John P. Buchanan

John Price Buchanan (October 24, 1847 – May 14, 1930) was an American politician and farmers' advocate. He served as the 25th governor of Tennessee from 1891 to 1893, and was president of the Tennessee Farmers' Alliance and Laborers' Union in the late 1880s. Buchanan's lone term as governor was largely marred by the Coal Creek War, an armed uprising by coal miners aimed at ending the state's convict lease system.

Early life

Buchanan was born on October 24, 1847 in Williamson County, Tennessee, the son of Thomas and Rebecca (Shannon) Buchanan. He attended common schools, and joined the Confederate Army as a private in the Fourth Alabama Cavalry in 1864. After the war, he moved to Rutherford County, Tennessee, where he engaged in farming and livestock breeding. He was elected to the county's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1886, and again in 1888. Governor William B. Bate had established a railroad commission during his first term, but the party's Bourbon and industrial wings repealed the act authorizing this commission in 1885, leaving farmers outraged. The state's farmers formed a chapter of the Farmers' Alliance, the Tennessee Farmers' Alliance, which elected Buchanan its first president in 1888.

After his inauguration in early 1891, Buchanan, working with a coalition of Hayseed Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature, enacted several measures aimed at helping farmers and labor, including laws regulating fertilizer products and recognizing Labor Day, restrictions on foreign companies doing business in Tennessee, His family was among the earliest to settle in the Nashville area, and constructed Buchanan's Station south of the city in the 1780s. Buchanan's younger brother, James S. Buchanan, served as president of the University of Oklahoma in the 1920s.

Buchanan married Frances McGill in 1867. They had nine children. Buchanan's grandson, James M. Buchanan (1919–2013), was a noted economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1986.