By Ray Hill Cate was a familiar name to voters in Knox County, especially when they were picking a sheriff. William T. Cate had been sheriff and J. Carroll Cate was sheriff from 1936 – 1940. In 1946, six-foot-five, 350-pound Hazen Kreis was leaving the sheriff’s office, having served three two-year consecutive terms. Kreis […]
By Ray Hill Cordell Hull, Secretary of State under Franklin D. Roosevelt, had simmered for years with resentment due to having been marginalized by the president. Yet Roosevelt depended upon Hull’s reservoir of good will with both the Congress and the American people. Cordell Hull was an integral part of selling any controversial aspect […]
By Ray Hill Tennessee has been quite fortunate to produce any number of political figures of national importance, as well as those who have wielded enormous influence in Congress. Aside from Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk (a political protégé of Jackson’s), and Andrew Johnson – – – the three presidents from the Volunteer State – […]
By Ray Hill The two most enduring political figures in Tennessee’s modern history are Kenneth McKellar and Cordell Hull. McKellar holds the record in Tennessee for the longest tenure in Congress at forty-two years; K. D. McKellar remains Tennessee’s longest-serving United States senator at thirty-six years. McKellar is also the first person ever to be […]
By Ray Hill I am oftentimes asked about Tennessee’s most enduring statesmen or politicians. Without a doubt, the two most enduring political figures in Tennessee’s modern political history are Kenneth D. McKellar and Cordell Hull. McKellar and Hull were contemporaries and colleagues. As men they shared some similarities and of course being distinct individuals, they […]
By Ray Hill It was James A. Fowler who helped to send a murderer to prison for an unusual and spectacular crime in 1906. One of the most prominent cases in Fowler’s long legal career involved a young lawyer, Sam Parker, who had been a stand-out athlete at the University of Tennessee where he […]
By Ray Hill “Cry Aloud and Spare Not” That was the motto of the notorious “Parson” William G. Brownlow’s Whig newspaper. That same motto was adopted by the Parson and his partner, Captain William Rule, when they published the Knoxville Chronicle and Whig. Captain Rule sold the Chronicle and Whig in 1882 and was […]
By Ray Hill Joseph Carlton Loser (pronounced Low-ser) enjoyed a successful career in law and politics for decades. The long-time district attorney for Nashville and Davidson County, Loser eventually wound up in Congress and became associated with a spectacular case of voter fraud, which ended his congressional career and launched the career of another Davidson […]
By Ray Hill Hazen Kreis is likely a name unfamiliar to the readers of this column, but there was a time when the six foot, five inch gentleman was wildly popular in Knox County. Kreis was elected to three two-year terms consecutively as Sheriff of Knox County. Ranging in weight from 340 to 375 […]
By Ray Hill In this column, I have written very little about local political figures but there are a few that would likely make some interesting reading. One is Jack Dance, who was Deputy to the County Clerk and a legitimate contender for Congress when J. Will Taylor died unexpectedly on November 14, 1939. Republicans […]
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