About Us
Head Spring Farm is located in Summit Point, WV. Summit Point can be found on the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Head Spring Farm is owned and operated by David B. Childs. David Childs has many years of experience in agriculture. David spent most of his life farming and has the elite status of growing up on the family home farm that is now among the distinguished list of Bicentennial Farms as recognized by the Century and Bicentennial Farm Program.
Head Spring Farm Mission:
Provide awareness and education for hedging against agriculture market risks while using sustainability best practices to preserve the environment and land in which we farm.
About this Site
This website is focused on agriculture in order to provide a source of information enabling farmers to plan and manage a farming business. It is our hope that is site will become a valuable tool by providing up-to-date information in addition to financial news, reports, risk assessments, and hedging strategies to offset the market risks that face farmers every day. Please look around and provide feedback on our contact page. If there is information that can be added to this site, we will be happy to evaluate and add. This site includes a Soil and Water Conservation section to provide a source of information in an effort to preserve our acreage and watersheds.
About the website engineer
I [Michael Childs] grew up on a farm and contribute much of my work ethic and career success to life on a farm. Although I do not actively operate a farm full-time, I spend time at Head Spring Farm and study the agriculture market as much as possible. I sometimes partner with my father on crop and cattle farming. I actively volunteer to support river and stream conservation and green building best practices.
The importance of education was always an important subject emphasized by my mother, Jeannine Garber. Being a teacher, she believes education is one of several factors required for a successful future. There was never really a choice of higher education beyond high school for her grown children - only which state college they planned on attending. Jeannine sums up our experiences on a farm here, "As a mother, I feel my children were fortunate to have been raised on a farm. They learned so much about their environment, and their responsibility towards it. They also learned the responsibility of farm chores and caring for farm animals and many pets, not to mention the value of money. Even though hard farm work was part of their youth, so were the rewards of enjoying and appreciating the outdoors."
About Head Spring
Head Spring Farm has a lot of history. Based on earlier records, the farm was established in the early 1700's. There are various sources of information and references, but based on a Howell Brown 1852 Jefferson County map, the farm was listed as Head Spring Farm. The farm received its name since located at the head-spring of Bullskin Run located in Jefferson County, WV.
Another interesting piece of information was an event that would supposedly make Bullskin Church the first Presbyterian church in Virginia (keep in mind that West Virginia was still Virginia at this time). On Tuesday, July 20, 1736, a petition was brought into Orange County Court by Morgan Morgan and twenty six associates to state that Rev. Mr. William Williams, minister of the Gospel, had promised to supply them in the administration of his office and to ask that meeting places be established and recorded, one on Mr. Williams' land near his house, and one on land of Morgan Bryan near his house. The petition was evidently granted. Mr. Williams' home was on Opequon Creek over the ridge from the Bullskin Marsh, Mr. Bryan's 2134 acres stretched along Mill Creek over on to Tuscarora Creek, land on which he sold to Daniel Chancey in 1738. The appearance of Bullskin congregation in the Donegal Presbytery records on April 2, 1740 and often later, makes it clear that Bullskin and Tuscarora are the two preaching places for which the license was requested. The ecclesiastical name of Bullskin was Hopewell. The congregation was called Bullskin because located at the head-spring of Bullskin Run and to distinguish it from a Hopewell congregation in Pennsylvania, and also from the Hopewell Friends meeting nearby. Rightly, it was Hopewell Church in Virginia. As far as we can tell, the actual foundation of the stone church exists on the neighboring farm, Roxton Farm, originally owned by the Throckmorton family. More information is being researched to confirm this.