- St. Patrick's Catholic Church
- St. Patrick’s Catholic Church is one of Memphis’s most historic institutions. Tennessee’s Catholic Diocese in Nashville decided that another Catholic church should be established in ... Continue Reading »
- St. Paul's Episcopal Church
- The Mother Church of the Diocese of Tennessee, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Franklin is the state's oldest Episcopal church and serves its oldest Episcopal congregation. Built with handmad... Continue Reading »
- Stahlman, James G.
- James G. Stahlman was publisher of the Nashville Banner from 1930 until 1972, when he sold the newspaper to the Gannett Corporation. He inherited part of the newspaper from his grandfather, Major Edwa... Continue Reading »
- Standard Candy Company
- The maker of the famous Goo Goo Candy Cluster began as Anchor Candy Company, founded in 1901 in Nashville by Howell H. Campbell Sr. The son of Millard and Anna Hooper Campbell, Howell Campbell was bor... Continue Reading »
- Standing Stone
- A huge animal-shaped monolith standing beside the Avery Trace in Putnam County mystified the eighteenth-century travelers who first encountered it. McClain's History of Putnam County (1925) descr... Continue Reading »
- Standing Stone State Rustic Park
- Located in Overton County on the Cumberland Plateau, Standing Stone State Rustic Park was acquired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Land-Use Area program of the 1930s. The program a... Continue Reading »
- Stanton, John C.
- John C. Stanton was a controversial railroad contractor who brought economic prosperity and ruin to Chattanooga in the post-Civil War era. A New Hampshire native, persuasive and energetic, he rose by ... Continue Reading »
- State Debt Controversy
- Few issues have dominated an era of Tennessee politics like the debate over the state debt which raged for six years (1877-83) as a predominant political issue. Having first been incurred in support o... Continue Reading »
- State of Franklin
- A short-lived attempt to create a new state in the trans-Appalachian settlement of present-day East Tennessee, the State of Franklin arose from the general unsettled state of national, regional, and l... Continue Reading »
- Staub, Peter
- Peter Staub, a prominent figure in late nineteenth-century Knoxville business, culture, and politics, was born in Switzerland on February 22, 1827. Orphaned at eight years old, Staub immigrated to the... Continue Reading »
- Stax Records
- Memphis's great soul music recording company was founded in 1960 by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Aspiring to break into the music business, Stewart, a bond salesman, convinced his scho... Continue Reading »
- Steamboating
- In 1811 the voyage of the steamboat New Orleans ended the silent world of pre-steam Tennessee riverboatmen. When Nicholas J. Roosevelt successfully sailed his wood-fired steam craft down the Mississip... Continue Reading »
- Stearns Coal and Lumber Company
- With the end of the Civil War and restoration of communications and travel, investors identified and then developed many of the resources of the South. A land agent for the Stearns Salt and Lumber Com... Continue Reading »
- Steele, Almira S.
- Almira S. Steele, teacher and missionary, founded the South's first African American orphanage in Chattanooga. Born of Puritan forebears in Chelsea, Massachusetts, (neighboring Boston) on July 23... Continue Reading »
- Stencil House
- The Stencil House, also known as the Johnson-Dillon House, is a log house featuring an elaborately stenciled interior. Built sometime after 1830, the house was originally located near Hardin Creek and... Continue Reading »
- Stevenson, Vernon K.
- The foremost promoter of railroads in antebellum Tennessee and the founder and first president of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, Vernon K. Stevenson arrived in Nashville in 1831 and soon open... Continue Reading »
- Stewart County
- Created in 1803 from Montgomery County, Stewart County is named for an early pioneer and speculator, Duncan Stewart. Originally inhabited by nomadic hunters and mound builders, the area received white... Continue Reading »
- Stewart, Alexander P.
- Alexander P. Stewart, educator and Confederate general, was born in Rogersville on October 2, 1821. Known among his men as "Old Straight," Stewart graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Poin... Continue Reading »
- Stewart, Randall
- Writer and editor Randall Stewart was born in Fayetteville in 1896. In 1898 his family moved to Nashville, where he grew up and was educated through his undergraduate years at Vanderbilt, from which h... Continue Reading »
- Stockton, Kate Bradford
- Kate Bradford Stockton, a socialist and the first woman to run for governor in Tennessee, was born in Stockton, California, in 1880. She was a direct descendant of William Bradford, second governor of... Continue Reading »
- Stockwell, Tracy Caulkins
- Tracy Caulkins Stockwell ranks among Tennessee's most successful Olympians. She began swimming at age eight and, under the aegis of the Nashville Aquatic club, qualified for the Olympic Trials fi... Continue Reading »
- Stokely, Anna Rorex
- Anna Rorex Stokely established one of the nation's major canning companies. She was the daughter of James Addison and Rebecca Badgett Rorex, born in 1852 on a farm along the French Broad River in... Continue Reading »
- Stone, Barton Warren
- Barton W. Stone, minister and key figure in Tennessee and Kentucky frontier revivalism of the early 1800s, established a "Christian" movement that later became part of the Disciples of Chris... Continue Reading »
- Stones River, Battle of
- By the last days of December 1862, the Civil War was more than halfway through its second year, and certainly its course had turned against the Confederacy. The fall of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, t... Continue Reading »
- Stout, Samuel Hollingsworth
- Samuel H. Stout was the son of Nashville carriage-maker and city councilman Samuel Van Dyke Stout and Catherine Tannehill Stout. Educated at Moses Stevens's Classical and Mathematical Seminary an... Continue Reading »
- Streetcar Era
- Beginning in the late 1870s Tennessee's four major metropolitan areas entered the so-called streetcar era. At first these interurban railways were powered by mules, and ran a very short distance,... Continue Reading »
- Streeter, Vannoy 'Wireman'
- Self-taught sculptor Vannoy Streeter was known as “Wireman” because of the fanciful creations he fashioned from coat hangers and metal wire. Best known for his depictions of the Tennessee ... Continue Reading »
- Stribling, Thomas Sigismund
- Novelist and short story writer Thomas S. Stribling became the first Tennessean to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Stribling was born in Clifton on March 4, 1881, the son of Christopher and Ame... Continue Reading »
- Strickland, William F.
- Master architect and designer of the Tennessee State Capitol, William F. Strickland was born in 1788 in Navesink, New Jersey. When he was two years old, his parents, John and Elizabeth Strickland, mov... Continue Reading »
- Stritch, Samuel Alphonsus
- Samuel A. Stritch, Roman Catholic prelate, was born in Nashville on August 17, 1887, the son of Irish immigrants. Having chosen to enter the priesthood, Stritch was ordained in Rome on May 21, 1910, a... Continue Reading »
- Sullivan County
- Established in 1780, Sullivan County was one of the earliest settled areas in Tennessee. In 1761 troops on their way to aid besieged Fort Loudoun passed through this area of northeast Tennessee, built... Continue Reading »
- Sulphur Dell
- This historic professional baseball park in Nashville once stood between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, North and Jackson and Summer Streets. Union troops introduced baseball to the city in 1862, when they... Continue Reading »
- Sultana Disaster of 1865
- At 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, the magnificent side-wheeler riverboat Sultana was struggling against the surging current of the Mississippi River eight miles north of Memphis. The weather was rainy a... Continue Reading »
- Summer School of the South
- From its inception in 1902 to its demise in 1918, the Summer School of the South was a major instrument of regional educational improvement, instructing some thirty-two thousand teachers in the art of... Continue Reading »
- Summitt, Pat Head
- Pat Summitt, women's basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has produced an enviable record of success both on and off the court. Born in Henrietta on June 14, 1952, she atte... Continue Reading »
- Sumner County
- Archaeological evidence in Sumner County indicates occupation by Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures in the deep past. Two easily accessible prehistoric mounds stand at Castalia... Continue Reading »
- Sun Records
- Sun Records burst onto the post-World War II American scene suddenly, a force that few would forget. At the helm was Sam Phillips, an eccentric radio engineer willing to put black and white sharecropp... Continue Reading »
- Sundquist, Don
- Governor of Tennessee since 1995, Don Sundquist was born March 15, 1936, and was the first member of his family to finish high school and attend college. He graduated from Augustana College and then s... Continue Reading »
- Sutherland Jr., Earl W.
- A professor of physiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center from 1963 to 1973, Earl W. Sutherland Jr. was the first scientist from a southern university to win a Nobel Prize in physiology and me... Continue Reading »
- Swaggerty Blockhouse
- The Swaggerty Blockhouse in Cocke County was built ca. 1787 by James Swaggerty on land acquired from the state of North Carolina in 1786 by Abraham Swaggerty. It is the only remaining log blockhouse o... Continue Reading »
- Swift Memorial College
- Swift Memorial College was a historically black college that operated in East Tennessee from 1883 to 1952. It was founded in Rogersville by the Reverend William H. Franklin, a graduate of Maryville Co... Continue Reading »
- Swiss Settlers, Knoxville
- In 1848 Knox County's "Swiss Colony" began when Rev. Adrien Chavannes and his family settled on a 275-acre farm four miles north of Knoxville. During the next sixty-five years over seve... Continue Reading »
- Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area
- This state park in Carter County preserves and interprets the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River, a National Historic Landmark that was one of the most significant early settlement areas on the west... Continue Reading »
- Symphony Orchestras
- Tennessee has two professional orchestras designated as "regional" (Nashville and Memphis) and three that fall in the "metropolitan" status (Chattanooga, Jackson, and Knoxville). O... Continue Reading »
- T. O. Fuller State Park
- Located southwest of downtown Memphis off Tennessee Highway 61, T. O. Fuller State Park, established in 1933, is the nation's second oldest state park created for use by African Americans. The pa... Continue Reading »
- Talley, Thomas Washington
- Thomas Washington Talley, chemistry professor at Fisk University and pioneer African American folklorist, was born on October 9, 1870, in Shelbyville, Tennessee. One of nine surviving children born to... Continue Reading »
- Tannehill, Wilkins
- Born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1787, Wilkins Tannehill came to Nashville in 1808; he was involved in politics, intellectual pursuits, Masonic activities, journalism, and publishing in the city ... Continue Reading »
- Tate, John Orley Allen
- Allen Tate, teacher, writer, poet, and critic, was associated with Tennessee for most of his life and lived in the state for long periods, especially during his college years at Vanderbilt University ... Continue Reading »
- Taylor, Alfred Alexander
- Governor and U.S. Congressman Alfred A. Taylor was born in Happy Valley, Carter County, August 6, 1848, the second son of Emma Haynes and Nathaniel Green Taylor. His father was a farmer, Methodist min... Continue Reading »
- Taylor, Antoinette Elizabeth
- Antoinette Elizabeth Taylor, historian, was the first scholar to study woman suffrage in the South. Born on June 10, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia, she received a B.A. from the University of Georgia in 1... Continue Reading »
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