Chronology Of Tennessee, 1796-1896

1796. January 11, Constitutional Convention met at Knoxville, William Blount, President; William Maclin, Secretary. March 31, William Blount and William Cocke were elected United States Senators; William Maclin, Secretary of State. June 1, this State admitted into the Union.

1797. July 8, William Blount expelled from the United States Senate.

1798. December 3, second session of General Assembly met at Knoxville; William Blount elected Speaker.

1799. October 26, the first camp meeting was held in the State in Sumner County.

1800. Governor William Blount died at Knoxville, March 21, Geo. Rutledge was commissioned Brigadier-General of Washington District.

1801. September 21, the General Assembly met at Knoxville and adjourned, November 14. November 6, Gallatin, Rutledge, Lebanon and Tazewell were established.

1802. John Sevier, Moses Fisk and John Rutledge, of Tennessee and Creed Taylor, Joseph Martin and Peter Johnson, of Virginia, appointed Commissioners to survey the line between Virginia and Tennessee.

1803.  State composed of three Congressional Districts, Washington, Hamilton and Mero; Commissioners appointed to survey boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee; Jackson challenged Sevier to duel.

1804. Legislature provided for public roads; horse racing inaugurated in Tennessee, at Gallatin.

1805. Aaron Burr visits Nashville; Governor William Brownlow, born in Virginia, August 29, died at Knoxville, April 29, 1877.

1806. Joseph Coleman, first Mayor of Nashville. March 1, duel between W. A. McNairy and General William Coffee.

1807. East Tennessee College (Blount College) established at Knoxville; General William Campbell, born at Nashville,. February 1, died at Nashville, August 19, 1867.

1808. General Assembly (second session) met at Kingston, April 3, adjourned April 22; Andrew Johnson, born in North Carolina, December 29, died at Carter's Station, Tennessee, July 31, 1875.

1809. Hugh L. White and G. W. Campbell, first Supreme Judges; Governor James C. Jones, born in Davidson County, ;. April 20, died at Memphis, October 29, 1859.

1810. February 4, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized at Samuel McAdow's residence, Dickson County, as an independent Presbytery; Governor Neill S. Brown, born in Giles County, April 18, died at Nashville, 1886.

1811. Supreme Court vested with exclusive equity jurisdiction; the General Assembly met in Knoxville for the last time, except in 1817; Reynoldsburg, Elkton, Washington (in Rhea) and Murfreesboro were established; Reelfoot Lake made by an earthquake.

1812 Governor Blount furnishes the War Department twenty-five hundred men for the war of 1812-15; State divided into six Congressional Districts; importation of slaves prohibited for five years; Jackson gets "Old Hickory;" Nashville Whig established.

1813. Governor authorized to march three thousand and five hundred men against the Creek Indians; Andrew Jackson appointed Major-General in the United States Army.

1814. James Robertson died at Chickasaw Agency, Memphis, September 1 ; President Madison appointed George W. Campbell, Secretary of the United States Treasury.

18l5._Battle of New Orleans fought, January 8; Parry W, Humphreys appointed, November 29, Commissioner, for Tennessee, to settle line between Kentucky and Tennessee; Joseph Anderson appointed Comptroller of the United States Treasury.

1816. Andrew Jackson negotiated with the Cherokees and Chickasaws to extinguish their claims to lands in Tennessee.

1817. Legislature met, September 15, at Knoxville; General John Cocke and James S. Gaines, of Tennessee, and Captain Stock and James Carmack, of Georgia, were appointed to run a line between these States.

1818. Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby made a treaty, October 19, with the Chickasaws by which all territory north of 35° and east of the Mississippi was ceded to Tennessee; Isham G. Harris, born at Tullahoma, February 10.

1819. Thirteenth General Assembly met at Murfreesboro; Governor McMinn recommended the establishment of penitentiary; June 6, President Monroe visited Nashville; June 19, all the banks of the State suspend specie payment except Bank of Tennessee; October 19, "Tennessee Antiquarian Society" organized, Judge John Haywood, President.

1820. Alexander Smith, Isaac Allen and Simeon Perry appointed to run the line between North Carolina and Tennessee; General Assembly, second session, met at Murfreesboro, June 26; Tennessee voted for James Monroe for President, and D. D. Tompkins for Vice-President.

1821. Fourteenth General Assembly met, September 17, at Murfreesboro; General Andrew Jackson appointed Territorial Governor of Florida, and Alexander Anderson of Tennessee, United States District Attorney of West Florida.

1822. General Assembly, second session, met at Murfreesboro, July 22 to August 24; it established nine Congressional Districts; swords voted Generals Jackson and Gaines for gallantry in the war of 1812-15.

1823. Fifteenth General Assembly met at Murfreesboro, September 15 to November 29, General Carroll reelected Governor without much opposition; Pioneer established, at Jackson, first newspaper in West Tennessee.

1824. General Assembly, second session, held at Murfreesboro from September 20 to October 22; Presidential vote of Tennessee: Andrew Jackson, twenty thousand one hundred and ninety-seven; Adams, two hundred and sixteen; Crawford, three hundred and twelve.

1825. Sixteenth General Assembly, first session, held at Murfreesboro from September 19 to December 7; General Lafayette visited Nashville.

1826. The Legislature, having met at Murfreesboro from 1819 to 1826, convened the second session at Nashville, October 16, and held to December 11; Memphis Advocate, first newspaper at Memphis, established; the Nashville Bank failed; duel between General William White and Sam Houston; Governor Carroll, in a proclamation, April 8, declared Nashville the Capital of the State from May 1, ensuing.

1827. Seventeenth General Assembly held at Nashville from September 17 to December 15; a fund established for the support of free schools.

1828. Andrew Jackson elected President of the United States, and served from March 4, 1829, till March 4, 1837; Presidential vote of Tennessee: General Jackson, forty-four thousand and ninety; John Q. Adams, two thousand two hundred and forty.

1829. Governor Sam Houston resigned and William Hall, Speaker of the Senate, became Governor; Senator John H. Eaton appointed Secretary of War.

1830. Joel Parrish, Cashier of the Bank of Tennessee, defaulted for two hundred thousand dollars.

1831. Imprisonment for debt abolished; Dr. Gerard Troost appointed State Geologist; John H. Eaton appointed United States Minister to Spain.

1832. Nineteenth General Assembly, second session, held at Nashville from September 3 to October 22; Presidential vote of Tennessee: Jackson, twenty-eight thousand seven hundred and forty; Henry Clay, one thousand four hundred and thirty-six; December 13, cholera declared to exist in Nashville.

1833. Vote for a Constitutional Convention, fifty-three thousand six hundred and thirty-nine; vote for Representatives, ninety thousand seven hundred and eighty-one. Twentieth General Assembly, first session, held at Nashville from September 16 to December 2; cholera in Tennessee.

1834. On the first Thursday and Friday of March an election was held for sixty delegates to Constitutional Convention; it assembled at Nashville, May 19 to August 30, William B. Carter was President, William K. Hill, Secretary; John Bell was Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Congress.

1835. Constitution of 1834 was ratified on March 5 and 6 by forty-two thousand six hundred and sixty-six for, to seventeen thousand six hundred and ninety-one against it.

1836. Governor Cannon convened the Twenty-first General Assembly to defray the expense of the surveys of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad, it met October 3 to 26; March 6, David Crockett was killed at the Alamo.

1837. Twenty-second General Assembly, first session, met in October and adjourned January 27, 1838, Judge John Catron was made Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving till May 8, 1865, when he died at Nashville.

1838. Felix Grundy appointed Attorney-General of the United States, July 7, and served till January 10, 1840.

1839. Governor Sam Houston visited Tennessee; total State school money invested in stocks, eight hundred and thirty-five thousand and thirty-four dollars.

1840. Presidential vote: W. H. Harrison, Whig, sixty thousand three hundred and ninety-one; Martin Van Buren, Democrat, forty-eight thousand two hundred and eighty-nine; April 10, Hugh L. White died at Knoxville; December 19, Felix Grundy died at Nashville.

1841. Twenty-fourth General Assembly met from October 4 to February 7, 1842; President Harrison appointed John Bell, Secretary of War.

1842. P. Lindsley, W. G. Dickson, J. Waters, R. C. K. Martin, J. W. McCombs, J. M. Hill and Wilkins Tannehill commissioned Lunatic Asylum Commissioners.

1843. Twenty-fifth General Assembly held from October 2 to January 31, 1844; Nashville was established the permanent seat of government; Marshal Bertrand, of France, visited Nashville.

1844. James K. Polk was nominated and elected to the Presidency; Henry Clay carried Tennessee over Polk; Governor William Carroll died at Nashville, March 22.

1845. Great Commercial Convention at Memphis, Calhoun, President; Polk inaugurated President, March 4, Cave Johnson appointed Postmaster-General; A. J. Donelson appointed Minister to Prussia; William H. Polk, Minister to Naples; General Robert Armstrong, Consul to Liverpool; Gen. Jackson died June 8, he was born March 15, 1767.

1846. Mexican war declared; Governor Brown called for two thousand eight hundred volunteers, and thirty thousand volunteered; Gideon J. Pillow, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, United States Army; Tennessee furnished one regiment of cavalry and three of infantry to the Mexican war.

1847. Twenty-seventh General Assembly held from October 4 to February 7, 1848; Georgia Railroad completed to Chattanooga.

1848. Presidential vote: Zachary Taylor, Whig, sixty-four thousand seven hundred and five; Lewis Cass, Democrat, fifty-eight thousand four hundred and nineteen; Van Buren, Free Soil, none; first telegraphic dispatch received in Tennessee.

1849. Twenty-eighth General Assembly held from October 4 to February 11, 1850; Neill S. Brown appointed Minister to Russia; cholera visited Tennessee; Tennessee Historical Society established, May 1.

1850. Visitation of cholera in Tennessee.

1851. President Fillmore appointed Luke Lea, Indian Commissioner; Twenty-ninth General Assembly held from October 16 to March 1, 1852.

1852. Whigs carried Tennessee by one thousand eight hundred and eighty majority; Presidential vote: Winfield Scott, Whig, fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight; Franklin Pierce, Democrat, fifty-seven thousand and eighteen; Hale, Free Soil, none; Insane Asylum at Nashville was opened March 1.

1853. Thirtieth General Assembly met in the new Capitol October 3 to March 6, 1854; William Trousdale, Minister to Brazil; John L. Marling, Minister to Venezuela.

1854. Ephraim H. Foster died at Nashville, September 14.

1855. Thirty-first General Assembly met October 1 to March 3, 1856; yellow fever visited Tennessee; Philip Lindsley, a pioneer educator, died May 25.

1856. Government bought the Hermitage for the State for forty-eight thousand dollars; Presidential vote: James Buchanan, Democrat, seventy-three thousand six hundred and thirty-six; Millard Fillmore, sixty-six thousand one hundred and seventeen.

1857. Thirty-second General Assembly held from October 5 to March 22. 1858; Aaron V. Brown appointed Postmaster-General; Southern Commercial Convention held at Knoxville.

1858. James Williams appointed Minister to Turkey; D. W. Ballew and A. L. Burch appointed to run a line between Virginia and Tennessee.

1859. Thirty-third General Assembly met October 3 and adjourned March 26, 1860; Governor Aaron V. Brown died August 15; Governor James C. Jones died October 29; on November 18, Allen A. Hall, editor of the News, killed George G. Poindexter, editor of the Union and American, at Nashville.

1860. Tennessee's Presidential vote: John Bell, Constitutional Unionist, sixty-nine thousand two hundred and seventy-four; John C. Breckinridge, Democrat, sixty-four thousand seven hundred and nine; Stephen A. Douglas, Democrat, eleven thousand three hundred and fifty; Abraham Lincoln, none.

1861. Legislature met, January 7, in extra session; June 24, Governor Harris declared the State out of the Union; August 1, members were elected to the Confederate Congress; war begins.

1862. Battle at Mill Springs, January 18, General Zollicoffer killed; Fort Henry fell, February 6; Fort Donelson surrendered, February 16; Legislature met, February 20, in Memphis; the Federals occupied Nashville, February 25; Andrew Johnson commissioned Military Governor by the United States Government and took charge March 12; battle of Shiloh, April 6-7; Albert Sidney Johnston, Commander of Department of Tennessee, killed April 6; Fort Pillow fell, June 4; Memphis surrendered, June 7.

1863. Battle of Stones River, January 1-2; Brigadier- Generals J. E. Raines killed at Murfreesboro, January 1, and Preston Smith killed at Chickamauga, September 19; President Lincoln appointed Allen A. Hall, Minister to Bolivia.

1864. Union Convention at Nashville, September 5, nominated electors pledged to vote for Lincoln and Johnson, they were elected but not counted by Congress.

1865. The Army of Tennessee, Confederate States of America, under General J. E. Johnston, surrendered, April 26, at Greensboro, North Carolina; General E. Kirby-Smith surrendered, May 26; cavalry force of Lieutenant-General N. B. Forrest, under General Dick Taylor, surrendered at Meridian, Mississippi, May 4; the Constitutional amendments were ratified, February 22, by twenty-five thousand two hundred and ninety-three for, to forty-eight against; Governor Brownlow and the Legislature were elected, March 4; Andrew Johnson qualified as Vice-President, March 4.

1866. Governor Brownlow convened the Legislature, July 4, in extra session to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, it adjourned July 25, the second session convened from November 5 to March 11, 1867; Cave Johnson died at Clarksville, November 23.

1867. The negroes obtained the right of suffrage, February 25; Thirty-fifth General Assembly, first session, met October 7 to March 16, 1868; Governor W. B. Campbell, born at Nashville, February 1, 1807, died August 19, 1867.

1868. D. B. Cliffe was appointed receiver of Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad, January 16, and on July 14, of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad; Legislature met in extra session in July; it met again from October 9 to March 1, 1869.

1869. Legislature met October 4 to March 5, 1870; first time since the war that the Democrats had a majority; Tipton elected Superintendent of Public Schools in August.

1870. Constitutional Convention met at Nashville from January 10 to February 23, John C. Brown, President; Constitution was ratified, March 26, by ninety-eight thousand one hundred and twenty-eight for, to thirty- three thousand eight hundred and seventy-two against it; Thirty-sixth General Assembly, second session, met from May 9 to July 11; it fixed the number of Representatives at seventy-five.

1871. State's debts: forty-one million eight hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred and six dollars and sixty-nine cents; for railroads and turnpikes, thirty-one million three hundred thousand four hundred and seventeen dollars and fourteen cents; State debt proper, four million eight hundred and nineteen thousand five hundred and forty-four dollars and twenty-six cents; bonds indorsed and interest to January 1, 1872, four million seventy-five thousand and twenty-eight dollars; Thomas O'Connor and R. F. Looney lease the penitentiary, November 17; Thirty-seventh General Assembly, first session, met from October 2 to December 16; William Morrow, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex-officio; J. B. Killebrew, Assistant.

1872. Governor Brown convened the Legislature in extra session from March 12 to April 1; Governor Trousdale died, March 27.

1873. Thirty-eighth General Assembly, first session, held from January 6 to March 25 ; it apportioned the State into Congressional Districts; John M. Fleming appointed State Superintendent of Public Schools, March 25.

1874. W. Matt. Brown appointed Warden of the Penitentiary, May 7.

1875. Thirty-ninth General Assembly met from January 4 to March 24; J. B. Killebrew appointed Commissioner of Agriculture, March 6; Leon Trousdale appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction, March 25; Andrew Johnson died, July 31; Horace Maynard appointed Minister to Turkey and served till 1880.

1876. R. P. Neeley appointed receiver of the Mississippi Central & Tennessee Railroad.

1877. Fortieth General Assembly, first session, met from January 1 to March 27; first extra session met December 5 and the second, December 11 ; Governor W. C. Brownlow died at Knoxville, April 29.

1878. Yellow fever raged in West Tennessee.

1879. Forty-first General Assembly, first session, held from January 1 to April 1; Leon Trousdale was appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction; J. B. Killebrew appointed Commissioner of Agriculture; December 16, extra session of the Legislature met and held to December 24.

1880, The Democratic Convention in June named two candidates for Governor; the State Credit faction named John V. Wright, the Low Tax faction nominated S. F. Wilson; the Republicans nominated Alvin G. Hawkins, who was elected.

1881. Forty-second General Assembly, first session, held from January 3 to April 7; A. W. Hawkins was Commissioner of Agriculture; W. S. Doak, Superintendent of Public Instruction; the first extra session of the Legislature held from December 7 to 26.

1882. Forty-second General Assembly, second extra session, met from April 6 to 26; third extra session held from April 27 to May 22.

1883. Forty-third General Assembly, first session, held from January 1 to March 30; J. M. Sa fiord was appointed State Geologist.

1884. Three Republican Railroad Commissioners were elected, November 4, W. W. Murray, A. M. Hughes, and M. J. Condon. Governor Bate, Democrat, defeated Frank T. Reid, Republican, for Governor.

1885. Forty-fourth General Assembly, first session, held from January 5 to April 9; an extra session met from May 25 to June 13, to make appropriations for the year; James D. Porter appointed First Assistant Secretary of State of the United States; J. D. C. Atkins, United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Albert Roberts, United States Consul at Hamilton, Ontario; Peter Staub, United States Consul at Basle, Switzerland; W. R. Hening, United States Consul it Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

1886. Peter Turney, W. C. Caldwell, H. H. Lurton, W. C. Fowlkes and B. L. Snodgrass, Democrats, were elected Supreme Judges; August 5, Governor Neill S. Brown died.

1887. Forty-fifth General Assembly, first session, held from January 3 to March 29; B. M. Hord appointed Commissioner of Agriculture, March 19; F. M. Smith appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction, April 26.

1888. William Park appointed Inspector of Mines to serve until April 1, 1891.

1889. Hon. Robert L. Taylor inaugurated Governor, the second term; the Forty-sixth General Assembly convened at Nashville on the first Monday in January.

1890. John P. Buchanan elected Governor.

1891. Rebellion in the penitentiary occurred; Governor Albert S. Marks died at Nashville, November 4; Forty-seventh General Assembly met on the first Monday in January.

1892. Peter Turney elected Governor.

1893. Remains of Ex-President and Mrs. Polk were removed to the Capitol grounds; Forty-eighth General Assembly met on the first Monday in January.

1894. Democratic Supreme Judges were elected.

1895. Forty-ninth General Assembly convened first Monday in January. Election contest between Turney and Evans for Governor; Evans was qualified, February 6, and thus for a while two Governors existed. Augusts, Judge H. K. Jackson died; S. G. Gilbreath appointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Construction of Centennial Exposition building's begun.

1896. Inaugural Ceremonies of the Tennessee Centennial held June 1 and 2. The Centennial Exposition Committee, because of an insufficiency of funds, and owing to the short time for the promulgation of such a gigantic scheme, deemed it necessary to defer the Exposition until May 1, 1897.

 AHGP Tennessee

Source: History of Tennessee, by George D. Free, A.M., Nashville, Tennessee, 1895-1896.