Ashe County native Fred Colvard officially enshrined into North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame

JEFFERSON — Family members of the late Fred Colvard finally got a chance to celebrate his induction into the North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Colvard was inducted in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a celebration of his life and his agricultural successes had been unable to take place until this month. He was honored at a special event in Raleigh with the two other inductees in the 2020 NC Agricultural Hall of Fame, John Holman Cyrus of Raleigh and Marshall W. Grant of Garysburg.

The Agricultural Hall of Fame was created in 1953 as a way to posthumously recognize individuals that have made important contributions to agriculture in North Carolina and other parts of the world. There are only 39 members in the hall of fame, so being included is certainly a major accomplishment.

“North Carolina’s agricultural roots run deep and our state has been looked to as a model for others because of a long history of outstanding leadership,” said North Carolina Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler. “The scope of contributions all three of these men have made is truly impressive, and it is an honor to recognize them.”

Fred Neal Colvard was born on March 19, 1896 in Jefferson to Christopher and Virginia (Witherspoon) Colvard. Colvard passed away on Dec. 3, 1984 in Jefferson after having lived almost his entire life in Ashe County, outside of his time spent in World War I when he joined the military in 1917.

Colvard was an innovative farmer in more ways than one. Colvard was one of the first farmers in Ashe County to grow Christmas trees. He began planting trees in 1957 and was also one of the first in the area to sell trees outside of the High Country. He began selling Christmas trees at Kroger stores in 1964, as well as other grocery chains including A&P in Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville.

In addition to Christmas tree farming, Colvard owned and operated one of the largest commercial farms in North Carolina, where he produced 200 to 300 acres of vegetables such as cabbage and potatoes. Colvard Farms also employed more people than any of the growing Ashe County factories at the time.

Another key innovation that Colvard brought to the agriculture community was his development of a blight-resistant potato. The Sequoia potato was credited with ending a potato famine in Peru. Colvard had leased land off the coast of Florida and began growing crops of potatoes. Thanks to the climate in Florida, he was able to plant two crops of potatoes in each growing season. During this time, a potato blight was overrunning crops in Peru. Agriculture experts from Peru traveled to the farm to learn about these newly-developed potatoes that Colvard was experimenting with. The delegation returned to Peru with the new potato seeds and were able to successfully end the potato blight in their country.

Colvard adopted irrigation techniques in the area that ensured the highest quality of crops, and he helped develop a two-row potato digger that included a shaker that removed a lot of the dirt while harvesting potatoes.

For more information on Fred Colvard and the other members of the North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame, visit https://www.ncagr.gov/paffairs/aghall/index.htm.