The land had been in Larry Freeman's family since 1873

Larry Freeman
Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell

 

It has been over a decade since I first met Larry Freeman and his wife Shirley Freeman. The last time I visited their farm was a few years ago, when Shirley had her cage-free chicken roaming freely around the yard when I visited them for the first time.  In my last visit to her house, she told me that some animal had eaten all her chicken, and that she was very disappointed. It is my guess that she did not want to go through that experience again. During the course of her farm experiment, she had set up a honey bee hive as part of her research. There is only one guinea fowl that Shirley has now.

They live on a fifteen-acres plot of land that is home to beautiful  horses and cows which roam freely throughout the lush green pastures behind their house. Honestly, I was just curious to see what Larry day  was like on the farm, so I decided to follow him around the farm to see what he was up too. There is a lot that Larry needs to accomplish in a day, so he starts his morning very early. It was 10 am, in the morning when I met up with him, which is late for a cattleman like him. 

He gave me a tour of the fifteen acres of beautiful pastures. Beautiful meadow glistened with yellow wildflowers as the sun glistened on them, as horses freely grazed in the fields while being surrounded by the beauty of the sunshine. He took me on an additional forty-acres where he planned to move the cows later on in the week after we spent some time touring the fifteen acres. His attention was drawn to one of his cows lying down in the distance. He just wanted to make sure the cow was okay. In 1873, his ancestors purchased 160 acres of land on the original tract of 160 acres of land that was located further up the road. It is easy for me to understand why Larry says that with such pride.

"There are few people who can really say that they still own the land in their family since the 1800s? In 1888, my family purchased two hundred acres of land, but what happened to the land is a mystery to me. My maternal 3rd great-grandfather Robert Harrell bought the land along with his son, my 2nd great grandfather Alexander Harrell."

After we arrived, Larry pointed out a beautiful old oak tree that held so many memories for him.  The memories he holds in his mind are something I would like to see visually. The old oak tree brought back memories of playing, climbing, and sitting under it for Larry.  My great-grandmother Emma's homestead in Amite, Louisiana, had an old oak tree, which I fondly remember playing under with my brothers and cousins during the hot summer days. 

Cattle graze the land, feeding and giving birth to calves. Whenever Larry pulls up, cows and calves moo like a chore.Grazing on the new pastures was their desire. It wasn't time for them to rotate into a new pasture yet. There was no end to the ringing of the phone for Larry. In the middle of our day we were interrupted by a phone call and he was forced to attend to some farm matters, and that was the end of our day. Larry understands the power of land ownership. Educating their children and grandchildren about land ownership is a priority for him and his wife Shirley