by Ray Hill | Nov 3, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill All things considered, thirty-six year-old Congressman Joseph W. Byrns, Jr. seemed to be a sure bet for reelection in 1940. Representing Tennessee’s famed “Hermitage District,” so named because it contained the home of General Andrew Jackson. As...
by Ray Hill | Oct 27, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill It was hardly surprising Joseph W. Byrns, Jr. had been elected to Congress from Tennessee’s “Hermitage District”, site of General Andrew Jackson’s plantation home. The district had been represented for twenty-eight years by Joseph W. Byrns, father of the...
by Ray Hill | Oct 20, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Congressman Joseph W. Byrns, Jr. seemed to have everything going for him; the only child and namesake of long-time congressman and late Speaker of the House Joseph W. Byrns, had defeated a reasonably popular incumbent inside the Democratic primary in...
by Ray Hill | Oct 13, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Joseph W. Byrns, Jr. had successfully managed to defeat freshman Congressman Richard Atkinson in a hard fought race. The Democratic nominee – – – and the general election in the Hermitage District was a mere formality, as it was as...
by Ray Hill | Oct 6, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill For twenty-eight years, the congressman from Tennessee’s “Hermitage District” had been Joseph W. Byrns. Congressman Byrns was a beloved figure inside the Fifth Congressional district and had been Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives when he had...
by Ray Hill | Sep 29, 2019 | Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Ray Hill Joseph Wellington Byrns was almost surely the most popular political figure inside Tennessee’s “Hermitage District.” That was the Congressional district in Tennessee which encompassed Nashville and the “Hermitage”, home of General Andrew Jackson. For...