The Gentleman From Michigan: Charles E. Potter By Ray Hill History is full of obscure figures, but it is also like a dusty old closet that is full of interesting things once opened and examined.  Charles Potter looked like a small-town accountant with his horn-rimmed...

The Gentleman From Ohio John Martin Vorys By Ray Hill From 1932 through 1937, American voters consistently voted to approve the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. If Roosevelt did not resolve every problem, he gave people hope that the worst days were...

The Fall of Congressman John Jennings, IV By Ray Hill Congressman John Jennings, the incumbent from Tennessee’s Second Congressional District, was fighting an increasingly bitter reelection battle inside the Republican primary.  The contest was more personal than it...

The Fall of Congressman John Jennings, III By Ray Hill John Jennings had represented Tennessee’s Second Congressional District since 1940 and as 1950 dawned, the congressman faced the greatest threat to his continued tenure in office in a decade. Carroll Reece, who...

The Fall of Congressman John Jennings, II By Ray Hill Guy Smith, editor of the Knoxville Journal, was left seething with anger following the 1948 election. For the first time since 1916, Tennessee Republicans had nominated serious candidates for both the governorship...

The Fall of Congressman John Jennings, I For the decade from 1940-1951, the congressman from Tennessee’s reliably Republican Second Congressional District was John Jennings.  Bald on top, bespectacled, a very good speaker and an equally good lawyer who had once served...

Carroll Reece and Jimmy Quillen By Ray Hill From 1921 until 1997, two men occupied the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee’s First District, with the exception of six years.  Carroll Reece served 36 years, as did Jimmy Quillen; however, Reece’s...

The Gentleman From Connecticut: William J. Miller By Ray Hill William Jennings Miller made the most of his short life, fighting for his country, overcoming a serious handicap at a time when there were little or no concessions to people with disabilities, and serving...

The Gentleman From Minnesota: Melvin Maas By Ray Hill I would be surprised if a single reader has ever heard of Melvin J. Maas, but his was a truly remarkable life.  A pilot during both World Wars, Maas was at various times a soldier, a congressman and a businessman. ...

A Missionary In Politics: Walter Judd of Minnesota By Ray Hill Walter Judd lived a remarkable life, long in years and purpose. Judd was by profession a doctor and a good one. Judd was also a man of deep and abiding faith who worked as a medical missionary amongst the...