The Martin Farm


Philip met a lady named Ms. Martin in a Nashville music store. She heard about the Caravan and that they were looking to buy some land in the region. Her family owned 1,000 acres of land in Lewis County, and she offered that the Caravan could camp there until they found a place to settle. She told Philip that a local named Homer Sanders was caretaker of the property and that we should contact him to arrange a visit to the property. She said he’s an old 

‘moonshiner” and that we should bring him a bottle of whiskey when we went.

Philip and I drove our bus to Lewis County and met Homer on The Martin Farm as the place became known. He was in his 60s with a lean build. We introduced ourselves and noticed right away had a speech impediment. We could hardly understand what he was saying. We learned later that Homer had mouth cancer and had a portion of his tongue removed. We did understand enough and got an idea of the lay of the land during the inspection tour. 

He showed us a meadow and that is where we thought we could park when the Caravan arrived. It was down in a bit of a valley next to a railroad line and under some TVA power lines. We figured there was room enough for all the vehicles. There was an abandoned house just off the meadow. It was gutted, no windows but it had a roof. Homer said he once saw a bobcat up in the rafters staring down at him hissing.

The Caravan left Percy Priest Lake where we had been parked, and in a few hours arrived at the Martin Farm, Lewis County, Tennessee. All 100 vehicles (check #). We were pulled over on Drake Lane waiting to go in. The Martin Farm had about ½ a mile facing Drake Lane and it was filled with the Caravan. When me and Philip inspected the property Homer took us in on a chert road down to the meadow.

Homer showed up and we said “let’s get the Caravan in.” He hesitated, “well fellers there’s a problem.” Turns out Homer and the next-door neighbor Mr. Smith had been having a feud the past number of years. Mr. Smith said the road was his and he didn’t want Homer or his friends using it. Homer neglected to mention this.

Philip and I were freaked out and went to Stephen’s bus to tell him we couldn’t use the road. He just said, “well if that’s the case we’ll have to cut a road in.” We had to cut and chop our way through the woods some 2/3 of a mile down into the meadow. After about a dozen vehicles made their way through the woods the path got soggy in the low areas and vehicles got stuck. That’s when a group of men and women got to pushing.

It was summertime and hot and crowded in the meadow. We had to get up into the woods and shade and spread out. But we first had to build a bridge over a small gulley. We learned how to work with green oak wood that we got from an Amish sawmill. Drill pilot holes before you try to drive nails into it. While that was going on we hired a local contractor to cut a road up the hill into the woods with his bulldozer. With the bridge and road built we fired up the engines and drove up the hill and out of the sun. 

We parked in a section called the Book Farm with Stephen’s bus and the buses of two other four marriages. William M. had been audio recording Stephen for the book Monday Night Class and Philip was recording Stephen for a book to be called The Caravan. MNC got published and Philip made a commitment to record everything Stephen said that could be included in any future books and tapes, so he was constantly by his side during the day. 

 

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