The 120-year-old Moss Farm of Sand Run, in Upshur County, West Virginia, USA, was a village landmark. Founded in 1903, by John W Moss, as a commercial agriculture production, value-added foods, and catering operation, its description constituted the first comprehensive contextual history of a continuously active, multi-generational single-family Appalachian farm in the scholarly literature, of which we were aware. From the late 1800s until the end of the 20th Century, the Moss family played a key role in establishing and developing the community of Sand Run, having migrated from the Shenandoah Valley in the late Antebellum Period and experienced divided loyalties during the American Civil War. Evidence painted an agrarian-oriented, Methodist family deeply committed to their faith, family, health, education, and fellow man. Following its mid-20th Century decline, the Farm underwent redevelopment beginning in 2001. Sources included oral history interviews, primary sources, artifacts, local scholarship, grey literature, and articles retrieved from JSTOR®. Published historical scholarship on Appalachian farms revealed significant gaps, especially contextual histories of farms and farm families. Evidence seemed to support the history of the Moss Farm aligned more with great man theory than social history, as has comprised most Appalachian historical scholarship. Exploration of the Moss Farm’s history also suggested a post hoc hypothesis that, in the area of Appalachia with which this work was concerned, the agricultural economy seemed to have been hyper-local and centered around well-known farmers who were community leaders. Evaluation would require additional studies of family farms within Appalachia and other regions.
