Tennessee Agricultural Society Broadside
This printed document requests that the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee grant a charter to incorporate the Agricultural Society with power to establish an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm. The petitioning group mentions the benefit to the state of having an educated population of farmers, refers to similar schools in Europe, and points out that the state will soon receive proceeds from the sale of federal lands. The petition is signed in type by the eleven members of the group, including John Shelby, Willo: Williams, T. Fanning, O.G. Finley, Thos. J. Munford, F.H. Gordon, Edmund Dillahunty, Wm S. Waterson, Beverly Nelson, Kelly H. Hynes, and Thomas Jenkins.
Dates
- 1841 October 18
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Extent
0.1 Linear Feet
Abstract
This printed document requests that the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee grant a charter to incorporate the Agricultural Society with power to establish an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm.
Biographical/Historical Note
The Tennessee Agricultural Society was formed in May of 1839. Officers of the society included Dr. John Shelby (Davidson County) as president; F.H. Gordon (Smith County), T. Fanning (Williamson County), and G.W. Gordon (Maury County) as vice presidents; and F.K. Zollicoffer as recording secretary. They began publishing the journal Agriculturalist in January of 1840, with publishers William Cameron and J.T.S. Fall, and co-editors John Shelby, G. Troost, and T. Fanning.
John Shelby was born in 1786 in Sumner County, Tennessee. In 1809, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and married Anna Maria Minnick. He served as a state senator from 1815 to 1817, after which he moved to Nashville to practice medicine. He was the treasurer of the Tennessee State Medical Association from 1838 to 1844 as well as serving as president of the Tennessee Agricultural Society from 1840 to 1849 and again from 1851. He served as the postmaster of Nashville from 1849 to 1853, sat on the board of commissioners for the Tennessee Silk Company and Agricultural School, and helped to establish Tennessee's first insane asylum. Shelby died in May of 1859.
Talbot Fanning was born on May 10, 1810, in Cannon County, Tennessee to William and Nancy (Bromley) Fanning. In addition to editing the Agriculturist from 1840 to 1845, he worked with the Tennessee Silk Company and Agricultural School, was active in the Restoration Movement, and was called the founder of scientific agriculture in Tennessee. Fanning died on May 3, 1874.
Arrangement
This collection consists of a single folder.
Acquisition Note
Special Collections purchased this broadside in 1984.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository