OLD FARM DAY - Fluvanna County, Virginia - Celebrating our Farming Heritage
Saturday, October 4, 2008 - Palmyra, Virginia
2010 Co-Chairs: Susan Swales, Jerry Spray and Cindy Ann Trentacosta About Our Location - Pleasant Grove In June of 2004, the house and five surrounding acres were approved and designated for entry in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service. The house and sixty acres have been designated a preservation area by the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors. 
This year marks the 15th Annual Old Farm Day. It began as an idea of the Fluvanna Historical Society’s Museum Committee to showcase antique farm equipment and old farming techniques with displays and demonstrations. John May (pictured on left in yellow hat), was then a member of the Museum Committee and one of the originators of this idea. He has been an avid collector of antique farm implements and has a vast knowledge of Fluvanna’s farming history. Much of his collection, but not all, is what one will see at Old Farm Day.
Over the years, Old Farm Day has expanded to become Fluvanna County’s premier community event held on the first Saturday of each October. As many as 7,000 people have attended in years past, and each year the events and attractions grow. The Old Farm Day Committee of the Fluvanna Historical Society now works year-round to plan and coordinate this much anticipated annual event. However, the Committee could not present this great event without the help of all the volunteers. The Old Farm Day Committee thanks each of them!
2010 Committee:
Everett & Mary Haney, Linda Layne, John May, Billy Melton, Marvin Moss, Judy Michelson, Garland Nuckols,
Jacques Ruch, David Sagarin, Glenn Schumaker, Ruby Schumaker, Frank Signoretti, John Thompson,
David & Mary Tilman, Lin White, James Winsett, and Patience Wood.
Old Farm Day is held at “Pleasant Grove,” a nearly 1000-acre tract of land purchased by Fluvanna County in 1994. The land represents a portion of what was originally acquired and settled by the John Haden family during the l760’s. Haden’s total land acquisitions amounted to over 3600 acres along the Rivanna River, Burke Creek and Cunningham Creek. The earliest family houses on the property were close to the Rivanna River, for the river provided the primary means of transportation in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Over the years, succeeding generations of Hadens lived and worked on the land at Pleasant Grove. The house that stands now was built in 1854 by William D. Haden, great-grandson of the first John Haden. In 1860 it was recorded that William Haden owned 13 horses, 8 mules or oxen, 18 milk or beef cows, 60 sheep, and 50 hogs. On the larger parcels of farmland, he raised 1600 bushels of wheat, 2100 bushels Indian corn, 400 bushels oats and 20,000 lbs. of tobacco. The smaller parcels provided many bushels of peas, beans and Irish and sweet potatoes to feed his large family and 30 slaves. (Fluvanna County Historical Society Archives)
