J. Will Taylor

Taylor taught school to pay for law school at Cumberland, then built a career in La Follette: postmaster at 24, mayor in 1910, state insurance commissioner in 1913. Through the Republican 1920s he controlled federal patronage in Tennessee, and critics accused him of collecting political tribute from appointees, though a federal grand jury did not indict him. He backed the Tennessee Valley Authority, lost his patronage power when Roosevelt won in 1932 and nearly lost his seat in 1936. He died at home in La Follette after a heart attack in November 1939.

What the plaque says

J. Will Taylor Congressman J. Will Taylor was born in Lead Mine Bend. His first job, at age 13, was leading a mule for 25 cents a day at the New Prospect Mine located here. From 1917 to 1918 he was chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee. He was elected from the 2nd Congressional District to the U. S. Congress, where he served from 1919 to 1939. From 1929 to 1939 he was a member of the Republican National Executive Committee. While in Congress for 20 years, he served during the terms of five presidents.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, and the Wilderness Road — 17 mi
  The Claiborne County town below the notch in Cumberland Mountain where Daniel Boone's axmen widened the Warriors' Path into the Wilderness Road in 1775, now bypassed by a tunnel.
• Norris Dam and Norris Dam State Park — 20 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.
• Museum of Appalachia — 21 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.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 27 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.

More markers nearby

• Walker's Ford — 5.8 mi
• Barren Creek Dam Failures — 7.8 mi
• Yoakum's Station — 8.3 mi
• Roy Acuff — 9.0 mi