A-Z

Managing director of the East Tennessee Land Company, Walter C. Harriman was born in New Hampshire, the second of the three children of Walter and Almire Harriman. During the Civil War, Colonel (later General) Walter Harriman led his Eleventh New…

George Washington Harris, seminal southwestern humorist, was a Democrat and a Presbyterian, in that order. He was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Knoxville. Although involved in many aspects of East Tennessee frontier development ranging from surveying to river…

Governor and U.S. Senator Isham G. Harris was born near Tullahoma, Franklin County, on February 10, 1818, the son of Isham and Lucy Davidson Harris. Raised on his father's farm, where a small number of slaves worked the land, Harris…

Located on the east bank of Chickamauga Lake, Harrison Bay State Park is north of Chattanooga. In 1938 the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began development of what it named Harrison Island Park as a recreation demonstration area for whites; to…

After the Confederate retreat from Perryville, Kentucky, Confederate General Braxton Bragg withdrew from the Bluegrass State toward Middle Tennessee. Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan and his Kentucky cavalry, after raiding Union supply lines in their native state, were called to…

Using little more than roots, shells, and paint, visionary artist Bessie Harvey assembled a diverse cast of figures that appeared vividly before her mind’s eye. Biblical characters, African ancestors, mythological creatures, and episodes from African American history materialized under her…

Beth Halteman Harwell is the state representative for Tennessee’s 56th district, located in Metro Nashville Davidson County. She has served in this post since 1988 and was elected Speaker of the House by her legislative peers in 2011. She has…

Bill Haslam is a successful businessman, served as Mayor of Knoxville (2003–2011), and is currently serving as the 49th Governor of Tennessee. He assumed office in 2011. Forbes tagged him in 2016 as the richest elected official in the United…

With a letterpress lineage dating back to Gutenberg, Hatch Show Print began printing posters in 1879 when brothers Charles R. and Herbert H. Hatch opened their small business in Nashville. Their first poster, a six-by-nine-inch handbill advertising a lecture by…

Christopher Alexander Haun, one of southern Appalachia’s most significant antebellum potters, was also one of the famous Greene County “bridgeburners” of the early Civil War era in Tennessee. Haun, a staunch Unionist, participated in the destruction of a railroad bridge…

Author of stories of mountain life, Mildred E. Haun was born in Hamblen County, on January 6, 1911, to James Enzor and Margaret Ellen Haun, but was raised in Haun Hollow in the Hoot Owl District of Cocke County in…

One of the oldest Tennessee counties, Hawkins County was first established as a separate North Carolina county on January 6, 1787, when the state legislature divided Sullivan County, North Carolina. The original county was quite large, extending from the North…

Reconstruction judge and governor Alvin Hawkins was seven years old when his family moved to Carroll County. After attending McLemoresville Academy and Bethel College, he tried his hand as a farmer, blacksmith, and teacher before determining to become a lawyer.…

Born August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee, Isaac Hayes has received countless awards for a forty-plus-year career in music, film, television, and radio. His music has influenced funk, soul, and disco, and many artists, rappers included, have emulated his smooth…

Roland Hayes was one of the most popular opera singers of his generation and an important supporter and mentor to such significant African American artists as Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. Born in Curryville in northern Georgia to former slaves…

Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George E. Haynes was the only child of Louis and Mattie Sloan Haynes. At a young age he moved with his parents to New York, where he spent his youth. In 1903 he received his…

Named for Judge John Haywood, Haywood County was part of Madison County when the Tennessee General Assembly created it in 1823-24. Later, part of Haywood County was taken to create Lauderdale and Crockett Counties. The state legislature designated Brownsville as…

John Haywood, pioneer jurist and historian of early Tennessee history, was born in Halifax County, North Carolina in 1762, the son of prosperous tobacco producer Egbert Haywood. Despite limited educational opportunities on the colonial frontier, Haywood taught himself law and…