- Milton, George Fort
- George F. Milton, Chattanooga newspaper publisher and Democratic political activist, was born in Macon, Georgia, and educated in Chattanooga. After attending the University of the South at Sewanee, Mi... Continue Reading »
- Mining
- Tennessee has a long, rich, and varied mining history. Although the industry today accounts for only about three-tenths of a percent of the state's gross products and two-tenths of a percent of n... Continue Reading »
- Minor League Baseball
- Although Memphis fielded a professional baseball team in 1877, organized minor league baseball in Tennessee dates to 1885 and the founding of the Southern League of Professional Clubs (SL), a circuit ... Continue Reading »
- Mississippi River Bridges
- There are five bridges that span the Mississippi River from Tennessee. A “Hands Across the River” Committee was formed in 1946 to discuss the construction of a bridge linking West Tennes... Continue Reading »
- Mississippi River Museum
- Dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the natural and cultural history of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, a region that stretches from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississi... Continue Reading »
- Mississippi River System
- The 3,658 miles of the Mississippi River makes it one of the longest rivers in the world. Its drainage basin covers two-fifths of the continental United States, extending from western Pennsylvania to ... Continue Reading »
- Mississippian Culture
- The late prehistoric cultures of the southeastern United States dating from ca. A.D. 900 to 1600 comprise the Mississippian culture. In general, Mississippian culture is divided chronologically into e... Continue Reading »
- Mitchell, Harry Leland
- Harry L. Mitchell, one of the founders of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and president of the National Farm Labor Union, was born near Halls, the son of James Y. Mitchell, a tenant farmer and Bapti... Continue Reading »
- Monroe County
- Named in honor of President James Monroe, Monroe County is located along the North Carolina border in the southeastern corner of Tennessee. Its beautiful landscape includes the Appalachian Mountains, ... Continue Reading »
- Monteagle Sunday School Assembly
- In 1882 a group of Tennessee Sunday school workers organized an assembly patterned after that in Chautauqua, New York, which had been founded in 1873 to train Sunday School teachers during the summer.... Continue Reading »
- Montgomery Bell Academy
- Of the more than one dozen boys' schools established in Middle Tennessee at the turn of the nineteenth century, only Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) remains in operation one hundred years later. Fo... Continue Reading »
- Montgomery Bell State Park
- Located along U.S. Highway 70 in Dickson County, Montgomery Bell State Park is approximately thirty miles west of Nashville. This 3,782-acre recreational area bears the name of the wealthy industriali... Continue Reading »
- Montgomery County
- Long before the dawn of written history, humans inhabited the lands along the Cumberland and Red Rivers. In successive order Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian Indians left evidence of ... Continue Reading »
- Moonshine
- Simply stated, "moonshine" is untaxed liquor, furtively produced quite often by the light of the moon, or at least out of the immediate reach and oversight of law enforcement. Nicknamed &quo... Continue Reading »
- Moore County
- With a total area of only 129 square miles, Moore County is the second smallest county in the state. Set in the heart of agrarian Middle Tennessee, Moore County contains a diverse landscape, with near... Continue Reading »
- Moore, Grace
- Grace Moore, popular soprano in opera, musical comedy, and film, was born December 6, 1901, in Slabtown, Cocke County, and christened Mary Willie Grace. She spent her youth in Jellico, where she sang ... Continue Reading »
- Moore, William
- William Moore was born in a fortified blockhouse on the Green River in Kentucky to early immigrants William Moore Sr. and Olivia Free. William Moore came to Lincoln County, Tennessee, around 1806. He ... Continue Reading »
- Morgan County
- Organized as Tennessee's thirty-ninth county by legislative act in 1817, Morgan County came primarily from territory removed from Roane County. The new county ran diagonally across the Cumberland... Continue Reading »
- Morgan, John Harcourt Alexander
- Harcourt Morgan, thirteenth president of the University of Tennessee (1919-34) and second chairman of the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority (1938-41), was born in Kerrwood, Adelaide... Continue Reading »
- Morgan, John Hunt
- Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on June 1, 1825. Educated at Transylvania University, he fought in the Mexican War as a first lieutenant in the Kentucky... Continue Reading »
- Morgan, Karl Z.
- Called the "father of health physics," Karl Z. Morgan was born in North Carolina and studied physics at the University of North Carolina and Duke, earning his Ph.D. in 1934. He chaired the Physics Dep... Continue Reading »
- Morristown College
- In 1881, the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Morristown College, a historically African American two-year institution of higher education, located in Morristown, the seat of Hamblen County, Tenne... Continue Reading »
- Mossy Creek, Battle of
- The engagement at Mossy Creek resulted from a Federal advance of over six thousand soldiers from Strawberry Plains on December 18, 1863, to pressure the Confederate army of Lieut. Gen. James Longstr... Continue Reading »
- Mound Bottom
- Almost one thousand years ago, a thriving city of several thousand Native Americans was situated in a bend of the Harpeth River not far downstream from Kingston Springs in Cheatham County. Around A.D.... Continue Reading »
- Mount Zion Baptist Church, Nashville
- Known for many years as one of the oldest African American congregations organized in Nashville, Mount Zion Baptist Church is now also recognized as one of the largest congregations in Tennessee. Un... Continue Reading »
- Mousetail Landing State Park
- Located along the banks of the Tennessee River in Perry County, Mousetail Landing State Park is one of the state's most recent parks, dedicated in 1986. The park's 1,249 acres offer hiking, ... Continue Reading »
- Mules
- Until the widespread adoption of motor-powered machinery in the mid-twentieth century, mules powered most farm activities in Tennessee. Middle Tennessee was a major mule market. At annual "Mule D... Continue Reading »
- Murderous Mary
- The press called her Murderous Mary, but Mary actually was a five-ton circus elephant lynched from a one-hundred-ton railroad crane car in Erwin on September 13, 1916. She had killed her trainer the d... Continue Reading »
- Murfree, Mary Noailles
- In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Mary Noailles Murfree depicted the scenery and people of the Tennessee mountains for a national audience. At a time when local color fiction was much in v... Continue Reading »
- Murfreesboro
- The sixth largest city in Tennessee, with 68,816 citizens, Murfreesboro is located in Rutherford County, thirty-five miles southeast of Nashville. Adjacent to the west fork of the Stones River, it mar... Continue Reading »
- Murfreesboro, Battle of
- After U.S. Brigadier General James Negley’s June 7-8 attacks on the Confederate forces at Chattanooga, U.S. Major General Don Carlos Buell moved his Army of the Ohio from Corinth, Mississippi,... Continue Reading »
- Murrell, John Andrews
- John A. Murrell, a thief and counterfeiter, spent much of his short life in prison and was a notorious outlaw in antebellum Middle Tennessee. In 1844 he died in Pikeville at the age of thirty-eight, s... Continue Reading »
- Museum of Appalachia
- Located near the town of Norris in Anderson County, the Museum of Appalachia contains the state's best collection of historic buildings, artifacts, and folk art associated with the diverse cultur... Continue Reading »
- Musgrave Pencil Company
- Commonplace but enduring, the wood-cased pencil industry ventured onto the Tennessee industrial landscape in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The industry took advantage of the state's... Continue Reading »
- Music
- Folk music expresses the oldest and most basic forms of Tennessee music carried into the region by its earliest settlers and usually passed on from generation to generation by oral tradition. Though i... Continue Reading »
- Music Row, Nashville
- The fabled Music Row in Nashville forms a rectangle between Sixteenth and Seventeenth Avenues South and Division and Grand Streets. While tourists may be surprised to find that its outward appearanc... Continue Reading »
- Musseling
- Typically, musseling has been a part-time, seasonal occupation to supplement the income of timber workers, farmers, or fisherman living near Tennessee's great rivers, though it always held the al... Continue Reading »
- Mustard, Harry Stoll
- Public health physician, author, and professor Harry S. Mustard became a national figure in the emerging field of public health in the early twentieth century through his work in Tennessee. Mustard wa... Continue Reading »
- Myer, William Edward
- William E. Myer was a leading figure in the early twentieth-century transformation of Tennessee archaeology from a casual hobby to a professional science and in the development of both overland and ri... Continue Reading »
- Naifeh, James O.
- Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives James O. Naifeh was born and raised in Covington. He attended local public schools, graduating from Byars Hall High School, and went on to the Univers... Continue Reading »
- Napier, James C.
- African American businessman and leader James C. Napier was born to free parents on June 9, 1845, in Nashville. His father, William Carroll, was a free hack driver and a sometime overseer. James atten... Continue Reading »
- Nash, Diane J.
- In the vanguard of the national civil rights and antiwar movements from 1959 to 1967, Diane Judith Nash was born on May 15, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois. Reared a Roman Catholic, Nash received her prima... Continue Reading »
- Nashoba
- Nashoba was a short-lived, but internationally famous, utopian community on the present-day site of Germantown in Shelby County. Nashoba was founded in 1826 by Frances Wright, who dreamed of demonstra... Continue Reading »
- Nashville
- With a population of 545,524 in 2000, Nashville is the capital of Tennessee and a national business, transportation, and tourism center for the United States. The Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson Count... Continue Reading »
- Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad
- The Nashville and Chattanooga (N&C) Railroad created new towns, new wealth, and a new corporate landscape as it brought the industrial age to Middle Tennessee. The railroad was the first complete line... Continue Reading »
- Nashville Banner
- The Nashville Banner published its first edition on April 10, 1876. William E. Eastman, one of the founding partners, served as its first president; Thomas Achison, another partner, was its first edit... Continue Reading »
- Nashville Bridge Company
- Arthur J. Dyer, an 1891 graduate of the Vanderbilt Engineering School, founded the Nashville Bridge Company, the state's most productive and important bridge building firm. Dyer worked for a vari... Continue Reading »
- Nashville Conservatory of Music
- The South was considered a cultural backwater in the 1920s. It lagged behind the rest of the nation economically, and there was scant opportunity to enjoy the arts. There were no important museums, ... Continue Reading »
- Nashville Convention
- On June 3, 1850, delegates from nine southern states met at McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville to discuss common grievances in the great sectional crisis that had developed with the territorial a... Continue Reading »
- Nashville Film Festival (Sinking Creek Film Festival)
- The Nashville Film Festival was born in 1969 of a utopian idea: to create a forum for small, independent films shown in a community setting. The festival was founded on a farm in East Tennessee by M... Continue Reading »
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