The “Oakland Fruit Farm” was owned and operated by Elijah McHenry Carney and his son James Buchanan Carney. The Fruit Farm encompassed all the bottom land from beyond Elijah’s home (currently located at 4398 Stenberg Road) all the way to Dry Fork Road. They published a catalog of their many varieties of fruit trees, bushes and plants. They tapped Maple trees on Elijah’s land in an area called “Sugar Camp Hollow” off Carney Creek. They sold the maple syrup locally and by mail.
The Fruit Farm had an evaporating house by the old spring on Carney Creek with 2 or 3 wood burning furnaces. The interior was open with stringers to facilitate the drying of the fruit they sold.
All that is left of Oakland Fruit Farm is the old spring on Carney Creek, the family smoke house, and a deteriorated stone foundation of the large barn that was built alongside the Carney Residence. The family residence burned to the ground in 1900 and James Buchanan Carney’s widow (Lillian Munn Carney) built the structure in 1901 that stands there today.
Owner:
Elijah McHenry Carney was born in 1813 and died November 12th, 1892. Elijah’s wife Sarah was born in 1817 and died in 1888. Elijah & Sarah Frensley Carney were Methodists and were married by A.L.P. Green on February 12th, 1835. They both are probably buried in the existing Carney Cemetery behind the house on Stenberg Road, Whites Creek.
Owner:
James Buchanan Carney was born December 3rd, 1858, and died May 16th, 1891. He became a Master Mason on 24 October 1888, Center Star Lodge #409 Whites Creek. James and his wife Lillian Munn Carney were members of Dentons’ Chapel Methodist church on Dry Fork Road where Lillian played the organ and James was the first Sunday School Superintendent. Their daughter (Sarah Elizabeth Carney) was the first child baptized at Denton’s Chapel.
Submitted by Gene Carney