In the summer of 1952, an expert hillbilly fiddler from the mountains of Tennessee became a member of the “world's most exclusive club.”

On 04-05-1871, the "impromptu stump speaker," a political fixture, was intellectually known as a "human nondescript." He was likened to a kind of terribly crushed meat, specially salted, saged and peppered, which became known as "souce" (from the Latin word "salsas," (which is always ready for use).

A stump speech is "a standard campaign vocalization used by someone running for public office." The term is derived from the early American custom in which candidates campaigned from town-to-town and stood upon a sawed off tree stump to deliver their discourse."

The word "impromptu" fit him well because of his busy pace of campaigning, which often included addressing folks several times a day. The candidate usually penned a single speech to be delivered at most, if not all, public gatherings.

Nashville was decorated and adorned on every street to welcome President William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States and his party on their visit to the first Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Their special train arrived at 8 a.m. and Mr. McKinley and his fellow travelers were escorted to the Maxwell House by a squad of mounted ex-Confederate soldiers wearing the uniform of the "lost cause."

Andrew Johnson Stover was a grandson of Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States. As a child, he frolicked about the White House and lawn and became a favorite of the political brass of his day. His lifestyle later changed dramatically when he left the nation's capital to became a hunter and a trapper, dwelling in a rudimentary log house insulated with clay in the Holston Mountains of East Tennessee.

An old newspaper from July 1901 dealt with three news items: the visit of William Jennings Bryan to Bristol, the arrival of the Secretary of Agriculture to consider a proposed Appalachian Park reserve and the death of a Blountville Civil War veteran.

Walter Preston Brownlow, a prominent name among East Tennesseans, worked in 1876 as a reporter for the Knoxville Whig and Chronicle and that same year purchased the Herald and Tribune in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He served as Tennessee's 1st district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1896 until his passing in on July 8, 1910.

In April 1891, two years after being in office, President Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), the 23rd President of the United States (grandson of William Henry Harrison, the 9th President) had begun what was widely regarded as a perilous 9,000-mile journey by train.  After the President rolled out of Washington Station, the next morning's newspapers were studded with quotes at each brief stop of well-expressed speeches for which he was known.

May 31, 1909 was a momentous day in Greeneville, Tennessee - the former 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was eulogized. He lay at rest among the sprawling greenery in the National Cemetery, which for the previous 34 years had served as the resting place for the remains of the former president.

Robert "Bob" Taylor and Alfred "Alf" Taylor are notable in Tennessee for their legendary 1886 brother-against-brother "War of the Roses" gubernatorial campaign, acquiring its colorful name from the original 1455-85 “War of the Roses” conflict fought for the throne of England between supporters of the houses of Lancaster (red roses) and York (white ones). Bob emerged the victor.

In the spring of 1946, Republican legislators were lining up behind Representative B. (Brazilla) Carroll Reece of Tennessee to succeed Herbert Brownell Jr. as GOP National Committee chairman. Mr. Reece, 56 year-old representative from the Volunteer State's 1st Congressional District, if selected, was eager to resign from Congress and take over the party chairmanship on a full-time basis.