Jackson Advocate

Part-Time Cropper And Farm Hand Earnings Good Living For Family

Being a part-time Sharecropper and hired farm hand hasn't stopped 32-year-old Loney B. Stewart of Clarksville, Tenn., from providing a neat home and a good living for his family of seven, says Bessie L. Walton, assistant state home agent of the Tennessee Extension.

Unlike most sharecroppers, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart do not live in a brokendown, poorly furnished farm cabin. Instead, says Miss Walton, they live in a six-room cottage with furnishings as modern and complete as those in some of the best farm homes in the South, largely because they were willing to paint up and fixup a house they called home, although it was not their own.

So outstanding are the Stewarts in farming and homemaking that they were acclaimed district champions in the tenant division of the Extension Rural Home-life Contest a year ago, winning out over families in eight counties.

But that achievement wasn't easy. Looking back 15 years, the Stewarts recall that they borrowed money to get married, and then moved in with relatives. A year later they struck out on their own as tobacco sharecroppers, living in a shabby house with make-shift furniture supplied by the owner.

In 1946, they moved all their belongings in two suitcases and a box to the farm where they now live. There they slept on the floor for a week until they could make arrangements to buy a few pieces of furniture on credit.

As one of five sharecropper families on the place. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were assigned four acres of tobacco to work on halves. In addition he was promised a day's work occasionally on the landlord's farm.

The first year they had two visitors whom they will never forget. They were John R. Branhan, their county agent; and Miss Margaret F. Harlan, their home agent. "They encouraged us to plant a garden and raise some chickens and hogs for home use." says Mr. Stewart; "that was the beginning of our getting on our feet."

By growing most of their food and selling a few eggs on the side, they came out clear that year, and the landlord gave them four more acres to work, a cow to milk on halves, and arranged for Mr. Stewart to have at least a day's work every week on his large farm.

This start put them in position to consider competing in the Rural Homelife Contest which Miss Harlan talked with them about. They weren't ready that year. but said they would be the next.

Getting ready for the competition,they added two rooms to their four-room house to accommodate their growing family. and converted their old-fashioned kitchen into a modern U-shaped one with plenty of cabinet space. Mr. Stewart did all of the work himself. Next they bought a refrigerator. an electric stove, a food mixer, home freezer and more kitchen utensils. That year the Stewarts won second place in the county and set their hearts on the district championship.

The next year when the judges came around they found an attractive dining room with beautiful chinaware and a set of silverware. Also they found a new sewing machine, a vacuum cleaner, and a washing machine. These additions gave them first place in the county.

But the Stewarts weren't satisfied. They got busy and repainted their home and whitewashed the poultry house and other outbuildings. That did it, says Miss Walton, and the Stewarts were named district champions in December, 1954.

The award was shared by their five children who are all 4-H'ers. They worked hard helping their parents to keep up farm production and to spruce up their home.

The Stewarts are now saving up for a farm of their own. They are sharecropping 16 acres,including a six-acre tobacco allotment, and they usually plant 10 acres of corn for their hogs and chickens.

"We hope one day to buy a piece of land and build a house on it:" says Mrs. Stewart, "we already have our furniture and appliances.