Robert Looney Caruthers was born in Smith County, Tennessee on July 31, 1800. He attended Greenville College in 1820 and 1821 and, after studying law, was admitted to the bar in 1823. After several government support positions, he was elected as a Tennessee state representative in 1835. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1841 to 1843 as a Whig. In 1852, he was appointed as justice of the Tennessee Supreme court, and then elected to that position in 1854. In 1861, he was a member of the peace convention in Washington, DC that tried to prevent the Civil War, and in August of that year, he served as a delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress. In 1862, he was elected governor of confederate Tennessee, but the federal government had placed Andrew Johnson as military governor, so Caruthers was never sworn in.

In 1842, Caruthers helped to found Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and added a law school in 1847. After the Civil War, he served as a law professor in this school until his death on October 2, 1882. He is buried in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Cave Johnson was born to Thomas and Mary (Noel) Johnson in Robertson County, Tennessee on January 11, 1793. He attended Cumberland College in Nashville, Tennessee, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1814. He began practicing law in Clarksville, Tennessee and served as the Prosecuting Attorney of Montgomery County (1817) before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Jacksonian in 1829. Johnson served in this capacity until 1837 and was reelected to the House as a Democrat in 1839. He continued in this position until 1845, when he was appointed Postmaster General of the United States. Johnson went on to serve as the Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court (1850 and 1851), as President of the Bank of Tennessee (1854-1860), and as the U.S. Commissioner in settling the affairs of the U.S. and the Paraguay Navigation Company (1860). During the Civil War, Johnson was a reluctant Confederate and surrendered Clarksville to Union forces on February 20, 1862. He received a presidential pardon and was elected to the State Senate in 1866, but the prevailing Brownlow forces refused to allow him to take his seat. Cave Johnson died in Clarksville on November 23, 1866, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.