This website provides a history of the Wilson Turkey Farm from 1941 to 1991, which operated as part of Valley View Farm near Lewisburg, West Virginia. Photographs, newspaper and magazine articles and a family essay help tell the Wilson Turkey Farm story for the whole Wilson family and for the many others who enjoyed delicious Wilson turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for fifty years.
In the 1940's and 1950's before the large brooder house was built in the 1960's, turkeys were housed in small houses during the first eight weeks. There were ten small houses and one medium sized brooder house. The turkeys were able to get outside in pens during the day.
In 1962 John Wilson is pictured with this house of turkeys that were part of his FFA project. Turkeys are brought home as day old poults and kept in small houses or in small pens in the larger turkey house. There is a heat source and food and waterers. In this picture the heat source is an electric heat lamp in the center of a hover to provide a warm space for the turkeys.
This picture was taken in the large brooder house when turkeys were 7 or 8 weeks old. Mary Bryant, Sara and Ann Wilson are pictured in the background.
This stove was another type of heat source for the turkey pouts. The automatic watering trough is visible in the lower right hand corner. Two birds are getting water.
Claire was about 4 or 5 and was happy to help Grandmother feed the turkeys. The feeders had to be cleaned of litter and debris, then the feed was put in the feeder using a bucket or small container. Purina turkey starter was used for the first weeks and then they transitioned to a combination of corn, wheat and commercial turkey feed,
Claire is feeding six or seven week old turkeys in the long turkey house during the summer. The windows are open to keep the birds cool.
By the 1970's most of the turkeys raised were white rather than broad breasted bronze turkeys.
In 1989, all the poults were whites.
There were nine small turkeys houses and one large brooder house.
The back of the small houses is seen on the right in this photo and the large brooder house is on the left.
When the turkeys were eight weeks old, they were de-beaked using a machine that burned off the end of their beaks. Then they were loaded into the back of a covered pick-up truck and taken out into the field. There were roosts and turkey feeders and waterers in the fenced off area and a few hound dogs were strategically placed around the turkeys so that their scent would fend off foxes. Every few week, the pen and roost wee moved to a new area so the turkeys had fresh pasture. The turkeys remained in the fields until it was time for dressing and taking to market, usually around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes, there was snow when they were again loaded in the larger farm truck and hauled back to the dressing house.
This picture captures the turkeys in their free range on Wilson hillside just below the road. In 1968 there were a mixture of broad breasted bronze turkeys and the new white turkeys.
In the background of the picture there are eight large feeders and a wagon used to haul water.
An article accompanied this picture and detailed the turkey production in the Greenbrier Valley. The article is discussed in a Blog and is pictured in the Section "In the News."
These turkeys are on the range and you can see the large roosts that are placed in the turkey pen for the turkeys to roost on at night.
Genevieve sits among the flock of turkeys in the fall of 1960. There is a roost in the background to the right.
We usually had about three or four hound dogs housed around the turkeys when they were on the range. Every evening we were "going to the dogs" to feed the dogs and check the turkeys. As teenagers, we learned to drive through the fields on the way to the turkeys.
In 1960, these bronze, broad breasted turkeys were out in the field across from Mary Wilson's home. This may have been late August and they were about three months old and three months from market time.
These white turkeys were about 2-3 months old and out in the field by the house.
This drawing appeared in the Lewisburg and Greenbrier County 1990 Calendar in the month of November.
The caption reads: For more than 40 years the Wilson family has operated this successful turkey farm. Its feeding grounds lie within a stone's throw of the once popular "Tuckwiller Tavern" where travelers and drovers found lodging.
There were about nine small houses in this area at one time. This picture shows two small white houses and two small red houses in the area that is now an orchard. One red and one white house remain on the property.
Turkeys were raised in this house along with nine small houses in the area that is now an apple orchard.
This barn was built in the 1950's and the corn and wheat for feeding the turkeys was stored in the upper level. Some of the wheat was grown on the farm and some was purchased. The corn was usually purchased.
Turkeys were taken to several areas of the farm in different years. The pastures benefited from the turkey grazing and the manure.
The turkeys raised on the farm were slaughtered and cleaned and dressed on the farm. The dressing house pictured was built around 1950 and was the site of the turkey dressing operation where turkeys were killed, scalded to loosen the feathers, held over rubber fingers in the picker to remove the feathers, hand cleaned of remaining feathers, cleaned out by removing all the inner organs and the neck, and washed and chilled in vats of ice cold water. After several hours or overnight chilling, the turkeys were drained, checked over and packed into plastic bags for sale. The air was removed from the bags by using a vacuum cleaner. They were then weighed and bagged or boxed ready for customers.
This dressing house was built about 1950 and served as the place the turkeys were killed, scaled, picked, cleaned, chilled and bagged for delivery and sale.
This tom turkey, named George, was sent to Chicago to be compared with the Illinois turkeys. This turkey, ready for market, was standing on a turkey crate that was commonly used to transport live turkeys.
John has his hand on the electric turkey picker. The scalded turkey was held by it's legs as a cylinder with rubber fingers stripped the feathers off of the turkey. It required strength to hold the turkeys over the picker. Later, the newer picker allowed the turkey to be placed inside a large cylindrical machine with rubber fingers that resembled bicycle handles. Here, thebody feathers were rapidly removed as the machine rotated catching the feathers in its rubber grips. Pickers made the plucking process go quickly.
Mary Bryant to the left is cleaning giblets. Mrs. Bostic is at the table working and Fred Friedman and Edith Wilson are to the right. Cleaning giblets was completed after the turkeys were chilling. The heart had to be trimmed and the gizzard had to be cut open and its contents of gravel and food emptied. Then the scaly covering was peeled off--a tedious process. Finally, the giblets were washed and chilled.
Mrs. Bostic is taking the heart and liver and gizard out of the turkeys as they are dressed. The turkeys will be put in ice water to chill after they are cleaned.
The turkeys were placed in large plastic bags and an electric sweeper was used to pull the air out of the bag.
Turkeys were sold to local customers, grocery stores, lumber companies and coal companies for employee gifts, The Greenbrier Hotel and The Homestead.
This article by Delmer Robinson appeared in The Charleston Gazette. Michael's Mart was located in Charleston.
Meadow River Lumber Company purchased turkeys for their employees in December 1955. The price of a pound of turkey was 44.25 cents to 53.25 cents. The difference was probably due to toms selling for less per pound.
In the 1940's and early 1950's the Wilson's maintained turkey hens that laid eggs that were sent to the hatchery in Virginia. Here Sara is gathering one of the turkey eggs. This is a house full of turkey hens. There was one turkey tom, the male turkey in each house of hens.
Edith and Harve and Genevieve, John, Sara and Ann all pitched in to raise the turkeys. Through the years, men on the place helped, particularly Hunter Lephew. And Mary Bryant came to work in 1946 and was there until the 1990's to help feed and water the small turkeys and to dress the turkeys.
Mary Bryant came to work for the Wilson family in 1946 and worked alongside Mrs. Wilson preparing for the new poults and caring for the turkeys from the time they were one day old until they went out on range at 8 weeks. She was the mainstay of the turkey dressing plant because she carefully cut the necks off each of the turkeys without cutting the skin. She also was part of the evisceration and giblet cleaning process. And on the day they were prepared for customers, she gave the turkeys a final once over, slipped them in the bag and took the air out of the bag and fastened it with a twist tie so the turkey looked its best. Mary worked into the 1990's when the turkey operation wound down.
Hunter was an integral part of the turkey operation for most of the years. He came to work on the farm in the 1950's and worked for 50 years. Hunter fed and watered the turkeys daily once they were out on the range. And he was the one who caught them and put them up on the truck to bring back to the dressing plant. He slaughtered the turkeys, scalded them, cut off their feet and then put them in the picker. This was no small undertaking and Hunter helped make it all happen. The turkey operation was just part of his responsibility because he took care of the Shorthorn cattle on the farm as well.
Genevieve helped with all aspects of the turkey operation. Some mornings before school she would get up to help prepare dressed turkeys for going to hotels or stores or customers. This required working on icy cold turkeys on cold mornings. The turkeys were taken out of the cold water and drained. Then cold giblets had to be stuffed in the turkeys before they could be bagged.
Genevieve returned to the farm to help Mother with the turkey business in 1987 and helped in the last years of the operation. She then went to Virginia Tech and received a Masters in Food Science and spent a decade working for Perdue Farms in their food science department, where they developed and refined recipes for Chicken Nuggets, Short Cuts and other turkey and chicken products.
Christmas in 1987 with the Wilson Turkey Farm Sweatshirts
This is a letter from the WV State Prison for Women in January 1955 with the record of the hours that the women prisoners worked dressing turkeys in 1953 through 1955. Between 4 and 8 women worked on 24 days in 1953; 18 days in 1954 and 3 days in early January 1955. The prison was paid fifty cents an hour for the women's labor.
Conrad Mann raised turkeys too and also helped out at Wilson Turkey Farm when the turkeys went out to range. The turkeys were de-beaked and received a shot before they were put in the truck to take out to range.
Conrad Mann helped when the turkeys were put out to range. This picture was taken at Katie Mann's wedding.
Sunday Gazetter Mail, Nov. 22, 1970
Article by Delmer Robinson
The rest of the article appears in a Blog posting.
One of the Wilson turkey toms was pictured on the front page of The Charleston Gazette January 4, 1966, or possibly 1967or 68.
Talking Turkey are Gov. Smith (right), Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglas (left) and George(center. George, a 50 pound gobbler raised in Greenbrier County, is to be flown to Chicago to compete Friday in a National Turkey Federation contest to select the heaviest turkey in America. Several months ago, Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner twitted Gov. Smith that no West Virginia turkey could compete with the Illinois entry--so Smith had Douglas urge turkey grower Harve Wilson of Lewisburg to go all-out to raise a champion. At this session in his office, the Governor made George a member of his West Virginia Progress Corps.
Lewisburg Woman's 'Pets' Provide Many Happy Thanksgivings
This article appeared in the Thanksgiving issue, November 27, 1986, of the Charleston Daily Mail and The Register Herald. In the Beckley paper the title was Rolling Greenbrier farm provides thousands of today's dinners.
Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Wilson owned Nether Mills Farm and hosted a conservation field day.
This article is from the Charleston Gazette.
This was the front cover of the state magazine of The Charleston Gazette Mail in the early 1970's. This is a good view of the barns and back of Mary J. Wilson's home.
These are two remaining turkey feeders used for many years in the turkey operation.
Dressing house and small brooder houses in the background.
This was a postcard of the State Fair of West Virginia of theChampion and Reserve Champion Draft Horse Teams in the Pulling Contest of the Fair. The champion team pictured in the top photo was from Valley View Farm and was trained by Leo Shepherd under the direction of Harve and Frank Wilson.
Wilson Brothers raised and showed Shorthorn cattle. One of the bulls in the 1960's was named Showman. This was a prize winning bull in the 1960's. Shorthorn cattle are red, white or roan.
Photographs courtesy of North House Museum in Lewisburg, WV
Photograph hangs in North House. Inclusion courtesy of Greenbrier County Historical Society.
These turkeys were being driven through Lewisburg.
Photograph hangs in North House. Inclusion courtesy of Greenbrier County Historical Society.
This photo and article were in the Register Herald on March 30, 1995. The photo shows an egg room at B. U. T. A. laying site where eggs are washed and packed for distribution to integrating poultry companies that use the eggs to breed table stock.
