Anderson County

        Located west of Knoxville, Anderson County was established in 1801 and created from parts of Knox and Grainger counties. The county was named after Joseph Anderson, a prominent U.S. Senator and former territorial judge in Knoxville. The first seat of government in the county was Burrville, named after Vice President Aaron Burr. After Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel, and became implicated in a land speculation scheme, the Tennessee General Assembly changed the name of the Anderson County’s seat to Clinton, honoring Vice President George Clinton or his nephew, DeWitt Clinton.

        Once known for agriculture and coal mining as its leading industries, the county was propelled to national prominence in the 1930s with the introduction of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the construction of Norris Dam. During the years of World War II, Anderson County gained national and international attention when federal planners established the city of Oak Ridge, a site for the development of nuclear facilities. The Twin Springs Hereford Farm established in 1805 is the oldest of Anderson County’s five Century Farms. For more information on the history of Anderson County, please go to the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture website.

For a brief historical sketch of each farm, click on the farm name:

Darnell Farm

Fairdale Ranch

Irwin Farm

Lamar Farm

Longmire Farm

Twin Springs Hereford Farm

Map Courtesy of Carole Swann, Tennessee Department of Agriculture

Darnell Farm

Gregory W. Darnell

Prior to the establishment of the state of Tennessee, Kinza Johnson settled and farmed a 640 acre tract in the Dutch Valley community in Anderson County. In addition to his farming duties, Kinza was an active public serviceman by serving as a Justice of the Peace in Knox County in 1799. A few years later, he was appointed as one of the original commissioners for Anderson County.

In 1857, Margaret Jane Johnson, the founder’s granddaughter, married Samuel Peak Moore. As a wedding present, Margaret received some of the acreage from the original farm. Under her ownership, the 323 acres produced cattle, pigs, chickens, hay, corn, and soybeans. The couple had five children. Their son, Samuel Tilden Moore, was the next owner of the land, along with his wife, Adania Dunkin Moore. The couple continued raising the same livestock and crops that were grown by the founder, with the addition of tobacco. Samuel Tilden Moore was a logger and he built his home out of timber from the property in 1896. Samuel Tilden and Adania Dunkin Moore had five children.

After Samuel Tilden and Adania died, the farm’s acreage was dispersed to their children. Although the farm was divided between the children, Samuel Houston Moore, the eldest son, continued to farm the entire acreage because the other heirs lived in other states.  Samuel Houston Moore and his wife, Laura Onetia Burress, farmed the property until their death. Their daughters, Margaret Illene Moore Darnell and Margie Lorene Moore Wright were the next owners of the farm.

In 1986, Gregory Wade Darnell, the son of Margaret Illene Moore Darnell purchased the acreage and the farm house. Gregory and his wife still live in the home that Samuel Tilden Moore constructed in 1896. The Darnells now raise horses, hay, and cattle on the farm.

Photo (top): A trail leading on the Darnell Farm
Photo (bottom): The farmhouse on the Darnell Farm

Fairdale Ranch

Ruth H. Rapier

James M. Hackworth

Kenneth O. Hackworth

            In 1907, Henry Grant Dail inherited Fairdale Ranch from his father. He and his wife H. Ella Prosise had nine children and together they farmed Fairdale’s 250 acres. Like his father, Henry produced the same kinds of foodstuffs and animals, but added the cultivation of tobacco, an important cash crop for all the twentieth century farmers. A prominent citizen of the Dutch Valley, Henry Grant Dail served as justice of the peace and trustee of the Dutch Valley Methodist Church and was a member of Anderson County’s Road Commission and Board of Education.

  In 1932, Annie Dail Hackworth, the granddaughter of William Riley Dail, Jr., inherited the farm in the height of the Great Depression. Four years later, she and her family witnessed an important moment in the history of the Tennessee Valley Authority, when officials joined the power line from Norris Dam to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, on Fairdale land.

            Today, Fairdale Ranch includes only 50 acres, which produce hay to feed the family’s cattle. While Fairdale no longer exhibits the diversity of farm activity that characterized it 100 years ago, the Dail home, a two-story frame house built of virgin pine sills and yellow poplar siding in 1869-1870, still stands as a reminder of the nineteenth century East Tennessee landscape.

            The current owners of the farm are Ruth H. Rapier, James M. Hackworth, and Kenneth O. Hackworth, who are the children of Annie and the great-grandchildren of the founder of the farm.

Photo (top): The farmhouse on the Fairdale Ranch Century Farm.
Photo (bottom): Pasture scene on the Fairdale Ranch.

Irwin Farm

Sibley Ronald and Rosiland LaVaune Irwin

           Two years after the end of the Civil War, Frank Irwin purchased a 150 acre farm on Buffalo Creek on the Anderson and Union County lines in 1867.  The farm was about mid-way between Andersonville and Loyston (now flooded) and was likely a stopping point for travelers.  Irwin and his wife, Elizabeth “Betsy” Baker, had twelve children. They lived almost entirely off the farm on which they raised livestock, grew fruit and vegetables, and feed corn and hay. Much of their produce was canned and they butchered and smoked their meat.  Francis was known for breeding stallions and introducing high quality cattle breeds. The family also kept beehives for the honey, wax, and the pollination of their orchard. Tobacco was also grown on the farm but primarily as a source of extra income to purchase items not easily produced on the farm.

           John Irwin bought 150 acres from his father in 1886. He and his wife, Louisa Jane Craig, had ten children and operated the farm much as his parents had.  In 1908 several heirs owned the property with grandson Shade Inman Irwin acquiring most of the acreage. In 1935 the Tennessee Valley Authority purchased almost 30 acres in preparation for the flooding of Norris Lake which decreased the farm to its present 112 acres. When Shade Iriwn died in 1938, the farm was inherited by Walter Irwin, Lola Irwin Jolliffee, and Joe C. Irwin.

           In 1983, the farm passed to Sibley Ronald Irwin, the son of Walter and Letha Maude George Irwin.  He and his wife Rosiland LaVaune Barringer have two sons.   Craig Ward Irwin is married to Suzanne Plucker and they have two children, Alexander Shade and Jonathan Luke.  Bryan Scott Irwin and his wife Lora Rule are the parents of Bryan Scott II, Andrew Christian, and Cade Alden. Irwin has made a number of improvements to the farm during his ownership.  He constructed a pole barn for storing round bales of hay and farm equipment and single room cabin was built for the use of the grandsons. These two structures join a complex of 19^th century buildings that includes a cantilevered log corn crib and log smokehouse. The farmhouse is a fine and early example of a log cabin evolving over time to its current Victorian appearance.  Irwin primarily ran a cow-calf operation and raised hay until 2008. He then sold his remaining cattle to J. Kern Elkins who uses the farm for his cow-calf operation. The family continues to appreciate and enjoy this land and the history of the Irwin generations who have called it home. 

Photo (left): Irwin Homestead in deteriorating state, not occupied since early 1960s.
Photo (bottom): Cantilevered corn crib on Irwin Farm.

Lamar Farm

Hubert H. Longmire

Hobert C. Longmire

            The Lamar Century Farm is only one East Tennessee example of how the Civil War and the arrival of the Tennessee Valley Authority dramatically influenced the fortunes of farm families. In 1851, Joseph B. and Mary Wallace Lamar established a farm of 217 acres about ten miles northeast of Clinton. Like their neighbors, Joseph and Mary produced hogs, wheat, and corn. Unlike their neighbors, however, the Lamars had a very large family (fourteen children) and they raised mules to sell to cotton gin companies in South Carolina.

            The Civil War directly affected the family. Northern officers conscripted one son, an action which so outraged one of his brothers that he ran away and joined the Confederate army. Northern troops also camped one night at the farm, leaving the next morning with most of the family’s food and livestock. The soldiers also burned the farm’s rail fence.  

            Despite the hardships, the Lamars survived the Civil War and in 1900 the farm’s ownership passed to Charles B. and Lizzie Tilley Lamar. Charles and Lizzie remained faithful to one Lamar tradition-they continued to raise wheat, corn and mules-but ignored another-they had only three children. In the 1930s, like the first generation of Lamars, Charles and Lizzie suffered property losses at the hands of the federal officials. The Tennessee Valley Authority took 111 acres of the farm for the Norris Dam Reservoir.

            Rose Lamar Longmire, the granddaughter of Joseph Lamar, acquired the farm in 1963. Her family continued to manage its 85 acres and use one of its early structures, a barn now believed to be well over 100 years old. The farm is now owned by Hubert and Hobert Longmire, the grandsons of Rose.

Longmire Farm

Robert Irwin

Paul Longmire

            Elijah and Mary Moss Longmire established the Longmire Farm in 1817. Located northeast of Clinton, the farm features a spring around which prehistoric Indians once lived. With their five children, the Longmires developed a diversified farm of 352 acres. They raised corn and some grain, hay, sorghum, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, and horses.

            In 1838, Elijah and Mary’s son Henderson Longmire inherited 60 acres of the farm. Henderson continued the farming traditions of his father and added more land to the farm. In 1873, Henderson’s son Jordan Francis Longmire bought 100 acres of the farm for $1100. Jordan and his wife Susan Jane Irwin had four children. Two of their sons, William and Robert, were, respectively, the fathers of Robert Irwin and Paul Longmire, who acquired the farm in 1963. Robert and Paul are still the owners today.

            As of 1976, a log crib and granary, each at least 100 years old, still stood on the Longmire Farm. The Longmires also managed a diversified farm of tobacco, timber, some grain, hay, and beef cattle.

Twin Springs Hereford Farm

Rushia Farmer

 The Twin Springs Hereford Farm is located approximately five miles northwest of Clinton, Tennessee and was founded by Kinza K. Johnson in 1805. Kinza was married to Sarah Smallwood Johnson and they had eight children. On 640 acres, they cultivated cotton, corn, wheat, blue grass, and raised cattle.

Kinza’s and Sarah’s son, Craven Johnson, became the next generation to own the land in 1831. Craven with his wife Jane Leinhart and their eight children raised the same crops and livestock as the founder with the addition of sheep and chickens. After Craven Johnson, the acreage passed through three generations of family ownership.    

            Rushia Johnson Farmer, the great great granddaughter of Kinza and Sarah Johnson, inherited two acres of the present farm in 1949 and acquired the remainder in 1967. She and her husband W. Clyde Farmer lived on the land and managed the farm, until his death. Rushia still owns the farm today.

            Twin Springs Hereford Farm, as the name suggests, specializes in beef cattle and hay. For many decades, the farm was largely isolated from the mainstream of American life. Commercial water was not available there until 1966 and not until 1972 were all of Dutch Valley’s roads paved.

Photo: Cattle on the Twin Springs Hereford Farm.