Sharpsburg, GA |
The sun has been rising over this piece of Coweta County for a long time. And on most mornings, like so many before it, there’s work to be done. For David Stanford, that’s just life on the farm — but look past the cows, the barns, and the daily routine, and there’s a story here that began long before David.
“Back when the farm was started, they purchased a place in 1883 from my great-grandfather. It was 202 and a half acres given out in the land lottery — they didn’t receive it in the lottery, but they bought it from somebody who did,” Stanford said. “It was just a farm they were struggling to make a living on, growing cotton and corn and raising whatever it took to feed the family.”
More than 140 years later, the farm has certainly changed. Some of the original land left the family along the way. But David has spent part of his lifetime working to bring some of it back — and when you walk the property today, there are still plenty of reminders of where it all began.
“Part of the farm was divided between two brothers and some of it got away. But I’ve bought some of it back — we’ve got about 110 acres of the original 202,” Stanford said. “I own the spot where the original home place sat. I still have my great-great-grandfather’s house. I still have my great-grandfather’s house. It has stayed the same, but it has changed a little bit too.”
Keeping a farm in the family is one thing. Keeping it a working farm, generation after generation, in a county where open land continues to compete with growth and development, is something else entirely. But ask David if selling ever crossed his mind, and the answer comes without hesitation.
“It’s never crossed my mind. I always look at it as my granddaddy gave it to me, and it was my job to pass it along to somebody else. I’m just looking after it for him,” Stanford said. “It’s something that’s been in the family so long. I grew up on it, my mother grew up on it, my grandfather and great-grandfather. I just don’t want to be the first one to sell it.”
David isn’t working alone. Sons Thomas and Tyler have been part of this farm almost as long as they’ve been able to walk — and the generation after them has already arrived. David’s first grandchild, Lucas, is now in the picture, and the look on David’s face when he talks about him says more than words can.
“There’s no words to describe it. No words to describe it,” Stanford said.
In 2025, that generational commitment earned the Stanford family official recognition. Stanford Farm at the Martin Home Place was named one of Georgia’s Centennial Family Farms — an honor reserved for working farms that have remained in the same family for at least one hundred years. David is quick to give credit where it’s due.
“My wife done all this hard work — she got all the pictures together, looked up the paperwork, whatever it took to sign up for this. She done all the footwork,” he said.
Over the course of more than a century, just about everything around a family farm can change. The roads, the neighbors, the equipment, the way farmers do business. But for the Stanfords, the goal has stayed simple: keep the land working and keep it in the family. And if the generations who started all of this could come back and see it today, David has a pretty good idea what they’d think.
“I think they’d be most proud that it’s still here. They can look back and see the house they lived in is still here, some of the barns. The older home place isn’t there anymore, but there’s a modern house in its place,” Stanford said. “I think they’d be really proud that it’s still here — and it’s still a farm.”