A home birthed in the era of the first Cas Walker's Cash Store and a slower simpler life.
This home was very large, well-built, and contained a ton of character for a rural East Tennessee in 1925. The Hodges built this home and owned a huge track of land around it with a working farm and a ferry that used to cross the French Broad river. Just a little over a half mile south from this home, down Hodges Ferry Road, you can see where the ferry used to be.
“Hodges Ferry
The Hodges Ferry succeeded the Underdown Ferry at the same location. The HODGES ferry is not be be confused with the HODGE ferry farther up the river.
Edmond S. Hodges was operating the ferry in 1898 as proven by the following County Court record:
On Thursday October 4, 1898, it was ordered by the court that the following rates of ferrage be fixed for the E. S. Hodges
Ferry:
4 Horse wagon - .40 cents 2 Horse wagon - .20 cents 4 Horse hack - .20 cents 1 Horse buggy - .15 cents 1 Horse rider - .10 cents Footman - .05 cents Steam Engine Team - .50 cents
The ferry was not operating in 1904 according to county records. John W. Hodges (1871-1932) operated the Hodges Ferry from about 1920 to 1924 or shortly after. About this time the ferry boat was destroyed probably by high river tides and wind and was not replaced.
The Hodges Ferry had been operated privately as well as publicly. The Hodges family used the ferry to transport farm tools and animals from their farm on the south bank of the river.[l6]
Kenny Hodges remembers his father telling about hauling sheep. For some reason, the sheep broke the rail on the side of the ferry boat causing the sheep to learn to swim very quickly.” Cited from: http://sevier.tngenealogy.net/
The last Hodges to live in this home was a tender-hearted Ophelia “Ophie” Hodges and was loved by all the neighborhood kids, for she would feed them when they were hungry. During the school year she would work in the schools as a lunch lady.
The current homeowners found that the house in a desperate need to bring it back to life, restoring and modernizing this historical Craftsman Farmhouse.
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