J. C. Williams

There was a time when most farms in Northwest Tennessee included livestock -- dairy cattle for milk and butter, beef and hogs for winter stores of meat.

National magazines abounded that touted the benefits of purebred cattle and swine. Livestock auctions were common occurrences in the rural South and drew enormous crowds of spectators. The business of farming changed rapidly, however, in the decades following World War II. Mechanization forced thousands of workers out of the farm fields and into urban areas. Improvements in transportation and the proliferation of supermarkets eliminated much of the need for "self-reliance" on the American farmstead. Also, government regulations tightened regarding the slaughter of livestock and the processing of meat, making it less cost-effective to raise animals for personal consumption.

Ultimately, the number of livestock operations in the region dwindled to near zero. Other than the occasional hog or calf raised by a 4-H member in Lake County, for example, owning herds of livestock became a thing of the past.

But in the last year, a unique livestock operation has reappeared in the small community of Wynnburg between Tiptonville and Ridgely. It is built primarily around a strain of purebred beef cows prized in Europe for the leanness of their meat -- the Limousin (pronounced limousine). Alongside this stately herd prance some of the smallest farm animals in the world, Nigerian dwarf goats. In Africa these creatures provide milk that is often used to manufacture a high grade of natural soap. In America, they are primarily sold as pets.

The owners of the Wynnburg farm are J.C. Williams, a pharmacist and longtime resident of Tiptonville, his wife, Anna Marie, his son-in-law Kelley Owen, and daughter Deanna Owen. For J.C., this is a return to the days of his youth when he was an ardent FFA member at the old Ridgely High School.

"I was in the FFA throughout my high school career," Williams said. "As projects we raised hogs and cattle."

Williams' father, Jasper C. Williams, was a farmer and grocery store owner in Ridgely for many years and J.C. was born in that town in January of 1942. Much of his life, his family lived on Sand Street and maintained a large barn for mules.

"My father farmed with mules," Williams recalled. "He didn't believe in tractors. He would only use them to take cotton to the gin."

Throughout his youth, J.C. loved and cared for animals: cats, dogs, mules, hamsters, horses, even a flying squirrel.

"If there was a hurt dog in the neighborhood, I would take it home, heal it up and keep it," J.C. stated. His career with farm animals ended abruptly as he left for college in 1960. He attended the University of Tennessee at Martin and then UT Memphis where he studied pharmacy. From the time he had been in the ninth grade, J.C. worked in a drugstore, City Drug of Ridgely, and had always known that he wanted to pursue that profession.

It was while he was studying in Memphis that he met his wife, Anna Marie, a native of Halls. After a brief stint as an inspector with the Public Health Service in New Orleans, he returned to Lake County and began to work at Tiptonville Drugstore.

In 1976 he and a friend from Newbern, Jarrell Thornton, a fellow pharmacist, purchased the drugstore where he was working and renamed it Health Mart. They also own Newbern Discount Drugs. The Tiptonville store was moved to its current location in what once had been a five-and-dime in 1984.

J.C. instilled his love of animals into his daughter, Deanna, who studied agriculture at Murray State University in Kentucky. While on an internship assignment in animal science at the Eastern Nationals cattle show in Murfreesboro in 2000, she met her future husband Joseph "Kelley" Owen, who was there to show a prize Limousin bull. The couple married almost a year, to the day, later. Like J.C., Kelley had been raised in high school ag programs in Georgia. While he and his father operated an auto paint-and-body shop, they also raised Limousin cattle as a sideline. When Kelley and Deanna moved to Tennessee, Kelley purchased his father's interest in the livestock operation and moved it to Lake County.

"We had a difficult time finding land in Lake County," J.C. remembered. "We looked everywhere. Finally the David Keefe farm came open."

The 50-acre tract now includes a modern barn and other sheds that house 35 Limouisin calves, cows and bulls. There are nine Nigerian Dwarf goats. Kelley bought four in Georgia, two in Middle Tennessee and raised three at the farm in Wynnburg.

The entire family works at the drugstore in Tiptonville and in the mornings and evenings, Kelley and Deanna are usually at the livestock farm caring for animals, which includes training them for the show ring.

"The cattle-show season begins in June or July and goes into February," J.C. explained. The young people pack animals into trailers and take them across the country in order to interest owners of beef operations in the line of Limousin raised in Wynnburg.

"Limousin are used to improve mixed herds of cattle used for meat production," said Kelley. They recently sold a bull that was the Dixie Nationals Reserve Grand Champion. Such animals produce calves with mixed-breed cows that are stronger and have leaner, better-tasting cuts of meat. After years of working the biggest cattle shows of the Southeast, Kelley is convinced the Limousin are the best line of purebreds for improving beef herds.

J.C. said he was happy to have another chance to raise livestock again, but his real goal was to support his daughter and son-in-law in the business.

"I hope to work 10 more years as a pharmacist, then, when I retire, I plan to do more at the farm," J.C. said.