22 Facts About John Netherland

John Netherland was an American attorney and politician, active primarily in mid-19th century Tennessee.

Young John Netherland was educated at Tusculum Academy under famed frontier preacher Samuel Doak, and read law with Judge Samuel Powell.

John Netherland was admitted to the bar in 1829, and briefly moved to Franklin, Tennessee, before returning to Kingsport upon the death of his father.

John Netherland was elected to the 1st district's seat in the state senate in 1833, when he was just 25 years old.

John Netherland did win election to Sullivan County's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

John Netherland aligned himself with the burgeoning Whig Party, which generally opposed the policies of the Jackson administration.

In 1837, John Netherland moved to Rogersville, Tennessee, in nearby Hawkins County, where he would live for the rest of his life.

John Netherland ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature in 1841, losing by a narrow margin.

In 1846, John Netherland successfully defended a group of Melungeons who had been charged with illegally voting.

In 1851, John Netherland was elected to the Hawkins County seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In October 1852, John Netherland was badly injured in a wagon accident while travelling to Calhoun, Tennessee, with Gustavus Henry and Charles McClung McGhee to stump for Scott.

In 1859, this party nominated Netherland to run for governor against the pro-secession incumbent, Isham G Harris.

John Netherland, arguing the bank provided money for the state's education fund, supported it.

Historian Oliver Perry Temple, a fellow Whig and friend of John Netherland, suggested that John Netherland lacked intellectual curiosity and was not very well-read, and instead relied on his "exceptionally superior" common sense and "irresistible humor" when campaigning.

On election day, Harris defeated John Netherland, winning 76,073 votes to John Netherland's 68,042.

In February 1861, John Netherland was Hawkins' pro-Union candidate for the proposed state convention to consider secession.

John Netherland was a member of the Hawkins County delegation at the Greeneville session of the East Tennessee Convention, which met a few days after the state voted to secede.

John Netherland opposed a motion calling for the use of force if the legislature refused, and repeatedly stressed caution.

In 1864, Netherland supported the Democratic presidential candidate, George B McClellan, in his failed race against Lincoln.

John Netherland was a delegate to the 1870 state constitutional convention, which created the present Tennessee state constitution.

When he died, he is said to have uttered, "old John Netherland's gone, and young John Netherland's gone, and Sarah's gone, and Molly's gone," referring to his son, wife, and daughter, who all preceded him in death.

John Netherland was buried at the McKinney Cemetery in Rogersville.