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Dolly Parton emerged from a childhood of grim mountain poverty with formidable singing and songwriting talents, which she forged first into Nashville country music fame and then into international stardom. While some of her writing strains unnecessarily for approval, most…

Z. Cartter Patten, prominent Chattanooga industrialist and capitalist, was born in Wilna, New York, and educated at Lawville Academy. During the Civil War, he served with the 115th Illinois Infantry and the 149th New York Infantry regiments. Patten first saw…

In the ten presidential elections from 1796 to 1832, Tennessee went for the winner eight times. In 1796 (Tennessee's first election for president), the state's three electoral votes were cast for Thomas Jefferson, but John Adams was elected. Tennesseans supported…

The Patterson Forge, the site of which is now preserved at the Narrows of the Harpeth State Historical Area, was constructed at the neck of an unusual bend of the Harpeth River where, after approximately four miles, the stream channel…

Elizabeth Patterson, Broadway, motion picture, and television actress, was born in Savannah, Tennessee, on November 22, 1875. She was the daughter of a Civil War veteran and subsequent judge in Hardin County. She attended Hardin County schools through high school.…

Gilbert E. Patterson, Church of God in Christ (COGIC) minister and presiding bishop, media pioneer, and religious entrepreneur, was born in Humboldt, Tennessee, the son of COGIC Bishop W. A. and Mary Patterson. He grew up in Memphis and was…

One of the most controversial governors in Tennessee's history, Malcolm R. Patterson was born in Memphis June 7, 1861, the son of Colonel Josiah Patterson, a prominent local attorney. Patterson attended Christian Brothers College and Vanderbilt University, then read law…

Mary McKeehan Patton, pioneer gunpowder manufacturer, was born in England in 1751 and immigrated with her family to Pennsylvania in the late 1760s. McKeehan served an apprenticeship, possibly under her father, David McKeehan, and learned the art of gunpowder making.…

Shocked by reports and letters about the South's Civil War devastation, George Peabody (1795-1869) founded the $2 million Peabody Education Fund (PEF, 1867-69) to aid public education in eleven former Confederate states and West Virginia. Born in Massachusetts but a…

Since its opening on September 2, 1925, the Peabody Hotel has been the place to be seen for wealthy and fashionable society in Memphis and the Mississippi River Delta area of West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi. Chicago architect…

Though arguably the most recognizable person in the history of country music, Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon's name was never a household word. It was her alter ego, Minnie Pearl, with her frilly dresses, hat with dangling price tag, and shrill…

Josephine A. Pearson, leader of the anti-suffrage movement in Tennessee during the 1920 fight for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, was born in Gallatin. Pearson grew up in McMinnville, where she graduated from Irving College in 1890. She received her…

Austin Peay, a successful and progressive governor during the 1920s, was perhaps best known as the governor who signed the infamous Butler (antievolution) Bill into law. Through administrative reorganization and advocacy of reform-minded legislation, Peay influenced the state during the…

Carl Perkins, the son of Tiptonville sharecroppers, was Sun Record's first certified million-selling artist. Perkins began his musical career by forming the Perkins Brothers--Jackson's hottest honky-tonk group. The trio featured Carl as lead singer and songwriter, older brother Jay on…

Created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly on November 14, 1819, Perry County was named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval officer and hero of the War of 1812. The first quarterly sessions and circuit courts were…

Balie Peyton, born near Gallatin, Tennessee, was an attorney and colorful political figure whose career included public service in Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; Louisiana; Chile; and California. Throughout most of his adult life, he also conducted a breeding operation for thoroughbred…

Sam Phillips, most popularly known as the man who first recorded Elvis Presley, is more critically renowned for combining essential elements of Southern vernacular music, black and white, to produce the sound which heralded the age of rock-n-roll. As an…

A group of black women, wives of prominent black leaders in Nashville's church, business, and professional arenas, organized the Phillis Wheatley Club in 1895. The club, established its headquarters at the AME Publishing House on the public square in Nashville,…

In 1886 William Shirley, a stonecutter, discovered phosphate on Gholston Hill near Columbia. This deposit proved to be too limited to be mined economically. In 1891 Shirley found a stratified blue rock deposit around Knob Creek, north of Columbia. A…

The Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is one of the best extant examples of the early twentieth-century settlement school movement. The school’s origins date to 1910, when Pi Beta Phi, the first women’s fraternity, which was founded…