by Ray Hill | Mar 29, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Benton McMillin was such a fixture in Tennessee politics he was regarded as the “Old Warhorse” of the Democratic Party in the state. After spending twenty years in Congress from Tennessee’s Fourth District, Benton McMillin twice served as governor of...
by Ray Hill | Mar 22, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill With the sudden death of U. S. senator William Brimage Bate, Tennessee would send someone else to the Senate. Bate had died just days after being sworn-in for his fourth term. Indeed, only two men had ever been elected to serve a fourth term in the...
by Ray Hill | Mar 15, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Andrew Jackson once said, “A man who is born and reared among this people deserves but little credit for being a soldier and a gentleman, for he can’t help it.” That description fit William Brimage Bate. Bate had certainly lived a full life and had been...
by Ray Hill | Mar 8, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill William Gannaway “Parson” Brownlow had been elected governor of Tennessee in 1865, taking the oath of office four days before General Robert E. Lee tendered his surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Governor Brownlow was engaged in a heated...
by Ray Hill | Mar 1, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill William Gannaway Brownlow, better known to Tennesseans as “Parson” Brownlow, was another Volunteer State governor who made it to the United States Senate. Brownlow was as colorful a character, perhaps even more so, than his predecessor, Andrew Johnson. By...
by Ray Hill | Feb 23, 2020 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Governor Andrew Johnson easily overcame the powerful opposition of the Whig Party in Tennessee, as well as the more conservative elements in his own Democratic Party to win election to the United States Senate in 1857. Nor was Andrew Johnson satisfied to...
