The Wilson Post
LEBANON WEATHER

Cheryl Lewis: Whose land is it, anyway? MJ farmer has answer




I’m sure that as long as there have been land and landowners — we’re talking Garden of Eden here — there has been someone else who’d love to grab some of it for new purposes.

Maybe that’s how the whole apple business started, y’know? Enough votes and imminent domain becomes imminently attractive — to some.

Not, mind you, to Andy Ligon and his family.

Recently, a portion of the family farm in Mt. Juliet that has belonged to his kin and ancestors all the way back before Tennessee was even a state was under consideration by the city’s board of commissioners for infrastructure expansion, mainly a connector road from Lebanon Road to Central Pike.

Makes sense, right? Everyone knows that people are packing into this area and existing roads will be swarmed if nothing is planned to alleviate traffic snarls and accommodate the growth. There’s just one problem — or 234, which is how many years the land the commissioners were exploring potentially appropriating has belonged to the Cloyds/Ligons.

Under no circumstances do the Ligons want to sell or move.

“We’ve been here since 1789,” said Andy Ligon, a local veterinarian and farmer. The land that would be affected is part of 250 acres collectively owned by his dad and uncle. “We’re considered a pioneer farm. This is seventh generation and it’s truly a blessing to be able to say that. There are so many people now so far removed, not just from their family heritage but from any actual farm, that it’s almost unheard of these days. Most people now are separated at least three to four generations from their family farms.

“We’ve got family novels written about our history and can trace our lineage back to John Cloyd, who established this location through a Revolutionary War grant,” he added.

You can imagine how the thought of being separated from any piece of their heritage, through no desire or malfeasance of their own, was horrifying.

“We initially had no idea, period,” he said. “We weren’t even notified this was going on. Thank goodness, my dad is pretty religious about watching the county commissioner meetings. They have about a five-minute comment portion and he was able to ping a few comments together — nothing specifically stating our farm on Tate Lane, but there were hints about where we fall. So, we called and asked if we were going to be talked about; they said no. Uncle Jim showed up, anyway, and sure enough they talked about us.

“All I could go off of was what I could find on the internet,” he said. “There were no comments or verbiage that anyone could know how this would impact us. After Dad called me and I found out, I made a Facebook post on Christmas Day, saying my only wish this year was to save our family farm. I posted everywhere I could find.”

Social media made the difference.

“It just exploded from there,” said Andy. “I’ve lost count of how many different reactions, comments and shares there have been; I’m guessing well over 5,000. It’s incredible. Not everybody knows who we are; we’re just farmers. It was truly heartening that so many people still cared about family farmers. There are over 2,200 signatures on a petition supporting us.”

Last week, the commissioners formally passed a resolution in favor of the connector road shifting to South Greenhill Road in Mt. Juliet. That doesn’t mean no one will be affected; such projects are complex. For now, however, the Ligons can breathe.

“We had pretty much an almost unanimous vote in resolution by the county commissioners that saves our farm,” said Andy. “The mayor was the only one who voted in opposition. His reason was he needed more data to decide whether to run through our property or South Greenhill Road.

“It’s a huge relief.” he said. “The resolution itself is a legal document but non-binding, so the future set of commissioners can always come around and alter or edit the resolution or still vote to run the connector through our farm. It’s very heartening that we do have the support of the community and county commissioners, so we have a little bit of breathing room. It means we have this round of commissioners’ support and we’re so grateful for that.”

“Our family’s original house was built in 1791,” said Andy. “I’m 33 and it has been one of my dreams since I was a kid to restore it. The only thing that has ever run my ancestors off from the land was smallpox.

“We were here first.”

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