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Commission hears staff presentation on Corbett family and Black tenant-farming history
Summary
Staff presented the history of Burrie “Doc” Corbett and his family’s Black-owned farming operations in the Carr community, noting Corbett amassed more than 800 acres by 1963, used tenant farming and tobacco production, and was photographed by Farm Security Administration photographer Marion Post Wolcott; family photographs are in the Library of Congress.
Staff presented a historical overview of the Corbett family and the prominence of Black tenant farming in the Carr community in northwestern Cedar Grove Township.
Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator, described Burrie “Doc” Corbett (1879–1963), who began as a small-scale Black farmer in the early 20th century and expanded his holdings to more than 800 acres by the time of his death in 1963. Sandbeck said Corbett’s operation used the tenant system and that tobacco production was a major factor in the farm’s prosperity in the 1930s.
Sandbeck noted that Marion Post Wolcott, a photographer working for the federal Farm Security Administration, documented Corbett’s farm in the late 1930s; those images are now held by the Library of Congress. Staff said they met with a Corbett family great-grandson, Chad Corbett, who showed staff one of the family’s tenant houses as part of the research.
The presentation was informational; the commission did not take formal action on the historic-property research during the meeting. Commission members discussed the significance of Black landownership and tenant-farming systems in the county’s agricultural history and the extent to which tobacco supported farm economies in that era.
The commission’s staff will continue research and documentation efforts as part of the commission’s work program.
