Rich history, strong family values and respect for those that came before are standards in the Walton Jefferson family.
Walton’s family arrived in Marion County, Ark., in the 1840s. They located just outside Yellville on Crooked Creek. The Jeffersons developed into a large family that spread all up and down the creek. The family was always agriculturally centered and began to raise crops and cattle. Besides having large family gardens, they grew potatoes, corn, watermelons and hay. The families worked with horses and mules until one fateful day in 1941 when a Ford tractor salesman came to Yellville and convinced the five brothers and their brother-in-law to trade in their horses and mule and get a Ford tractor. The men bought the tractor as partners and took turns using it. They ran it night and day and were able to do so much more work than they had with horses that they expanded their land holdings. Eventually, each bought a tractor. The Jeffersons had brought mechanized farming to Marion County.
Walton’s father, Lester, was one of the brothers who bought the first tractor, but Walton still remembers when they used horses to farm and sell their produce. He said, “Dad and I used to go door to door in a horse-drawn wagon in Flippin, selling watermelons.” He also remembers years later, when his kids were growing up, that they pulled 17 loads of watermelons, all of it picked and loaded by hand in one day. “That was a long day,” he said. But growing watermelons is what helped put all four of their kids through college. Now that they’ve all graduated, no more watermelon patch.
Some of Walton’s earliest memories have to do with how he would get to school. His first year, his mother would ride him on a mule across Crooked Creek to catch the school bus. Another time, he had to walk to a little school called Cantrell. On the first day, his momma walked him to school. But in order to make sure that Walton could find his way back, she took an axe and marked the trees so he’d know how to get home from school.
Walton still farms full time, as he has since 1968. Walton’s wife, Sammie, quips that he’s “raised cows since he was in diapers.” Not thinking of retirement any time soon, he said, “I won’t quit till I have to. I don’t do as much as I used to, but I don’t want to quit.”
Walton currently runs a cow/calf operation on 567 acres that border Crooked Creek, just like his ancestors did. He raises his own replacement heifers and uses bulls with the cows all season and lets nature take its course. Walton said he is aware that lots of people put their bulls in and take them out, but he just isn’t set up for that. Most of his calves come in the spring. “It works out good for me,” he said. Then he sells at the auction barns in Harrison and Gainesville, Ark., when the cattle reach somewhere between 500 and 600 pounds.
Walton said in a normal year they put up around 800 to 900 round bales. One of the biggest changes he has seen is in hay production. Walton said, “Putting up hay is a lot easier than it used to be. We used to put up square bales all summer, but now it only takes a week to 10 days.”
Three generations of the Jefferson family have been Farm Family of the Year: Walton’s dad, Walton and Sammie, and their son Bryan and his family.
The farming tradition is still going strong today, with Walton and both his sons, Bryan and Scotty, involved in agriculture. Bryan has a cow/calf operation that borders the home place. Scotty is the Baxter and Marion County executive director for the USDA office in Mountain Home. Both boys said they are a product of their parents’ example and teaching. Bryan said, “I admire the life my dad has lived – envy it, even.” Scotty added, “We couldn’t have been raised in a better home.”
