John Price Buchannan

Buchanan, spelled with two n's on the marker, came to office as the Farmers' Alliance's own man and left it shadowed by a convict-labor war. He founded the Tennessee Farmers' Alliance in 1888 and led the merged Farmers' and Laborers' Union a year later. After winning the governorship in 1890, he found that the so-called Farmer Legislature produced little for farmers. Uprisings by East Tennessee coal miners against convict leasing marred his term; he enforced the law, appeared weak to both sides, and lost the 1892 nomination to Peter Turney.

What the plaque says

John Price Buchannan Born 3 miles, NE, Oct. 24,1847; member of the Legislature, 1887 to 1891, he was governor from 1891 to 1893. Elected by a farmer-labor coalition, his administration was marked by labor unrest and reform, extension of the public school system, and granting of Confederate pensions. He died May 14, 1930, and is buried in Murfreesboro.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — 1.9 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Fort Negley — 16 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 17 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 17 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.

More markers nearby

• John H. Eaton — 0.3 mi
• Historic Franklin Masonic Hall — 0.3 mi
• Union Headquarters — 0.4 mi
• Liberty and Justice for All, Denied — 0.4 mi