Person:Henry Horton (11)

Horton was born in Alabama into the family of a Baptist minister. He taught school for six years before being admitted to the bar in 1894. He served several terms in the legislature, and was elected speaker of the Tennessee State Senate. He also owned a water-powered mill and the associated dam on the Duck River near Chapel Hill in Marshall County. He was Speaker of the Senate when Governor Austin Peay died, and succeeded him according to the terms of the Tennessee State Constitution on October 3, 1927, the only person, as of 2006, to become Governor of Tennessee under this circumstance (although other Speakers have become governor due to their predecessors' resignations).

Horton was elected governor in his own right in 1928; the election involved battles between the state's two opposing democratic machines--the Nashville machine led by Luke Lea (who supported Horton) and the Memphis machine led by Boss E.H. Crump (who supported Hill McAlister). When Horton ran for reelection in 1930, Crump and Lea cut a deal and Crump swung his formidable political machine behind Horton. Horton defeated independent Democrat L.E. Gwinn in the primaries and Republican C. Arthur Bruce in the general election.

Already a poor state, Tennessee was affected by the Great Depression even more than some other states. Horton became linked to a serious bank scandal in Nashville, and although never convicted of wrongdoing, decided to retire from the governorship, not running for another term in 1932. While governor, he worked to establish an aeronautics division of state government and addressed the ongoing issue of secondary roads. He died the year after his final term ended. The grounds of his mill along the Duck River and much adjacent land was subsequently acquired by the state Department of Conservation and operated as Henry Horton State Park in his memory. A portion of U.S. Highway 31, north of his hometown, was named in his honor. (S1)

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1.   Wikipedia Article.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Horton