John M. Fleming
| John M. Fleming | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from Knox County |
|
|
In office October 7, 1861 – February 1862 |
|
| Preceded by | John Williams |
| Succeeded by | William Heiskell |
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In office October 4, 1869 – September 30, 1871 |
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| Preceded by | L.M. Mynatt |
| Succeeded by | Charles McClung McGhee |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 12, 1832 Rogersville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 1900 (aged 67) Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Resting place |
Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Political party |
Whig Know Nothing Unionist Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Howard Boyd |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Emory and Henry College |
| Occupation | Attorney, newspaper editor |
John Miller Fleming (December 12, 1832 – October 28, 1900) was an American newspaper editor, attorney and politician, active primarily in Tennessee during the latter half of the 19th century. He rose to prominence as editor of the Knoxville Register in the late 1850s, and worked as the editor of various newspapers, including the Knoxville Press and Herald, the Knoxville Tribune (which he cofounded), and the Knoxville Sentinel, in the decades following the Civil War. He also served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, and was appointed Tennessee's first Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1873.
Fleming campaigned against secession on the eve of the Civil War, and served as secretary of the pro-Union East Tennessee Convention in 1861. After the war, he opposed the policies of Governor William G. Brownlow and the Radical Republicans.
Fleming was born in Rogersville, Tennessee, the son of David Fleming, a Methodist minister, and Mary (Miller) Fleming. He studied at Emory and Henry College, graduating in 1851 after winning the school's Robertson prize medal for oratory. During the early 1850s, he taught at the Rittenhouse Academy in Kingston, Tennessee.
In May 1855, Fleming was hired as editor of the Knoxville Register, a newspaper that had been published in Knoxville since 1816. Like many Tennessee Whigs, Fleming threw his support behind the nativist Know Nothing movement after the collapse of the national Whig Party in the mid-1850s. Arguing that "Americans should rule America," Fleming used the columns of the Register to support the presidential candidacy of Millard Fillmore and the gubernatorial candidacy of Meredith Poindexter Gentry, and criticized Governor Andrew Johnson and other Democrats. One newspaper described Fleming's Register as the most "violent know-nothing Fillmore journal in the State."
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