Huffman, George, Farm

About this property

George Huffman Farm, also known as the Huffman-Herman Farm and Huffman-Punch-Herman Farm, is a historic farm and national historic district located near Conover, Catawba County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 2 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site. The main house was built about 1810, and is a two-story, single pile, frame, vernacular Federal style farmhouse. Also on the property are the contributing storage shed and Huffman Family Cemetery. Established by prosperous farmer, wagon-maker and cooper George Huffman, and farmed by his son-in-law William Punch later in the nineteenth century, the farm now lies fallow with most of the acreage wooded and heavily overgrown, yet the acreage continues to provide an appropriate setting for the built resources. The house was built by George Huffman sometime between 1807 and 1815; during these years Huffman acquired the 415 acres which formed his home plantation. Huffman, the son of Balthazar Huffman (1741-1798) and Catherine Wagoner Huffman, was born in Lincoln County in 1780. (Of note, Catawba County was later split from the original Lincoln County area, meaning that Mr. Huffman was likely born in what is now known as Catawba County). In 1801 he married Catherine Houk or Hook (1778-1862) and by 1810 they were the parents of five children; the Huffmans eventually had five sons and five daughters. Huffman was evidently a respected citizen of his community as he was elected Captain of the Eighth Company detached from the Second Lincoln Regiment at the out-break of the War of 1812. Only a small number of North Carolina troops saw active service in the war, and the details of Huffman's wartime experiences are unknown. At the time of the 1820 census, Huffman headed a twelve-member household and owned one female slave. In 1830 he was the head of an eight-member household consisting of only four persons, but his slaves had increased to four in number by that time. Two members of the household were engaged in farming, and one in manufacturing; the latter person was probably Huffman himself, working as a wagon-maker and cooper. Huffman was probably assisted in his work by his sons, Langdon (b. 1822), a wagon-maker and George (b. 1812) a blacksmith. The 1840 Lincoln County tax list recorded the value of Huffman's 415 acre farm as $1,045 and his payment of taxes on three slaves and a stud horse. George Huffman died on December 9, 1848, and was buried in the family cemetery a few hundred yards from where his house once stood. Huffman's will, prepared in 1847, indicates that he died in prosperous circumstances. He divided the bulk of his real estate among his nine surviving children. To his wife, Huffman gave for her lifetime the house and outbuildings, except the threshing machine house and ninety-eight acres. He also provided her with food, staples, farm crops, livestock, farm tools, $100 in cash, slaves Mat and Eve, three beds, a desk, a table, six chairs, and all kitchen furniture, as well as his cariole and horse. Other house-hold furnishings were sold at Huffman's estate sale and included three beds, two candle-stands, two chests, a table, a half-round table, a clock, a corner cupboard, a looking glass, six chairs and a small library of sixteen books, among which were two medical books, a geography book, a law book and a dictionary. Other items sold at the estate sale were many farming tools, four horses, a bull, a threshing machine, a windmill, and slaves Squires and Judith. Huffman's work as a wagon maker and cooper was reflected in the extensive number of woodworking tools and materials sold, such as coopers tools, blacksmiths tools, turning tools, several work benches, wagon wood, patterns, spokes, planks, twenty-three hogsheads and wagon and tent cloth. The sale netted the estate $1,329. Huffman probably served as a local banker as many individuals owed him a total of $979.82 in notes with interest due. Judging from his will and estate sale, Huffman must have enjoyed a certain amount of financial success from his farming and manufacturing endeavors.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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