This family farm is on Caney Creek Road in Rogersville, TN. Caney Creek runs through the middle of the farm. Today Caney Creek Farm is jointly owned by siblings Frank Gray, Patricia Gray and Richard Gray. Frank Gray has a home on the farm and frequently hosts family on holidays and reunions, Patricia lives nearby in Greeneville but visits the farm many times a week to maintain the ornamental gardens she has added over the past few years. Richard lives in Soddy Daisy Tennessee and visits often. Patricia's daughter, Katy Seib of Atlanta maintains this website and visits as often as possible with her children Noah and Emma and husband George. Richard's son Landon lives in Birmingham and also enjoys returning to the farm for family visits and reunions with his wife Andrea and their sons Henry and Rueben AKA “Rooster”. Below are some stories we have collected over time. Please send your stories about Caney Creek to uralva@gmail.com to have them included in this collection.
Why Across the Knob? You have to go across the mountain to get to it so it was referred to as going "across the knob."
Co-owner, Patricia, is a master gardener has added and continues to expand the ornamental section including a field of daffodils, a cherry tree walk, a boxwood garden, granny’s peonies transplanted from the house on Main Street and much more! Plaques mark where different parts of the gardens are dedicated to family members.
The Story of the Quilt Square
When my grandmother (my mom's mom, Mary Elizabeth) was little, her brother Jimmy died at the age of 3 of diphtheria, leaving Mary Elizabeth as an only child. Her parents were bereft at losing their only son and her mother Ida especially had a hard time recovering from her grief. In an effort to console his wife, Arthur took Ida and Mary Elizabeth to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. There my great-grandmother saw the first place quilt and fell in love with it. It consisted of squares, each one with a different, intricate bouquet of flowers. She made a detailed sketch of it and came home and replicated the quilt exactly, this process helped her work through the grief of losing her son, though she was never the same. It's the most detailed stitching I've ever seen on a quilt and is still in beautiful condition - it's at my mother's house today. On the farm where she lived, which is owned by my mother and her brothers, stands a big white barn. My mother worked with the ladies at the Quilt Trail to get a square from the quilt put on granny's barn which was installed in June 2010 by "Papa" and uncle Frank, mom's oldest brother. Rather than hire a lift, they were able to get it up with a system of pulleys. - Katy, daughter of Patricia
