a cowboy. Well, that ain’t how it works. You gotta be a farm boy first.”

Danny’s children grew up on the farm and he feels they truly understand what goes into it. “They know everything about living on a farm, and they love it,” he said. “But they also see the time I put into it. I say, if you don’t love doin’ it, you ain’t gonna succeed at it. Kinda like anything else in life.”

Regarding young folks considering pursuing a life on the farm, Danny says: “If I had advice to give anybody it would be ‘keep it simple’. You’ve got look at your wants and your needs. Keep it simple and it’ll go a lot smoother.”

Danny also acknowledges the people who helped him make it happen and keep it going. “There was an old man who died at 100 a couple of years ago,” Danny recalled. “His name was Joel Gibson. He was very instrumental in teaching me things my grandpa with his limited education didn’t know. Between him and my parents, I don’t think I could have made it. I also need to give credit to my bank, Anstaff, its owner Steve Stafford and Vice President Kevin Robertson, who’s my go-to guy. I couldn’t have done it without them. And I’m tellin’ you, if you don’t have a good banker, you can’t do squat.”

When Danny thinks about his life and the legacy of Scroggins Farm, he feels proud and offers up this advice. “Everyone wants to be able to look down on what they did from the great beyond and see they made a difference. I think you should work to do just that. Leave things better than you found them.”