LIVE OAK, Fla. (WTXL) — A remarkable chapter of Florida’s history is being brought to light as a North Florida family celebrates statewide recognition for their 139-year-old ancestral farm.
- A north Florida family’s one-hundred-year legacy receives rare and historic recognition.
- The Hemming Family is being honored for preserving land through generations.
- Watch the video below for details about the cost of the land in 1885.
North Florida family makes state history with century-old farm recognition
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A North Florida family is making state history.
"Bringing history together means you bring people together," descendant Pat Hines Mitchell said.
I am neighborhood reporter Lentheus Chaney in Live Oak, where a new historical marker will soon honor the first African American Century Pioneer Family Farm in Florida.
The farm traces its roots to Christmas Hemming, who was born a slave in 1816. He purchased the 640 acres of land for $1,100 in 1885.
Hemming and his descendants maintained the farm through slavery, Reconstruction and into the modern era.
Saturday, community members gather at Southern Heritage Historical Farm, on the now-renamed Christmas Hemming Drive, for the unveiling of a historical marker and a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating 139 years since the family farm’s founding.
Hemming’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Pat Hines Mitchell, says the recognition is long overdue for a family that preserved not only property but an entire legacy of resilience.
“This marker is because of the history that Christmas made when he came here to Suwannee County, and I felt like it was information that I really wanted to share with the public and share with America, share with Suwannee County. Hey, look what happened here in Suwannee County,” Mitchell said.
The family is recognized as the first African American Century Pioneer Family Farm owner in the state and the first to be designated Pioneer Builders by the Florida State Genealogical Society.
Meaning they are the first African American family in Florida to own and keep a farm in the same family for 100 years.
The recognition follows years of research, family documentation, and preservation work that led to the genealogical society’s certification.
“These are remnants, pieces of pots, pans, and buckets that Christmas Hemming, his son Handy Hemming, and his daughter Polly Hemming used,” Mitchell said.
Artifacts like pottery, railroad track, tools, and glass connected to the family’s history have been unearthed throughout the property and are preserved onsite at the family’s museum.
“It’s just given the young men in my family sense of belonging and a sense of who they are, and if I don’t accomplish anything else, I feel like that’s a big accomplishment,” Mitchell said.
The ceremony takes place Saturday morning at 10 on Christmas Hemming Street. In Live Oak, I am Lentheus Chaney, ABC 27.
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