After the Civil War

After Matthew Russell died while on a trip to Virginia for salt during the Civil War, he left his home and property to his nephew Robert Russell, who continued to operate the store after the war. Robert’s son Avery Russell later acquired the home after his father’s death, and by 1900 he was head of the household as the home became known locally as the Avery Russell House. In the late nineteenth century Campbell’s Station was economically overshadowed by the railroad town of Concord and remained predominantly rural and agricultural through World War II. By 1920 Avery and Charles Russell owned and operated the Russell Brothers Dairy, but after dissolving their joint dairy business in the early 1930s each began his own dairy, with Charles operating Russell’s Seven Oaks Dairy on Concord Road and Avery operating Russell’s Dairy on Kingston Pike. Avery constructed the block building behind the house for the dairy plant. As transportation shifted from rivers and railways back to roadways in the 1950s, Campbell’s Station along Kingston Pike saw renewed residential and commercial development, and after Interstate 40 was completed in the 1960s the area was strongly affected by westward suburban expansion from Knoxville. By January 1980 sufficient population growth had led to incorporation as the town of Farragut. Deed records indicate that Russell Dairy, Inc. transferred the Avery Russell House property to Avery’s son and daughter-in-law, Albert H. and Anna Mae Russell, in 1965, suggesting the dairy business had ceased by then. After housing six generations of the Russell family for more than 150 years, the Avery Russell House was purchased by the Town of Farragut in 2012.

Farragut, Tennessee · United States