Henry Hollis Horton
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Henry Hollis Horton (1866 – 1934) was Governor of Tennessee from 1927 to 1933.
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 2005, 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 and 1930. 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.