William Farthing taught school at several locations in our home county ( Watauga ), starting in the 1880s and continued until the 1912--1915 period.

He had a 170 acre farm that all of us in my generation would remember well. He purchased this property in early 1901.It was located on Rominger road in Laurel Creek Township, Watauga County, N.C. Most of this property was wooded and had no buildings when he acquired the property.

He immediately constructed a 2 level house and did much of the construction himself. He also constructed a livestock barn and several other outbuildings the during the first several years after acquiring the property. During the next 25 years, he cleared about half of this property and turned it into a highly productive mountain farm operation.

He developed his own HYBRID seed corn. It produced a higher yield and had a stronger root system than other types of seed corn used in that early era. He also knew how to graft limbs from one type of fruit tree to a different species of fruit tree.

He also knew how to take survey instruments and check boundry lines on land parcels. First cousin, Bill Farthing, related how he had been with our grandfather many years ago, when he would run a survey line for a neighbor to determine if the line was correct. Bill also reported that he knew how to write deeds which he did in some instances.

During the 1930s era, he was selected FARMER OF THE YEAR at least twice in his district due to his inovations in his farm practices. He was "ahead of his time" in adopting more modern farm practices including crop rotation, strip cropping and putting a "cover" crop on land after fall harvest. This cover crop, ( usually crimson clover), provided rich nutrients to the cropland when the land was replanted in corn, or other crops, the following spring.

Laura Farthing was the daughter of Richard E. Greer and Cordelia Greer who had a farm located on the Watauga River there in the same township.

I will mention that LAURA GREER was a first cousin to MARY CAROLINE (CALLEY)GREER, who married Louis Glenn in 1886. My mother, DIXIE GLENN FARTHING, was their third child.(My DAD and MOTHER were second cousins).

Richard Greer died in 1933 and I remember him very well. His wife died in 1904.

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