Mystery Farms Reaches Roberts Switch

Mystery Farms Reaches Roberts Switch

At the 2023 Roberts Reunion, the Heritage Focus was on Joseph Roberts’ youngest daughter, Violet.  I spent a year researching Violet’s life and her descendants.  

While researching, one of my goals was to find out where was Violet and husband John Lee’s homestead located.  Violet was fortunate to draw a Civil War pension from her husband’s Union service.  She used a lot of this money to purchase land. 

Upon Violet’ death, much of her land went to daughter Frances Marion Roberts (Lee) Herd married to Harvey Herd.  The house Frances and Harvey lived in was physically moved when the interstate came through this area.  In spring, you can still see jonquils in the middle of the interstate where the house first stood.  The house now stands on Howard Herren Road and is owned by Mark Herd. 

 While out looking at jonquils, we ran into Mark Herd and discussed the history of this home.  We were very excited to learn that in the attic were still boxed pictures, letters, etc. that Mark allowed us to collect and use for research.  It was items from Violet’s descendants…what a treasure trove! 

While doing this Violet research, we were connected to our cousins living in Michigan.  Lori (Beattie) Taylor and Janet (Beattie) Adamczyk are the 2nd great granddaughters of Violet Roberts.  They joined me on the journey of learning about Violet and shared with me a picture they had of Violet’s farm and Frances Marion (Lee) Herd’s home.

Looking at their photo, I realized that this was a very familiar style photo to one that was taken of the Clavis and Frances (Phillips) Roberts farm.

I became focused to find out what I could about these farm photos.  I thought maybe I could find more photos of farms in the Roberts Switch area which would lead to a better understanding of the area.  I used the internet and the Tennessee Tech University Archives to learn about these Zekan-Robbins photos.  Here is a synopsis of what I learned.

After World War II, our nation started to return to normalcy and the soldiers returning home went back to work.  According to the National WWII Museum, by the end of 1945, the War Department had returned more than four million soldiers to the United States.  Among those who returned, a handful of former U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps reconnaissance photographers found a unique way to use their wartime skills back in America.  These photographers and airmen formed the Zekan-Robbins Company based in Harlan, Iowa. They learned their trade in the U.S. Navy, where they flew in aircraft carrier airplanes in the South Pacific.  This newly created company flew all over the United States taking low level aerial pictures of farms, estates and towns. The Company had a waiver from the Civil Aeronautics Commission for their pilots to fly at altitudes of 100 to 200 feet and get close up views.  They then would sell their images to small-town newspapers and proud property owners.

You might wonder why the newspapers would want these photos.  Part of the Zekan-Robbins Company’s plan was to work with local newspapers on a 52 week promotion called the “Mystery Farm”.  A local business would sponsor this promotion and the area newspaper would publish a weekly aerial photo of a farm somewhere in the county.  Neither the photographers nor the newspaper would know the actual farm in the picture.  The public was asked to try to identify the picture and the farm owner was asked to come forward to confirm it was their farm. People who submitted a farm identification were then named in the following issue and the farm owner was revealed, usually with some added information regarding the extended family or the farm itself. The owner was given the photo, enlarged and mounted.  Normally the person who first correctly identified the farm would get a small prize.

In 1955, Zekan-Robbins Company made its way to Putnam County, Tennessee.  They made a 50 photograph deal with The Citizen newspaper as we see in the introduction of the Mystery Farms contest in the 5 October issue.  The contest was sponsored by Citizens Bank.  The newspaper arranged to have the photos taken in different parts of Putnam County so that every farmer had an equal chance of having his farm picture published.  The newspaper instructed the identifiers to “call, send a postal card or come by and give your answer.”  The first person to correctly identify the mystery farm received a free one-year subscription to The Citizen!  The very first week’s Mystery Farm belonged to Hershal Davis on Route 2 just off of the Burgess Falls Road in Cookeville.  The owner praised the newspaper by saying, “You certainly did pick a good time to make a picture of the place.  We had just completed painting the house at the time.”

I went to the Tennessee Tech University Library and discovered their archives section had the entire collection of the 1955-1956 The Citizen newspapers!  In the VERY FIRST book of bound newspapers, I found the Mystery Farm publishings!  As I went page by page, not only did I enjoy reading the news at that time but low and behold, in the January 1956 edition I found a very interesting and familiar Mystery Farm.

YES INDEED…this Mystery Farm belonged to William Casto and Johnnie May (Elrod) Herd.  I have no idea why the newspaper spelled their name as Hurd instead of Herd.  William Casto Herd inherited the home and land from Frances (Lee) and Harvey Herd. Violet’s descendants Lori and Janet both remember visiting this farm as young girls!   

Here is the farm overhead today with Google Earth view.

I also found the newspaper clipping of my grandfather’s farm; along with many more farms.  I didn’t find any more Roberts Switch farms but I enjoyed learning about this contest.  It certainly takes a little mystery out of the Mystery Farms.  You can learn more about Violet Roberts by going to the video link at the 2023 Roberts Reunion Recap.