Welcome to the historical community of Hackberry Bend located in Loudon County, Tennessee
In 1854, Joseph Anderson petitioned the United States Postal Service to allow him to put a post office in his dry goods store in what was then Roane County, Tennessee. He chose the name Hackberry Bend presumably because of the abundance of hackberry trees in the area. Although Joseph died in 1865, the Anderson family ran the post office until 1868, with his son Samuel acting as postmaster. The post office served about 75 families (approximately 300 people) in the area on the north side of the Tennessee River from present-day Loudon.
The Hackberry Bend community was located roughly from Hines Valley Road where it intersects Cardwell Chapel Road to the Tennessee River both south and west. It encompassed about 12 square miles (7,500 acres) give or take. It includes, but is not limited to properties along Hotchkiss Valley Road, Riverview Community (formerly Riverview Golf Course), Vineyard Cove (formerly Loudon Valley Vineyards and Winery belonging to Stan Dylewski), and all the property on either side Huff’s Ferry to the Tennessee River.
Joseph Anderson was born in Sullivan County, Tennessee in 1809. He married Elizabeth McIlwaine Rhea in 1831, and the couple moved to Roane County at least by 1837 where the Anderson family is listed on tax records. Joseph was a very entrepreneurial man. He owned a dry goods store and warehouse. The family ran a sort of boarding house where they fed and housed travelers coming through the area. During the Civil War, Joseph kept in close contact with Union soldiers. Generals Burnside, Potter, White, and others used the Anderson home as a base.
In January 1860, 20-year-old Lizzie Anderson started writing a diary from Hackberry Bend, Roane County, East Tennessee. She chronicled the day-to-day life in the bend and the effects of the Civil War as it raged around them. The skirmish at Huff’s Ferry, the only significant engagement at Loudon, took place on the Anderson farm. The Brewsters have transcribed Lizzie’s diary, written the history around the entries, researched and written the biographies of those mentioned in the diary, and published it all in a book called Cabbages and Caissons – The Hackberry Diary: A Record of Daily Life and the Civil War at Huff’s Ferry.
Note: In 1870, Loudon County was created from portions of Roane, Blount, and Monroe Counties. The lion’s share from Roane. Hackberry Bend shows up on the 1860 and 1880 Census Records. First in Roane County and then in Loudon County.