The 100 Years Family Land Heritage Certificate of Honor was presented to Burchett Heritage Farm by Commissioner Todd Staples, Texas Department of Agriculture, at the 35th Annual Family Land Heritage Ceremony on June 3, 2010.

Burchett Heritage Farm is located 11 miles southeast of Johnson City on Middle Creek Road (CR 410). The farm was founded in 1909 by Marion T. and Erie V. (Peal) Burchett and is currently owned by Michael and Iris Huckle Lane.

Marion Burchett came from a family of 12 children and Erie Peal from a family of 16. They married on March 1, 1899. After losing their son “Dewey” in 1901 near Fischer, Texas, they took their remaining family, Lyla Gertrude and Alton Williams, to the Bismark Farms in San Angelo in 1904 to care for show cattle. After nearly being engulfed by a Concho River flood, they came by wagon to Blanco County, once Emmett Milton Burchett was born, in 1907.

The farm they purchased had a log house, smokehouse, limestone kiln, and corn crib (which Marion extended into a barn). Marion had been a blacksmith in Sattler so he added a small blacksmith shop. Farm production consisted of cotton, grain sorghum, molasses cane, oats, cattle, hogs, sheep, and turkeys.

Marion’s parents, Sterling and Mary Burchett, left Lee County, Virginia, circa 1869, fleeing post-Civil War conditions. They passed down religious values and excellent work ethics. Marion and Erie’s faith is evident in the many letters they kept from their siblings, describing hard times and how they never gave up as they knew the Lord would guide the family.

Mildred Schroeder Huckle, daughter of Gertrude (Burchett) and Will Schroeder, helped rid an oil pipeline proposed for crossing Middle Creek. She and husband Allen Huckle commuted from San Antonio for farm work. Their daughter Iris and husband Michael Lane retain 120 acres while raising beef cattle, sheep, oats, and haygrazer. Their children Natalie (Travis White) and Leslie (Kenneth Uptain) cherish the “Depression saved” farm.