Seven Generations of Farmers!

The historic RiverView Family Farm was established in 1801, as a working farm along the banks of the Fort Loudon Lake in Knoxville, TN. Over the years the farm has produced many agricultural products to support the local community. This two-century-old farm has transitioned throughout the years from farming small grains, corn, produce and dairy cattle to beef cattle today. It remains one of the oldest operating farms in the state of Tennessee. Today, the farm solely produces Black Angus beef for local purchase.

Over the years the farm has adapted to continue operations. In 2012, the Williams family starting hosting events at the farm to share this picturesque location with the community. Thousands of guests visit us each year for our Easter festival and Holiday Barn Sale. The Legacy Barn, a 6000 square foot Gambrel barn, was built in 2014 from timber milled from the farm. This new venue is one of the rising premiere event hosting venues in the Knoxville area. We look forward to seeing you at one of our public events and sharing our life's work with you.

Janice & Lafayette Williams

The Farm's History

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RiverView Family Farm
est. 1801, Knoxville, Tennessee

For more than 200 hundred years (since 1801) and for six generations, this land has been a part of our family. As a land grant, originally the farm contained nearly 2,000 acres. The farm's name is from the river that flowed around the bend by the fields. In earlier years that river was called the Holston River, but in 1933 the name was changed to the Tennessee River. Fort Loudon dam was built in the early 1940s resulting in the bottomland being flooded by the Fort Loudon Lake. Technically, the farm's name should be LakeView, but the family chose to keep the original name of RiverView.

The farm has gone through many transitions. It has been a crop farm growing wheat, corn, tobacco, watermelons, and other garden produce. Market hogs and sheep have been raised on the farm. It was once a dairy farm until 1967. In the 1950s, Lafayette Williams started raising and selling market steers as a 4-H project. Each year, families continued to ask for beef from the farm. In the 1980s, our children, Byron and Rachel, followed in their father's footsteps and were involved in the 4-H steer project. Today, many of the same families and their friends continue to depend on the Williams family for their freezer beef.

Presently, the farm's main crop is pasture and hay – used to raise Black Angus cattle. Our goal is to maintain the land with sustainable agriculture practices as we raise Black Angus cattle to produce beef that is naturally delicious and nutritionally superior. Our cattle are born on the farm. They are naturally raised with care in open pastures. The cows spend their entire life in the "closed herd" well acclimated to great pasture and pleasant surroundings. The farm supplies individual families with their choice of either grass-fed or grain-fed beef. All beef sales are custom with the cutting and processing in accordance with each individual's specifications. Our goal is to preserve the land for many years to come. We believe in personal accountability and take responsibility to maintain the farm for future generations.