  oday's
Sweetwater Plantation derives
from an original head-right land grant of three hundred acres
to Frank Adkins' great-great-great-great grandfather, Daniel
Adkins in 1770. The plantation became a tract of a few thousand
acres by the mid-1800's under ownership of Daniel's son, and
Frank's great-great-great grandfather, Reverend Aaron Adkins.
It was a self sustaining farm which prospered in the production
of food crops, cotton, and livestock.
 With
the coming of the civil war and then reconstruction, the
once large estate was eventually broken up through inheritance
and the sale of the property into several smaller tracts.
Frank feels fortunate in being able to get back a large
piece of his family's history with his purchase of Sweetwater
and is dedicated to continuing agricultural practices on
the property.
Sweetwater Plantation has had
a rich and diverse agricultural past having been a producer
of cotton, tobacco, food crops and, of course, cattle. On
February 1, 1993 Frank purchased the property from the Van
Rautenkranz family who had been pioneers in the establishment
of Limousine cattle in this country. Frank changed production
to a commercial cow/calf operation using Limousine bulls.
 In
1996 under new management of John Gillis the Limousine were
ushered out and replaced with angus
bulls which delivered higher quality and more profitable
calf crops than the previous bulls. In 1997 Frank and John
made the decision to go into the production of high quality
Registered Black Angus seed stock.
Experimenting with crossbreeding
Wagyu and Angus
cattle began in 2004 and in 2006 the first full blood Wagyu
cattle were added to the beef program.
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