Entries

Dorothy Lavinia Brown, surgeon, legislator, and teacher, rose from humble beginnings in Troy, New York, to become the first female African American surgeon in the Southeast and the first African American woman to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly. She…

John Calvin Brown, Confederate general and governor, was born in Giles County on January 6, 1827, to Duncan and Margaret (Smith) Brown. He was the younger brother of former governor Neill S. Brown. After graduating from Jackson College in Columbia,…

Lizinka Campbell Brown, a founder of a prominent late nineteenth-century stock farm, was the daughter of former U.S. Senator George W. Campbell of Tennessee, who also served as secretary of the treasury in the administration of James Madison and Minister…

Milton Brown, chancellor, congressman, and railroad president, migrated to Nashville from his home in Ohio in 1823 and studied law in the office of Felix Grundy. Upon admission to the bar, he practiced law in Paris, Tennessee, and in 1832…

Neill S. Brown, governor, was born in Giles County on April 18, 1810, to Duncan and Margaret Smith Brown. He received his early education through self study and briefly attended a neighboring academy. To finance his college education, he taught…

Gordon W. Browning, three-term governor and U.S. congressman, was born in Carroll County in 1895. He attended local schools and opened a law practice in Huntingdon in 1915. He served in the National Guard in World War I. In 1922…

Parson Brownlow, minister, journalist, and governor, was one of those unique individuals who influenced Tennessee culture, politics, and government during the middle half of the nineteenth century. Born in Wythe County, Virginia, orphaned at age eleven and possessing limited formal…

While in Dayton for the Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan expressed to friends his dream that a prep school and junior college to be founded in the town. Bryan had long believed that a Christian school, emphasizing the Bible and…

Charles Faulkner Bryan was one of Tennessee's greatest composers, musicians, and collectors of folk music. Bryan was born on July 26, 1911, in McMinnville, the second of Clarence Justus and Allie May Bryan's five children. At the age of nineteen…

Andrew H. Buchanan, early professor of mathematics and civil engineering and topographer-surveyor, was born in Boonsboro, Arkansas, on June 28, 1828. He attended Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and received the A.B. degree in 1853. The following year, Buchanan accepted…

James M. Buchanan received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics for "his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision making." In its announcement of the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences…

Governor and president of the Tennessee Farmers' Alliance, John P. Buchanan was born in Williamson County, the son of Thomas and Rebecca Jane Shannon Buchanan. He attended common schools and joined the Confederate army late in 1864, serving as a…

Procter & Gamble organized the Buckeye Cotton Oil Company in 1901 to provide a reliable supply of cottonseed oil for the soaps and lard substitutes the company manufactured. Such popular Procter & Gamble products as Ivory soap and Crisco shortening…

Lewis C. Buckner, African American carpenter, cabinetmaker, and house builder in Sevier County, was born and raised as a slave in the Strawberry Plains community of neighboring Jefferson County. Buckner was the son of a white father and an African…

Calvin A. Buehler was head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, 1940-62. He received his bachelor's degree in 1918, his master's in 1920, and his Ph.D. in 1922 from Ohio State University. He accepted a position at the…

Medical researcher and immunologist Carroll G. Bull was born in Jefferson County, the fourth of William Gernade and Nancy Emmaline White Bull's 11 children. Bull graduated from Harrison-Chilhowee Academy before enrolling at Carson-Newman College in 1901. He graduated from Peabody…

Lucius E. Burch Jr., attorney, conservationist, and civil rights advocate, was born on a large farm outside Nashville on January 25, 1912, the son of Dr. Lucius E. Burch and Sarah Cooper Burch. He was descended from a long line…

Located along the Falling Water River in Putnam and White Counties, the Burgess Falls State Natural Area contains 155 acres. Burgess Falls is one of the most dramatic in the state and has been a location for movie and television…

The origins of the Tennessee copper mining industry can be traced back to 1843, when a gold prospector discovered copper near Potato Creek in the southeast corner of Polk County. Copper mining began in 1847, and the Hiwassee mine became…

The now defunct Burritt College was founded in 1848 at Spencer, Van Buren County, as a preparatory school and junior college under the auspices of the Churches of Christ. The college was an early coeducational institution with a classical curriculum…