Durbin Farms Market was named the Chilton County Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year on Tuesday. The award was handed out during the 2010 Annual Banquet. Danny Jones accepted the honor on behalf of Durbin’s.

As early as the 1930s, Mary Bratton’s family planted the first orchards on land that would come to be known as Durbin Farms. Mary Bratton married Marvin Durbin several years later, and the couple would eventually purchase the farm from Bratton’s parents.

Under their guidance, the farm grew, and a retail market was opened on Highway 31. When Interstate 65 was built in the 1960s, Durbin’s moved to its current location.

When Marvin Durbin died in 1994, the market was sold to business partners Steve and Janis Wilson. It was sold again in 2001 to Andy and Christy Millard and then to its current owners Danny and Judy Jones in 2005.

The chamber also honored its Youth Citizen of the Year. That award and a $1,000 college scholarship went to Jana Davenport of Jemison High School. Other nominees, who received a $100 savings bond, were Jerica Gibson, Chilton County High School; Keela Ray, Isabella High School; Heather Chambers, Maplesville High School; Brittany Curtis, Thorsby High School; and Abreia Bulger, Verbena High School.

Davenport is competing this week in the Alabama Junior Miss Scholarship Pageant, so her father, Shawn, accepted the award.