Henry Hollis Horton (February 17, 1866 – July 2, 1934) was an American attorney, farmer and politician who served as the 36th
Governor of Tennessee
The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state.
The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
from 1927 to 1933. He was elevated to the position when Governor
Austin Peay
Austin Peay (June 1, 1876 – October 2, 1927) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of Tennessee from 1923 to 1927. He was the state's first governor since the Civil War to win three consecutive terms and the first to die ...
died in office, and as Speaker of the
Tennessee Senate
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any issue rega ...
, he was first in the line of succession.
[ He was subsequently elected to two more two-year terms.
Horton's tenure as governor was marred by a scandal after the Stock Market crash in 1929. The related collapse of the financial empires of his political allies, Luke Lea and Rogers Caldwell, cost the state more than $6 million in funds deposited in their banks by Horton's administration. The legislature voted to impeach the governor, but the measure did not carry and he served out his term.][Jeanette Keith,]
Henry Horton
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: 9 December 2012. He retired from politics and returned to his farm in Marshall County.
Early life
Horton was born in 1866 in the Princeton community of Jackson County, Alabama
Jackson County is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 52,579. The county seat is Scottsboro. The county was named for Andrew Jackson, general in the United States Army and afterw ...
, one of 12 children of Henry Hollis Horton, a Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
minister, and Anne (Moore) Horton.[Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 312-318.] He attended Scottsboro Academy in Scottsboro, Alabama
Scottsboro is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Alabama, United States. The city was named for its founder Robert T. Scott. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 14,770.
From its incorporation in 1870 until 1890, ...
, before graduating from Winchester College in Winchester, Tennessee
Winchester is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Tennessee, Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Tullahoma micropolitan area, Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Winchester as ...
, in 1888. He moved to Hillsboro, Texas
Hillsboro is a city in and the county seat of Hill County, Texas, Hill County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,221 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Hillsboro was named for Hill County.
At one point during Bon ...
to teach school, but returned to Tennessee after about a year. He attended the University of the South
The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of ...
in Sewanee Sewanee may refer to:
* Sewanee, Tennessee
* Sewanee: The University of the South
* ''The Sewanee Review'', an American literary magazine established in 1892
* Sewanee Natural Bridge
* Saint Andrews-Sewanee School
See also
* Suwanee (disambiguati ...
in the early 1890s to study law.
Horton was admitted to the bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
in 1894, and practiced law in Franklin County.[Nancy Capace, ]
Encyclopedia of Tennessee
' (North American Book Dist. LLC, 2000), pp. 139-140. He held various local offices, including school director and election commissioner, and worked as director of the Home Bank of Winchester.
Marriage and family
Horton married Adeline Wilhoite in 1896. They had one son.
Early political career
Horton was elected to represent Franklin County for one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Constitutional requirements
According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...
, from 1907 to 1909. He was a supporter of prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
.
In 1911, Horton and his family moved to Marshall County, Tennessee
Marshall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,318. Its county seat is Lewisburg. Marshall County comprises the Lewisburg Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included ...
. He operated a farm and mill that had been established by his in-laws, the Wilhoites, on the Duck River near Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia
*Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
*Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area
Canada
* Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...
.
Governor
Horton was elected to the Tennessee Senate
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any issue rega ...
in 1926 for the district of Marshall and Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
counties. He served as Speaker of the Senate from 1926-1927. When Governor Austin Peay
Austin Peay (June 1, 1876 – October 2, 1927) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of Tennessee from 1923 to 1927. He was the state's first governor since the Civil War to win three consecutive terms and the first to die ...
died in office on October 2, 1927, Horton became governor according to Tennessee’s gubernatorial succession law.
Unfamiliar with running a statewide campaign, Horton turned to Peay's longtime adviser, Luke Lea, publisher of the ''Nashville Tennessean
''The Tennessean'' (known until 1972 as ''The Nashville Tennessean'') is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, w ...
'', to help him win reelection in 1928. Lea's rivals, Memphis political boss E. H. Crump
Edward Hull "Boss" Crump Jr. (October 2, 1874 – October 16, 1954) was an American politician from Memphis, Tennessee. Representing the Democratic Party, he was the dominant force in the city's politics for most of the first half of the 20t ...
and Nashville political boss Hilary Howse, endorsed Hill McAlister
Harry Hill McAlister (July 15, 1875 – October 30, 1959) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th governor of Tennessee from 1933 to 1937. He also served as Nashville's city attorney in the early 1900s, and as Tennessee's sta ...
, who had been defeated by Peay in 1926. A third candidate, Lewis S. Pope, also sought the Democratic nomination, and had the backing of Peay's widow. After a hard-fought primary campaign, Horton won the nomination with 97,333 votes to 92,017 for McAlister, and 27,779 for Pope. In the general election, he defeated the Republican candidate, Raleigh Hopkins, 195,546 votes to 124,733.
During Horton's second term, he and Lea began using state patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
to distribute jobs in Memphis in an attempt to weaken Crump's influence there. Crump, who was running for Congress and wanted to focus on his own campaign, agreed to support Horton in the 1930 governor's race if he and Lea would stop providing patronage to his foes. With Crump out of the way, Horton defeated his chief opponent, Lambert Estes Gwinn
Lambert Estes Gwinn (February 19, 1884 – December 4, 1958) was a Tennessee educator, politician, and attorney. He served as a state senator (1919–1921) and ran for governor in the Democratic primaries in 1922 and 1930. As a prominent crimi ...
, 123,642 to 88,416 in the Democratic primary. He defeated C. Arthur Bruce in the general election, winning 144,995 votes to Bruce's 101,285.
Four days after Horton was reelected governor, the Bank of Tennessee, owned by Lea associate Rogers Caldwell, was declared insolvent
In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company (debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet inso ...
following the stock market crash in 1929, and Caldwell’s banks throughout the South soon followed. Horton had deposited more than $6 million in state funds in Caldwell's banks, all of which was lost.
A Tennessee General Assembly investigation produced charges that Horton had conspired with Lea and Caldwell to run branches of state government for their own financial gain in exchange for Lea’s political support. Crump and his allies assailed Horton for depositing state funds in the banks of his political allies. They also attacked Horton for awarding no-bid contract Multisourcing is the concept of working with multiple suppliers who are also competitors. Large-scale buyers, such as the U.S. federal government, may want to feel assured that there is more than one supplier for an item.
It has been described as t ...
s to Caldwell's road-paving company, Kyrock. A motion calling for Horton's impeachment
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.
In ...
was voted on by the state House in June 1931, but the motion failed, 58 to 41. Horton finished his term and did not seek reelection.
During Horton's tenure as governor, he continued most of Peay's reform initiatives. He abolished a land tax that had been unpopular with farmers, established a parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
board, created a state division of aeronautics, and developed a secondary state highway system. He supported statues of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
and John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
being placed in Statuary Hall
The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along th ...
in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Later life and legacy
Following his final term as governor, Horton retired to his farm in Marshall County. He died from an apparent stroke on July 2, 1934. He was buried in Lewisburg, Tennessee
Lewisburg is a city in, and the county seat of Marshall County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 12,288 in 2020. Lewisburg is located in Middle Tennessee, fifty miles south of Nashville and fifty-two miles north of Huntsville, Alabam ...
.
In 1961, the state purchased Horton's Marshall County farm from his heirs. It adapted the land for use as Henry Horton State Park
Henry Horton State Park is an American state park located near Chapel Hill, Tennessee. It was constructed in the 1960's on the estate of the former Governor of Tennessee Henry Horton. The park offers various outdoor recreational activities ...
, dedicated to his memory. The ruins of a mill operated by Horton and his in-laws, the Wilhoites, still stand in the park.
A portion of U.S. Route 31 in Marshall County has been named in Horton's honor.
See also
*List of governors of Tennessee
The term of the governor of Tennessee is limited by the state constitution. The first constitution, enacted in 1796, set a term of two years for the governor and provided that no person could serve as governor for more than 6 years in any 8-year ...
References
External links
Governor Henry H. Horton Papers (finding aid)
– Tennessee State Library and Archives
– entry at the National Governors Association
The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...
Portrait painting of Governor Horton
– Tennessee Portrait Project
Profile photograph of Governor Horton
– Tennessee State Library and Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Henry Hollis
1866 births
1934 deaths
Democratic Party governors of Tennessee
Democratic Party Tennessee state senators
People from Chapel Hill, Tennessee
People from Jackson County, Alabama
20th-century American politicians