Land Parcel Transfer Acts
The private act has often been used as a means for transferring parcels of land from one county to another, often because the boundary lines would bisect an individual landowner’s property, placing him under the jurisdiction of two counties. This type of boundary change was usually very general in its description of the land transferred, without any metes and bounds description. The following private acts authorized such boundary changes for Anderson County.
1. Acts of 1806, Chapter 51, page 174, appointed Jesse Roysden and Jacob Jones as Commissioners to run and mark the boundary line between Anderson and Roane Counties. These surveyors were allowed to employ someone to mark the line if they desired. Compensation for the Commissioners was fixed at $2.00 per day and for the marker at $1.00 per day.
2. Acts of 1807, Chapter 90, page 145, the contents of which appear on page 37 of the 1974 volume, fixed the line which was run by Jesse Roysden, a commissioner appointed for that purpose, and marked by John McKamy, as the true and official boundary between the counties of Roane and Anderson. The cost of running the line and marking it would be paid equally by both counties, and the receipt of Roysden and McKamy would constitute a sufficient voucher.
3. Acts of 1811, Chapter 56, page 62, changed the lines between the counties of Campbell and Anderson, so as to include the farms of Michael Laws and Benjamin Potters wholly within Campbell county. William Hoggshead was named to run and to mark the line between the two counties so as to accomplish the above. This act was repealed by the one following.
4. Acts of 1813, Chapter 101, page 137, repealed Chapter 56, Acts of 1811, avove, which transferred a part of Anderson County over to Campbell County. The militia and the land were both returned to Anderson County.
5. Acts of 1837-38, Chapter 90, page 124, was the legal authority for the counties of Anderson and Campbell, acting through their Quarterly Courts, to employ surveyors to run and mark the line between the counties in such manner as they may deem adequate. The surveyors would report the same to their respective county courts and, when the report was accepted by the court, their line would constitute the official boundary between the two. Such allowances could be made to the surveyors as the courts might consider to be fair and practical.
6. Acts of 1855-56, Chapter 161, page 244, Section 7, changed the lines dividing the counties of Anderson and Roane and Morgan, so that the farms of Moses C Winters and L Rutor would be contained wholly within Roane County, all conflicts herewith being repealed. This act was repealed in Item 13.
7. Acts of 1855-56, Chapter 173, page 264, Section 7, required that the surveyors run and mark the boundary lines between Roane County and Anderson County, running from the Double Springs on Poplar Creek to a point on the Clinch River according to Chapter 45, Section 15, Acts of 1801. The above line when the same was run and marked would be the true and official boundary between the two counties.
8. Acts of 1857-58, Chapter 47, page 58, Section 10, rearranged the boundaries between Anderson county and Roane county as described in this Section so as to move the farms of D L Bradley, John R Galbreath, Samuel Tunnell, William Rite, W C Griffith, and J C Roberts out of Anderson county and into Roane county. This act was repealed by Chapter 83, Acts of 1857-58, Section 3, below.
9. Acts of 1857-58, Chapter 83, page 91, Section 3, expressly repealed Section 10, Chapter 47, Acts of 1857-58, above.
10. Acts of 1865, Chapter 29, Page 112, moved the residence and the farm of Silas L Arthur out of Campbell County and placed the same wholly within Anderson.
11. Acts of 1867-68, Chapter a60, page 75, Section 8, detached the lands of William Webb from Anderson County and attached them to Campbell county so that they were included altogether in that county.
12. Acts of 1868-69, Chapter 36, page 48, altered the lines dividing Anderson County and Campbell County so that the lands of Martin Kennady were included wholly within Campbell county, and, further, that all citizens living north of that line would be citizens of Anderson county but no one transferred from one county to another would be relieved from paying taxes due the former county at the time of the transfer.
13. Acts of 1869-70, Chapter 88, page 137, expressly repealed the 1856 Act which changed the boundary lines between Anderson, Roane, and Morgan counties, thus restoring all the lines as they appeared before the passage of that Act, and all the rights of citizenship were renewed for those residnets involved as they possessed prior to the repealed Act.
14. Acts of 1873, Chapter 75, page 75, page 109, moved the homes and the farms of Jordan Massengill, Houston Carroll, Greenberry West, William Carroll, and Alexander Low out of Anderson County and placed them in Scott county, provided such move did not reduce Anderson County below its constitutional limits.
15. Acts of 1883, chapter 51, page 54, stated that the lines between Scott, Anderson, and Campbell counties were changed so that the lands of Richmond Kennedy were placed wholly within Campbell county. (The body of this Act mentioned Madison county and not Anderson County, but this could not be true, of course.)
16. Acts of 1887, Chapter 35, page 106, realigned the boundaries between Anderson County and Campbell County so as to include the residences and farms of Calaway Byrge and Laranzy Kennedy wholly within Anderson County. This Act was repealed in Item 18.
17. Acts of 1889, Chapter 124, page 229, changed the boundary lines between Anderson County and Knox County so as to include within Anderson County what is known as “Holt’s Island” located in the Clinch River, now the property of W C Kincaid.
18. Acts of 1893, Chapter 60, page 77, expressly repealed Chapter 35, Acts of 1887, Item 16, above, and restored the county lines to the same status they had prior to the enactment of that law.
19. Acts of 1899, Chapter 317, page 752, moved the lands of William M Freels out of Anderson County and into Roane County.
20. Acts of 1903, Chapter 504, page 1347, was identical to Chapter 304, Private Acts of 1903.
21. Private Acts of 1919, Chapter 95, page 204, rearranged the lines between Anderson county and Campbell county running from a point in the said line on top of the Cumberland Mountain avove Briceville, situated due east from the two white oaks, the beginning corner of the A R Wiley grant, thence due west to said corner; thence with the J M Heck line North 89 West about 123 poles to the center of the Stoney Fork of Beech Fork thence down and with the center of the said Creek to Beech Fork; thence a southwest course to the point where said county line now crosses New River near the point of the Red Oak spur of Cumberland Mountain.
22. Private Acts of 1927, Chapter 398, page 1145, transferred the lands belonging to Barbara M Sharp from the 5th civil district of Anderson into the 3rd civil district of Campbell county.
23. Private Acts of 1933, Chapter 612, page 1459, expressly and entirely repealed Chapter 95, Private Acts of 1919, Item 21, above, and reinstated the boundary lines between Anderson and Campbell counties as they existed in that area prior to the Act.