Politics

Joe L. Evins was the "Dean" of Tennessee's congressional delegation during the 1960s and 1970s. Born in 1910 in DeKalb County to James Edgar Evins and Myrtie Goodson Evins, Joe L. Evins attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1933. The following…

The Farmers' Alliance made its first appearance in Tennessee in the winter of 1887, when J. T. Alsup, a national lecturer, organized the first Alliance in Wilson County. Perhaps Alsup selected Middle Tennessee for his first attempts because West Tennessee…

In 1858 John O'Mahony established the Fenian Brotherhood of America to provide money, arms, and military leadership for an anticipated rising against England by the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood. An odd twist in this story of nineteenth-century Irish nationalism was the…

Henry S. Foote, lawyer, U.S. senator, and Confederate congressman, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia. Foote had practiced law in Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, and California before settling in Nashville in 1859. By that time he had held a half-dozen political…

Harold E. Ford, U.S. congressman, was born May 20, 1945, in Memphis, the son of Vera Davis Ford and Newton Jackson Ford. He received his A.A. degree from John Gupton College, a B.S. degree from Tennessee State, and his M.B.A.…

State Senator John N. Ford was born on May 3, 1942, in Memphis, the son of Vera Davis Ford and Newton Jackson Ford. Ford received a B.A. from Tennessee State in 1964 and an M.A. from Memphis State in 1978.…

Ephraim H. Foster, United States senator and early leader of the Whig Party, was born in Kentucky. Foster came to Davidson County with his family in 1797 and graduated from Cumberland College in Nashville in 1813. After serving as Andrew…

United States Senator Joseph Smith Fowler was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to James and Sarah Atkinson Fowler. After attending Grove Academy in Steubenville, he graduated from Franklin College in New Athens, Ohio, in 1843. He spent a year teaching school…

Franklin's Masonic Lodge is a building of many firsts. Hiram Lodge No. 7, founded in Franklin in 1809, was first affiliated with the parent Lodge No. 55 in North Carolina. The local Lodge surrendered its North Carolina charter when the…

Tennessee Governor James B. Frazier was born at Pikeville in Bledsoe County, the son of Thomas Neil and Margaret M. Frazier. His great-grandfather, Samuel Frazier, and grandfather, Abner Frazier, fought at the battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.…

Even before the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln and Congress realized that the government must offer assistance to newly emancipated slaves. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau, attempted this task and…

William H. “Bill” Frist represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007 and served as Senate Majority Leader during the last four of those years. Born on February 22, 1952, into a prominent Nashville family, Frist graduated from…

Albert A. Gore Jr., forty-fifth vice-president of the United States, was born on March 31, 1948 to former congressman and U.S. senator Albert A. Gore and Pauline LaFon Gore. He attended St. Albans Episcopal School for Boys in Washington, D.C.,…

Albert A. Gore Sr., congressman and U.S. senator, was born in Jackson County on December 26, 1907, the son of Allen and Margie Denny Gore. Raised on a farm, Gore witnessed the loss of his family's entire financial resources during…

Frank C. Gorrell was a leader of the state Democratic Party for more than thirty years and served as lieutenant governor of Tennessee from 1967 to 1971. Born in Russellville, Kentucky, in 1928 to Lilburn D. and Vandelia Strudwick Gorrell,…

Government, in the basic sense of a structure or system for management of a group or geographic region, has a long history in the state. Archaeological studies of habitation sites of prehistoric Native Americans give intriguing hints of political and…

Felix Grundy, congressman, U.S. senator, and Democratic leader, was born in Virginia but first rose to prominence in Kentucky politics. After his admission to that state's bar at age twenty, Grundy was elected to a state constitutional convention in 1799…

Born in Virginia, Josephus C. Guild came with his parents briefly to Stewart County and then to Sumner County in 1812. Both his father and mother died the following year, and he became the ward of his uncle, Walter Conn…

Governor William Hall was born in Surrey County, North Carolina, in February 1775, to Major William Hall and Elizabeth Thankful Doak Hall. The family moved to Tennessee in 1785 and lost seven family members during an Indian confrontation. Hall married…

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…