WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — For some, Vicie Mae Brown Edwards was considered the first business woman in Lebanon. And now, five generations later, her legacy lives on.  

Tim Edwards has kept the family business going strong around 90 years later. 

“I was born in 1960 and this is my home,” Tim, Edwards Feeds' owner, said. 

For Tim, he was truly born into this. 

“That's my father there...and that's Granny, Daddy and Pa in the picture...look at that old car,” Tim said.  

Tim’s grandmother, Vicie, first started hatching chickens back in the 1930s for the public. 

“Several people told us she was the first business woman in Wilson County,” Tim said. 

Once she moved to town, she bought two incubators, calling her business Edwards Hatchery and at one point living in the building. 

The business eventually took off, the Edwards bought the current building in 1958, and they continued to sell chickens and eggs. 

However, in 1985, the family business changed course. Tim is now selling manufactured feeds for animals and renamed the business Edwards Feeds. 

“We make all kinds of feeds, form chicken feeds, goat feeds, Alpaca feeds." 

From start to finish, Tim said making the feed is like baking a cake — you need all the right ingredients. 

“All the vitamins and minerals and salt...mainly our goal is for the quality and nutrition,” Tim explained.

The feed then travels into the mixer before the last step, where the food is bagged or bulked. 

For Tim, he’s not only feeding animals across Wilson County and Middle Tennessee, but he's keeping agriculture alive. 

“Oh yeah, we are losing farmland left and right...our goal is to educate people and kids where their food comes in,” Tim said. 

However, what Tim cares about most are his employees. 

“Majority of my employees are making more money than I do,” Tim said. 

For him, the family business is just that, family, above all else.  It's a business motto his grandmother would surely be proud of.  

“Without Jennifer and all the employees, I'm nothing...it's about my employees and the customers and helping them, and when they walk out that door and they have a smile on their face, that is more than any money in the world,” Tim said.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/on-tour-middle-tn/edwards-feeds/