Horace Maynard

Maynard first made his name defending Union County against a suit by Knox County residents who objected to its creation, and the grateful county named its seat for him. Elected to Congress in 1857 on the American, or Know-Nothing, ticket, he won again as an Oppositionist and in 1861 as a Unionist. After Lincoln's election he canvassed East Tennessee against secession and kept his seat afterward. Military governor Andrew Johnson made him state attorney general in 1863. Grant sent him to Turkey in 1875, and Hayes named him postmaster general in 1880.

What the plaque says

Horace Maynard 1814-1882 Horace Maynard was born on August 30, 1814, in Massachusetts. A graduate of Amherst College, he taught at East Tennessee College, later the University of Tennessee. Also a lawyer, he was counsel for the establishment of Union County in 1850, and Maynardville was named in his honor. Elected to Congress in 1857, he served until 1863. After the Civil War, Maynard was reelected to Congress in 1866 and served until 1875, when he was appointed Minister to Turkey. United States Postmaster General from 1880 to 1881, Maynard died in Knoxville on May 3, 1882.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Appalachia — 16 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.
• Norris Dam and Norris Dam State Park — 16 mi
  TVA's first dam, finished in 1936 on the Clinch River, and the state park beside it with the 1798 Rice Grist Mill, built for a valley whose families were moved out.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 20 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 21 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.

More markers nearby

• Roy Acuff — steps away
• Walker's Ford — 6.6 mi
• Albert Miller Lea — 8.2 mi
• Emory Road — 8.4 mi