The Thanksgiving holidays are upon us, and while our thoughts turn to planning the family meal it might be interesting to look at history of the Meleagris gallopavo domesticus (domesticated turkey).
America’s wild turkeys were domesticated by Native Americans and gained popularity as the Thanksgiving meal of choice for Americans after Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. But with overhunting and deforestation, they were nearly extinct in the 1930s.
To the credit of the American farmer, turkeys were plentiful again by the 1950s. The Concord Farragut community was fortunate to have two large turkey farms owned by the McFee and Llewellyn families.
Fred T. McFee as a younger man, circa 1950. (Photo courtesy of Matthew McFee)
William Thomas McFee owned a large tract of land on McFee Road, and, after Mr. McFee died in 1939, management of the farm was handed down to his son, Fred T. McFee and his wife Ellen Belle Russell McFee. McFee was quite the businessman, and he became the manager of the First Utility District and Concord Telephone Exchange and their eldest son, Thomas Russell, assumed management. Both Fred and Thomas Russell died in 1986, and oversight of the farm continued to pass along to the remaining children, Anne, Alfred, William Warren and Robert Nelson, with Alfred and Anne being the primary caretakers of the turkey, tobacco and hay crops.
As a child, our family would take Sunday afternoon trips in the car. It might be to travel to the Zesto in Bearden for a chocolate covered cone or to stop at Lakeland Service center for a fudgesicle. But the highlight of the trip would be to talk our father into stopping at the McFee farm to converse with the turkeys. That’s right – converse with the turkeys!
Once stopped along the side of the road, the children would run to the fence alongside the McFee farm only to be greeted by large rafters of turkeys. “Gobble Gobble” went the children, and the beautiful birds would answer back in unison, “gobble gobble.” This banter went back and forth across the fence and would continue for as long as our parents would allow us to stay there. The McFee turkeys were certainly a sociable bunch and I wanted to pet all of them.
Security Mills ad featuring Llewellyn Farm Turkeys, “The Knoxville Journal” June 21, 1954.
The Llewellyn turkeys were not as accessible. One could only view them from Kingston Pike while they peered back through a fence high on a hill. The farm, owned by Frank Llewellyn, was at the corner of Lovell Road and Kingston Pike. Llewelyn was politically active in the community and became the warden at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. Nevertheless, while he had the farm, these turkeys were tasty and supplied many a table at Thanksgiving. I always told myself that our Thanksgiving bird was a Llewellyn brand because I did not want to think of eating one of the McFee’s friendly turkeys.
Our turkey farms are outdated now. The McFee farm was sold to developers in 2006 and is now home to McFee Park and McFee Manor subdivision in Farragut. The Llewelyn farm is now completely resurfaced in blacktop where Costco and Walgreens at Lovell Road are today.
Once again, the supply of turkeys is not able to meet the demand. Ironically, financial analysts are saying that Thanksgiving 2021 could be the most expensive meal in the history of the holiday. This year, because of the supply chain problem, high transportation and labor shortages, turkey prices are likely to hit record highs. And so, it seems that our domesticated bird may indeed have the last laugh.
Mona Isbell Smith is a retired computer systems analyst who enjoys freelancing.