Entries

The oldest registered distillery in the nation, Jack Daniel Distillery is located in Lynchburg in Moore County. Established by Jasper "Jack" Daniel in 1866, the distillery produces sour mash whiskey. Daniel located the distillery near his birthplace, recognizing that what…

The second largest city in West Tennessee stands on land acquired by treaty from the Chickasaws on October 19, 1818. The city is located in the geographic center of Tennessee's western district in Madison County, created by the Tennessee General…

Located in the picturesque foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, Jackson County is known as the "Switzerland of the Cumberlands." Although the western part of Jackson County lies within the Nashville Basin, most of the eastern part of the county is…

The Jackson Purchase included the area of West Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. The Chickasaws had historically occupied this large tract, which they ceded in the Treaty of Tecumseh, negotiated by Andrew Jackson and Isaac…

An articulate advocate of scientific agriculture, Alexander Jackson completed a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1824 and came to Tennessee five years later, establishing a medical practice at Paris in Henry County. Jackson soon demonstrated his interests…

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States, serving from 1829 to 1837. As war hero and the "savior of his country," he was one of a handful of Americans who dominated the first half of the nineteenth…

U.S. senator (1881-86), Sixth Circuit Court (1886-92), Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (1892-93), and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1893-95), Howell E. Jackson was best remembered for his role in the Pollock Income Tax Decision of 1895. He…

The daughter of John Donelson and Rachel Stockley and wife of President Andrew Jackson, Rachel Donelson was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. In December 1779 her family set out for the West, arriving at Fort Nashborough (now Nashville) in April…

Consisting of President Andrew Jackson and his circle of advisors, the Jacksonians were recognized as leaders of the Democratic Party both nationally and within Tennessee. Jackson's Tennessee associates included Judge John Overton; Senator John H. Eaton; Major William B. Lewis;…

The first county in the United States to be consolidated with another, James County was a unique venture in government and the only such instance in Tennessee history. Organized in 1871, largely from Hamilton County and a fraction of Bradley…

This historic site in Columbia is the only surviving residence of the eleventh U.S. president, excluding the White House. James K. Polk was attending the University of North Carolina in 1816 when his father Samuel built the two-story, Federal-style house…

Memphis is known for blues and early rock-n-roll traditions, and Nashville is famous for country music, but both also move to the strains of jazz. In no part of Tennessee, however, did jazz ever enjoy commercial or popular success, or…

When Goodspeed published its well-known history of Tennessee in 1887, it concluded that "No Tennessee county has a more honorable record or a more interesting history than Jefferson." The second of twenty-six American counties so named, its early settlers were…

Ray H. Jenkins, trial lawyer and chief counsel for the U.S. Senate in the Army-McCarthy hearings, was born in Cherokee County, North Carolina, in 1897. The family soon moved to the community of Rural Vale in Monroe County, Tennessee, and…

The settlement of Jews in Tennessee reflected the larger migration and settlement patterns of Jews within the United States over the last two centuries. These patterns created distinctive forms of Jewish life in the major Jewish communities of Tennessee: Memphis,…

The Johnson Bible College was founded as the "School of the Evangelists" in 1893 by Ashley S. Johnson at Kimberlin Heights (approximately twelve miles southeast of Knoxville). Johnson, a Knox County native and successful evangelist, author, and educator, transformed his…

Located in the mountainous northeast corner of Tennessee, Johnson City is the seventh largest city in the state, with a population of over 57,000 (1998), and is one of the regional Tri-Cities that includes Kingsport and Bristol. Johnson City has…

Located in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, Johnson County lies on the western slope of the Appalachian Mountains. It is bounded by Virginia on the north and North Carolina on the south and east. Hilly and mountainous, the…

Born in a log cabin on December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew Johnson knew abject poverty and personal tragedy almost from the very beginning of his life. Jacob Johnson, Andrew's father, a landless and illiterate worker in Raleigh,…

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Cal Johnson was born to Cupid and Harriet Johnson in Knoxville on October 14, 1844. The Johnson family, slaves of Colonel Pless McClung, lived on the site of the old Farragut Hotel Building at the corner of…