Farm & family

The beginning of our story starts in the 1800’s in Saxony, Germany. Long ago, this area was a hotbed of the revolutionaries who took part of the May Uprising in Dresden. During this time, in 1844 the East Tennessee Colonization Company promoted land sales in the Cumberland region. During this time, they targeted immigrants from the kingdom of Saxony who were attempting to flee poor economic conditions and the constant threat of war. During this time Christian F. and Johanna Heidle immigrated along with Saxony family friend Carl Augustus Weigel across the Atlantic Ocean on a small boat for three months to come to America. 

The Heidle’s settled on a large piece of property in what is now Eastern Tennessee. The family had eight children. In July 1845, the largest contingent tracts were located at the southwest end of Bird Mountain on a minor plateau between Crooked Fork Creek and Emory river. Part of that land was owned by the Heidle family. There Guenther established a center of a settlement with the popular German name “Wartburg” in memories from the mountain fortress in Wartburg, Germany. 

The Heidle's had a son named Ed Heidle, he is the grandfather of Love Heidle. Love Heidle is the father of Margaret Heidle who married James Howard Gibson. Love practiced many types of farming but mainly specialized in meat processing, dairy, and operating saw mills. Love farmed the property and took care of the land on Liberty Road for years. The house that Margaret Heidle was born in still stands to this day, Love built the house from lumber he cut and saw milled on the property for his family. Crooked Fork Farms in the 1930s was diversified, growing a variety of crops in the fields, vegetables in the garden and fruit in the orchards. Love usually raised chickens, eggs, hogs, and cattle, as well as keeping horses and mules for work, and sometimes kept bees and harvested the honey but one of Loves most wanted products was his Strawberry, Blackberry, and  Muscadine wine while Mina loves wife baked her own breads, made cheese and many other farm goods. Years later, Love and Minas daughter Margaret and her sons Mark and James would start to rebuild the farm and the property. After retiring from a long career in iron fabrication, Mark returned to the property to reintroduce farming principles to the land. Mark, "Paw" is known for his ability to fix anything. 

This is the beginning of the Crooked Fork Farm Family as we know it, as history began and all the potential it holds in store.