{{Short description|Confederate Army officer (1842–1902)}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = William Hemphill | image = William Arnold Hemphill (1842–1902).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = William Arnold Hemphill | birth_date = {{Birth date|1842|05|05}} | birth_place = Athens, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1902|08|17|1842|05|05}} | death_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | resting_place = Oakland Cemetery | other_names = | occupation = Businessman, politician | spouse = {{Marriage|Emma B. Luckie|1871}} | children = | awards = | education = University of Georgia | party = | signature = Signature of William Arnold Hemphill (1842–1902).png | office = Mayor of Atlanta | term_start = 1891 | term_end = 1893 }} '''William Arnold Hemphill''' (May 5, 1842 – August 17, 1902)<ref>[http://garrett.atlantahistorycenter.com/gdetail.php?idnum=33392 Franklin Garrett Necrology Database - Atlanta History Center]</ref> was an American businessman and politician who served as Mayor of Atlanta from 1891 to 1893.

==Biography== ===Early years and education=== Hemphill was born on May 5, 1842, in Athens, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1861 in engineering.<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/08/18/118475805.pdf|title=Ex-Mayor William A. Hemphill|work=The New York Times|date=August 18, 1902|access-date=2021-04-13}}</ref><ref name="Oakland">{{cite web|url=https://oaklandcemetery.com/oakland-resident-spotlight-mayor-william-arnold-hemphill/|title=Oakland Resident Spotlight: Mayor William Arnold Hemphill|publisher=Historic Oakland Cemetery Foundation|first=Larry|last=Upthegrove|date=August 18, 2016|access-date=2021-04-13|archive-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407045227/https://oaklandcemetery.com/oakland-resident-spotlight-mayor-william-arnold-hemphill/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Business ventures=== At the beginning of the Civil War Hemphill joined the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of colonel.<ref name="Nixon" /><ref name="Knight1917">{{cite book|author=Lucian Lamar Knight|title=A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0NEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA2348|year=1917|publisher=Lewis publishing Company|pages=2348–2349}}</ref> He suffered a serious head wound at the Battle of Gettysburg.<ref name="Oakland" /> After the war, he moved to Atlanta in 1867, to teach. Within one year, Hemphill accepted an offer from Carey Wentworth Styles, to become the business manager and co-owner in a new joint venture with Styles and James Anderson.<ref name="AJC" /> They had just purchased a small newspaper, the ''Atlanta Daily Opinion'' which they renamed. ''The Constitution'' was first published under that name on June 16, 1868.<ref name="AJC" /> Styles quickly fell into financial difficulty, when he was unable to sell his interests in a struggling Albany, Georgia newspaper, ''The Albany News''. With his inability to raise capital, Styles could not pay for his purchase of ''The Constitution''. His ownership in the newspaper was assumed by Anderson and Hemphill. Hemphill, who became Anderson's son-in-law in the subsequent six months (having married Emma B. Luckie in 1871<ref name=NYTobit/><ref name=Cyclopaedia>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lcVKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=I |publisher=James T. White & Company |page=277 |year=1893 |access-date=2021-04-13 |via=Google Books}}</ref>) was placed in full charge of the Atlanta publication. Hemphill continued in his position as business manager of the paper until 1901.<ref name="Nixon">{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=19556720&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM5NzkxNTk5MSwiaWF0IjoxNTU0NjA4NTYyLCJleHAiOjE1NTQ2OTQ5NjJ9.g8sYKoPF93l05M2pRKS_i3DlmYYd_T8ANWxQsr4movU|title=Constitution's Founder Fought for Georgia with Pen and Sword|publisher=The Atlanta Constitution|author=Raymond B. Nixon|date=June 17, 1945|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref> Hemphill's business acumen helped get the fledgling newspaper on sound financial footing. In active competition with other Atlanta newspapers, Hemphill hired special trains (one engine and car) to deliver newspapers to the Macon marketplace.<ref name="Fourth">{{cite book|title=Fourth Estate: A Weekly Newspaper for Publishers, Advertisers, Advertising Agents and Allied Interests|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gThKAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA19-PA16|year=1917|publisher=Fourth Estate Publishing Company|page=16}}</ref> In 1870 Anderson sold his one half interest in the paper to Col. E. Y. Clarke.<ref name="Fourth" /><ref name="Reed1889">{{cite book|author=Wallace Putnam Reed|title=History of Atlanta, Georgia: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpgO3_OF724C&pg=PA409|year=1889|publisher=D. Mason & Company|page=409|isbn=9780722208724}}</ref> In 1876 Clarke sold his half interest in the paper to Evan Howell.<ref name="Fourth" /> Howell's family would come to own ''The Atlanta Constitution'' from 1902 to 1950.<ref name="AJC">{{cite web|url=https://www.ajc.com/about/ajc-history/|title=AJC History: The Story of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution|publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|date=2019|access-date=April 7, 2019|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401125441/https://www.ajc.com/about/ajc-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1883, Hemphill was one of a group of investors who incorporated the Fulton County Street Railroad (horse cars), which was later electrified, and became famous for its Nine-Mile Circle route to what is now Virginia-Highland.<ref name="Oakland" />

===Political service=== Hemphill was first elected to the position of (Atlanta) city councilman-at-large in 1887, the same year he began an unsuccessful banking career. The next few years he served as president of the board of education and in 1889 added alderman duties.

While still in control of the Constitution in 1890 he defeated a Black mayoral candidate known now only as "McKinley", by 1,773 votes, and took office the next year.<ref name="Garrett1969">{{cite book|author=Franklin Miller Garrett|title=Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CF49PqgO33AC|date=1 June 1969|publisher=University of Georgia Press|pages=226–248|isbn=978-0-8203-0264-5}}</ref>

During his tenure the first building of what became Grady Memorial Hospital was built and a fresh-water pumping station was established on the Chattahoochee River replacing the need for various wells and cisterns (for fires).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://h2o4atl.com/makinghistory/|title=Making History|publisher=City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref> Part of the {{convert|55|acre|m2}} purchased for the associated reservoir included a newly built street named in his honor{{spaced ndash}}Hemphill Ave.

After leaving office, Hemphill read about the Cotton Palace in Waco, Texas, and suggested that Atlanta could stimulate growth by hosting what would become the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895.<ref name="Oakland" /> He later served as vice president and director of the Exposition.<ref name="Knight1917" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/hemphill511/|title=William Arnold Hemphill collection, 1898–1902|publisher=Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Cooper1896">{{cite book|author=Walter Gerald Cooper|title=The Cotton States and International Exposition and South, Illustrated: Including the Official History of the Exposition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8E2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA143|year=1896|publisher=Illustrator Company|page=143}}</ref>

==Death and legacy== Hemphill died in Atlanta on August 17, 1902, from injuries sustained in a fall.<ref name=NYTobit/> He is buried at Oakland Cemetery there.<ref name="Oakland" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c06?seq=21 ''History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed'', Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, p.684] *[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20926302/carey_wentworth_styles_founder_of_the/ Photograph: Carey Wentworth Styles, founder of The Atlanta Constitution] *[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zf7h William Arnold Hemphill collection, 1898-1902]

{{s-start}} {{succession box|title=Mayor of Atlanta |before=John Thomas Glenn|after=John B. Goodwin| years=January 1891{{spaced ndash}}January 1893}} {{s-end}}

{{Mayors of Atlanta}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemphill, William}} Category:1842 births Category:1902 deaths Category:19th-century mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Mayors of Atlanta Category:University of Georgia alumni Category:Confederate States Army officers Category:Politicians from Athens, Georgia