Time Travel to Smith Family Farm

We’re excited to announce the debut of a new daily visitor experience at Smith Family Farm that’s part of the AHC’s new interpretive program initiative, Meet the Past.

Travel back in time as you interact with historic characters, including members of the Smith family; enslaved men and women who lived on the farm; farm neighbors; and other people during the Civil War. Presented in an authentic setting and based on historical documents and records from the Kenan Research Center, the living history characters share personal stories, perspectives, and highlights of what life was like 150 years ago.

As you get to know the residents of Smith Family Farm, you will truly experience everyday life as they demonstrate – and you take part in – seasonal activities and chores at the farm. This includes work by each of the men, women, children, and enslaved on the Working Farm, such as weaving, open-hearth cooking, blacksmithing, woodworking, basket weaving, sewing, washing clothes, natural dyeing, candle making, crop and garden planting, weeding, harvesting, or food preservation, including canning, pickling, and salting.

The animals at Smith Family Farm are the same breeds that were raised on farms in the Georgia Piedmont in the 1860s. We invite you to come and meet our newest additions: two adult Gulf Coast sheep and their two lambs, as well as the farm’s brood of chickens and rooster.

New open-house tours encourage a leisurely exploration of the Tullie Smith farmhouse as living history characters talk about daily life on the farm. Because of this new interpretation, daily tours now operate from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm on an open-house format, meaning that timed tours are no longer necessary and visitors can enjoy the house and entire farm at their own pace and interest. Nevertheless, guided tours for groups of ten or more are still available through the admissions desk.
 
Please visit us soon for time travel to the Civil War at Smith Family Farm.Learn more: http://ow.ly/l3qVK

From the Archives: Civil War Letter

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Adairsville, GA

May 14th 1863
Dear Wife,
I only have time to write a few lines. Our command will pass Atlanta to day - I am so afflicted with boils I have to go to the Hospital at Rome. I will try + get a transfer from Rome to Atlanta as I would be so glad to see you all before I go to Mississippi where our Regt + the 29th are ordered. We left Cousin Bob Vance sick at Shelbyville. He has Typhoid Fever. I did hope they would send me to Atlanta but they send every other day to Atlanta. I will try and send this by Adjt Harden I will write you when I get to Rome.
                            Affectionately yours       
                                JMD
Marietta
Dear Wife,
Since writing we have been ordered to Atlanta. I dont know what Hospital I will be taken too. I will try + get the surgeon to let me go out home if possible but if I should not get to go, come + see me - I am not sick but badly afflicted with risings and suffer a great deal of pain and it is with difficulty I walk. I am so proud to have the opportunity of getting to see you all once more. I want to get to home if it is only one day. One of our men was killed today running under a bridge above Ringgold. The Regt will remain in Atlanta till to morrow. Excuse haste.
                            Your Husband   
                                JMD

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