The House on the Corner
I have given several talks based on our book Cabbages and Caissons, which always end with a question and answer period. I have addressed many of the questions on a map we have posted here on the website but there is one that regularly comes up from people who live in the area that amounts to more than just an arrow on a map. “Did the Andersons live in the brick house on the corner of Hotchkiss Valley and Huff’s Ferry Road on the north side of the Tennessee River in Loudon County?”
I wish the answer was yes, but it’s not. However, the story of how the original owners met is a pretty sweet tale.
We know for sure that Pvt. Henry A. Crox (pronounced Croy) was from Philly (the one in Pennsylvania not the one in Tennessee.) He was the son of John (a machinist) and Eliza Crox. Henry was 28 when he was stationed at Lenoir’s with the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company K in October 1863. Susan Eldridge was the eldest child of John Harrison Eldridge and Martha Butler Eldridge. She had six brothers and one sister. She was 18 in 1863. (Lenoir City High School sits on land that was once the Eldridge farm.) We also know they were married on February 13, 1864, according to an entry written in the Tennessee marriage record book for Knox County.
But there are three slightly different versions of how the couple eventually met. All may have a kernel of truth. You’ll have to pick your favorite.
The first story written by Sarah McEarchern Coppinger is from the book Loudon County, Tennessee and its People 1870 to 1999, “It could have been during one particular raid by the Union Soldiers to the Eldridge farm, a future son-in-law Henry A. Crox, was a member of the raiding party. John’s daughter Susan guarded the smokehouse to keep the soldiers from taking the meat. She unleashed her fury against the soldiers and held her ground against them. Henry couldn’t get that lively Southern Belle and her courage out of his mind. And so it happened that one day, Susan Eldridge heard a hesitant knock on the door. When she opened it, she found a tall man twisting his cap awkwardly in his big hands. The former Yankee soldier, Henry Crox had come to court Susan. He must have done a good courting because they were married on 16 February 1864.
Story number two is from the book Landmarks of Loudon County: Its History through Architecture, “While Private Crox was stationed at Lenoir’s Station in October 1863, he was ordered, along with three or four other soldiers, to confiscate the sheep of John Eldridge, whose farm was located on the road to Eaton’s Crossroads about two miles from Lenoir’s Station. When John Eldridge produced his ‘protection from the officer in command,’ Crox’s group of soldiers returned to Lenoir’s Station. While at Eldridge farm, young Crox met John Eldridge’s daughter Susan. Supposedly, Susan was sitting on a huge pumpkin which was covered by her voluminous skirt. Some accounts say that she was hiding the pumpkin from foraging soldiers; others say the pumpkin had been hollowed out as a hiding place for the family silver. Henry Crox must have been greatly impressed by Susan, for he returned to court her. They were married at Concord, Tennessee, on February 19, 1864.”
Story number three is by Henry’s great-grandson, Roger Haun of Macon, GA, “During the Civil War, Henry was a dispatch rider for the Union Army. While carrying messages to the Union forces in Knoxville, he had his horse shot out from under him just after crossing the Tennessee River near Loudon. Trying to hide from the Confederates in the area, he ran across Susan Eldridge who was hiding her family’s two horses in the brush along a creek on the family farm [near Eaton’s Crossroads.] Her father had sent her there with the horses to prevent their being stolen by Confederates since John Eldridge [her father] was a known Union sympathizer. Henry took one of the horses and proceeded to Knoxville.”
We know that Henry came back and got her, and they married. He then sent her to live with his family in Philadelphia to keep her safe until the end of the war. Can you imagine an 18-year-old girl from Tennessee being sent to live with what were essentially strangers? She wasn’t there long before Henry joined her. On July 28, 1864, while serving as a dispatch carrier in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, Henry fell from his horse at City Point. He broke his left arm and suffered a two-and-a-half-inch cut on his face that nearly severed his nose. Henry was discharged on November 3, 1864, due to his injuries and the couple returned to East Tennessee.
The couple bought a farm on Harrison Bend Road near Loudon. In July 1878, they sold that property to the county to be used as a “poor farm.” They then purchased part of the Anderson farm from Lizzie’s brother Sam and built the house on the corner of HVR and HFR. In June 1887, they sold that property to J.K. Ault and moved to Benton, TN. (The Aults sold it to Nancy Johnson in 1809. The Preston family bought it in December 1920.)
Henry and Susan lived the rest of their lives in Benton where Henry operated a ferry on the Ocoee River. They had 10 children, nine of whom were born in Loudon – seven in the brick house on the corner. Henry died in 1912 at the age of 75 and Susan died in 1928 at the age of 83. They are buried in Benton Cemetery.
Roger Haun’s grandmother Ella “Dollie” (later Haun) was born after they moved to Benton. Henry’s brother, Charles Crox, also came South and settled near Lenoir City. Many members of the Eldridge and Crox family are buried in the New Providence Baptist Church cemetery. Roger’s cousin has the sword Henry carried in the war and Susan’s wedding ring. Roger has the Crox family Bible and Susan’s purse.
So, the house on the corner of Hotchkiss Valley and Huff’s Ferry Roads was built by a Yankee soldier from Pennsylvania for his beloved Tennessee bride.
Susan Eldridge
Henry A. Crox and Susan Eldridge Crox