For brothers Joe and Jimmy Gillis, farming is just a way of life.
They know the fields like the callouses on their hands.
They know life on Gillis Farms out west Fayetteville way, and while those rural days of agriculture farming have changed, their love for the land remains timeless. Mornings come early on the farm for this ninth generation of farmers, and the days end late.
And so it was on the May 9 morning when Joe Gillis arrived at the farm to see so many family members gathered.
“Oh, hell, somebody has died,” Joe Gillis says he was thinking to himself. “Everybody’s standing there. Then my brother, Jim, and sister, Jane, and my wife, Betty, come dragging up, and I thought for sure somebody had died. I stepped out of my truck and asked what was going on. They said, ‘Oh, we’ve got a birthday present for you.”
It was Joe Gillis’ 76th birthday, and did the family ever have a surprise for the Gillis Farms patriarch out by the barn with the U.S. flag that covers the aluminum roof.
Jared Nucci, the “farm ramrod,” as they call him, would join with Katie Tisdale, who works in the office, to present Joe Gillis with the North Carolina Bicentennial Farm certificate that was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper; Steve Troxler, the state commissioner of agriculture; and G. Kent Yelverton, manager of the N.C. State Fair.
“For engaging in the business of agriculture and maintaining the family farm on the same property for more than 200 years,” the certificate reads, “lending to the rich agriculture heritage of this great state.”
Gillis Farms Inc., according to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services website, is the first Cumberland County farm recognized as a Bicentennial Farm.
“Agriculture has been the foundation of our state since its beginnings and continues to be the economic driver of our economy at $103.2 billion,” Troxler says. “Farms like the Gillis farm are pretty rare, and to be able to keep a farm in a family for 200 or more years is a true testament to their dedication to the land and their commitment to agriculture.
“That is especially important today when we continue to lose farm and forestland to development. Farmland offers us the ability to feed ourselves and provides open and green space that makes our state attractive while providing ongoing environmental benefits. That adds up to a pretty significant contribution over the course of 200 years.
“The Gillis farm is one of just 118 Bicentennial Farms recognized in the state and the only one in Cumberland County,” Troxler says. “We are proud this farm remains in the Gillis family and continues to carry on the family’s farming legacy.”
Joe Gillis says the Gillis family is grateful.
It’s an honor, Gillis says, he shares with brother Jimmy Gillis, sister Jane Gillis Turner, cousin Judy Gillis DiBacco and her late brother Mike Gillis, and Mike Gillis’ son Mark Gillis; his late father, former Cumberland County Commissioner J. McNatt Gillis; his mother, Mary Stewart Gillis; his late uncle Malcolm Gillis; and every Gillis or tenant farmer who has been a part of the 442 acres dating back to June 4, 1816.
And John Gillis Jr., the oldest of the Gillis brothers who died at age 77 on July 22, 2020.
“He would help with keeping paperwork on the farming operations,” Joe Gillis says, and he was there when Joe Gillis ventured into homebuilding.
Johnny Gillis could not work the fields, the family says, because of asthma.
“He’s the one who carried on the civic work and permits. He did the running to the planning board.”
‘You got it’
If you are a part of the Gillis lineage — to include David Gillis, the farm owner from 1816 to 1884; John Gillis, the owner from 1884 to 1902; William Gillis, the owner from 1902 to 1911; Maude Gillis, the owner from 1911 to 1933; M.D. Gillis, the owner from 1933 to 1984; J. McNatt Gillis and Malcolm D. Gillis, owners from 1984 to 1993; and current owners Joe and Jimmy Gillis — you and the late Johnny McNatt Gillis Jr., Jane Gillis Turner, the late Roy Turner, Ruth Folger Gillis and Betty Gillis are all, says Joe Gillis. a part of the Bicentennial Farm designation.
Jared Nucci and Katie Tisdale got the idea in January of having the farm recognized for its two centuries, with Tisdale tracing the farm’s history. They submitted the application to the N.C. Agriculture Commission in March.
“We called, and they said, ‘You got it,’” says Nucci, 32. “We were excited because we were the first in Cumberland County to receive the award. We were pretty excited. You could say we were jumping up and down.”
A time to remember
You have to know the Gillis folks out there along Galatia Church Road that runs just off Gillis Hill Road, and where Galatia Presbyterian Church on a Sunday morning is as important as the farmland that has so long been a part of their DNA.
They are down-to-earth and unpretentious folks, what those who have come to know them and their kinfolk better still would call salt-of-the-earth. They’ve never forgotten where they came from or how they were reared.
“Tobacco was the main thing we worked,” Joe Gillis says about his early days working the fields under his late Uncle Malcolm Gillis, who managed the farm, while Joe Gillis’ father, J. McNatt Gillis, managed Southern Gin & Grain downtown. “We grew cotton and mainly soybeans. We thought we were having fun.”
No time for lollygagging, either, under Malcolm Gillis.
“He was always saying, ‘Come on, get in a hurry,’” Judy Gillis DiBacco says with a fondness about her daddy. “He drove ’em hard.”
Thursday was a day for reflection out Gillis Farms way.
“He would be proud of it,” Joe Gillis says about his father, the late J. McNatt Gillis, who would serve as a county commissioner for 35 years from 1950 to 1974, 1976 to 1986, and a final term in 1988.
Beyond proud, Jane Gillis Turner says.
“My daddy would be proud of all the hard work the boys have done through the years,” says Turner, whose late husband, Roy Turner, managed Southern Gin & Grain but spent his share of time on the farm, too. “Daddy would be proud of all of us, and as he was his ancestors.”
Home is where the heart is
Life has changed somewhat out along Gillis Hill and Galatia Church roads, where you’ll find Westin Shopping Center on Raeford Road anchored with Walmart, Lowe’s, Holiday Inn Express and fast-food eateries by the numbers at Cotton Square, which Joe Gillis built. “But we never put up a sign calling it that,” he says with something of a wry laugh.
The old Gillis & Lindsay Store that Jimmy Gillis managed for so long became Lake Rim Garden & Lawn but is now shuttered, just like Southern Gin & Grain downtown. Down the way, they don’t crop tobacco any longer at Gillis Farms.
“Soybeans — that’s all we got planted this year,” Joe Gillis says, but not to forget the coastal Bermuda hay and wheat straw and the pecan orchid. “Most of it is sold locally. The pecans go to the Raleigh Farmers Market. The soybeans go to Cargill in east Fayetteville. We used to grow green beans. We still do corn and cotton alternate years. It’s all become more mechanized. We now have machines that do that hand labor we use to have to do.”
Brother Jimmy Gillis nods in agreement.
“Hand labor is almost none,” he says, “and mechanization and technology have changed things.”
Joseph Gillis Jr. concurs with his father and uncle.
“Our crops have changed over time,” he says. “With Gillis Farms Inc. over the last six years, we have gradually ramped up production of wheat straw. In fact, we have shipped out wheat straw to 25 states to stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. We also supply local construction and landscaping companies with wheat straw they use for erosion control and seeding. Our operation is currently going through a new phase of growth with our wheat straw production, moving toward electrification of our production line. Moving from using several tractors to bale the wheat straw to using electric motors and hydraulics on our baler conveyor system that my dad designed and built. This will not only be a plus for helping the environment by using less diesel, but it will make production safer and more efficient.”
Changes, yes, but where you call home is where you’ll find the heart of the Gillises.
“We’ve adapted,” says Jimmy Gillis, 79, “and held on to the home property, and our daddy would be glad we did.”
There were, Jane Turner says, good times and tough times along the way.
“And everybody worked hard to keep it,” she says. “Daddy said we had tough times in the ’80s and before. And we got through it.”
The legacy of Gillis Farms resonates with Lisa Benzaquen Childers, extension agency director for Cumberland County.
“Agriculture has been important to Gillis Farms for over 200 years, and Gillis Farms has been important to Cumberland County agriculture for 200 years,” Childers says. “Generation after generation has adapted to the ever-changing urban landscape of Cumberland County. This is a family that takes great pride in their farm and has been good stewards of the land. From plows and mules to transitioning from a tobacco-driven economy into row crops and wheat straw, this farm family has had the foresight to successfully evolve with the agriculture industry. Yet, the passion and commitment they have to the land and community has remained unchanged, ensuring the next generation is positioned to continue the spirit of Gillis Farms.”
Epilogue
Joe Gillis sits on a sofa in the homeplace of his late paternal grandparents, Malcolm Dobbin Gillis and Elizabeth Harmon Gillis, just down from the barn.
“It all boils down to the family keeping things together and keeping the faith in the good times and the bad,” Joe Gillis says. “And it’s going to stay a farm for the foreseeable future.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
