Hemphill family papers, 1784-1966, bulk 1780s-1930s

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Summary

Creator:
Hemphill family
Abstract:
The Hemphill family was based in Abbeville and Charleston, South Carolina, and in Georgia and Texas. Collection includes correspondence, sermons, photographs, journals, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other papers, of William Ramsey Hemphill, Presbyterian minister, and of his sons, James Calvin Hemphill and Robert Reid Hemphill, newspaper editors, and other family members, including John Lind Hemphill, also a minister, and John "Champ" Hemphill, a judge and politician in Texas. The papers document aspects of the Revolutionary War; national, South Carolina, and Texas politics and judiciary; enslavement and emancipation; abolition and temperance; Confederate politics and military campaigns; Reconstruction; postbellum race relations; and journalism. Correspondents include William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark, Grover Cleveland, Josephus Daniels, Jefferson Davis, Francis W. Dawson, Sr., Ellen Glasgow, Carter Glass, Henry P. Grady, Wade Hampton, George Swinton Legaré, William G. McAdoo, William G. McCabe, Adolph S. Ochs, George Washington Ochs, James L. Orr, Walter Hines Page, Joseph Pulitzer, Whitelaw Reid, William Howard Taft, Benjamin R. Tillman, Joseph P. Tumulty, Oscar W. Underwood, Oswald Garrison Villard, Booker T. Washington, and Henry Watterson.
Extent:
30 Linear Feet (50 boxes; 38 volumes)
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.00527

Background

Scope and content:

The Hemphill family was based in Abbeville and Charleston, South Carolina. Collection includes correspondence, sermons, photographs, journals, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other papers, of William Ramsey Hemphill, Presbyterian minister, and of his sons, James Calvin Hemphill and Robert Reid Hemphill, newspaper editors, and other family members, including John Lind Hemphill, also a minister, and John "Champ" Hemphill, a judge and politician in Texas. The papers document aspects of the Revolutionary War; national, South Carolina, and Texas politics and judiciary (1830s-1920s); enslavement and emancipation; abolition and temperance movements; Confederate politics and military campaigns; Reconstruction; race relations; and Southern journalism. Correspondents include William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark, Grover Cleveland, Josephus Daniels, Jefferson Davis, Francis W. Dawson, Sr., Ellen Glasgow, Carter Glass, Henry P. Grady, Wade Hampton, George Swinton Legaré, William G. McAdoo, William G. McCabe, Adolph S. Ochs, George Washington Ochs, James L. Orr, Walter Hines Page, Joseph Pulitzer, Whitelaw Reid, William Howard Taft, Benjamin R. Tillman, Joseph P. Tumulty, Oscar W. Underwood, Oswald Garrison Villard, Booker T. Washington, and Henry Watterson.

There are over 200 photographs, mostly in the form of albumen and gelatin silver prints, along with several tintypes and platinum prints, chiefly Hemphill family portraits, snapshots of the families and their homes, scenes from rural locations, towns, and vacation trips, and studio portraits of related families, friends, and business and military acquaintances. There are many portraits and snapshots of brothers Robert Reid and James Calvin Hemphill taken over their lifespans.

Other papers include invitations, programs, calling cards and other printed materials such as clippings; copies of editorials and speeches by the Hemphills and others; and bills and receipts.

The volumes include: a journal (author unknown) describing a trip to Europe in 1905; letterbooks (1887-1903); scrapbooks of newspaper clippings (1887-1916); and daybooks and other accounting records. Several scrapbooks relate to James Calvin Hemphill's involvement in the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition, 1901-1902.

Biographical / historical:

The papers begin with Reverend John Hemphill (1761-1832), a native of Ireland who migrated to Pennsylvania, and eventually moved to Hopewell, South Carolina, as a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church. He first married Jane Lind, daughter of his professor, the Rev. Matthew Lind of Greencastle, Pennsylvania. They had six children, who included John Harrison and William Ramsey Hemphill, who also became an ARP minister. After the death of his wife in 1809, John Hemphill married Mary Nixon Hemphill, the widow of Dr. James Andrew Hemphill, no relation to John Hemphill. They had four children: Jennet, David, James, and Robert Nixon Hemphill.

John Hemphill's son John Harrison "Champ" Hemphill practiced law in South Carolina, then moved to Texas, where he served as a Chief Justice, congressman, and Confederate Senator. He died of pneumonia in Virginia, 1862, and is buried in Austin, Texas.

William Ramsey Hemphill (1806-1876) and his wife had two daughters, Isabelle Mary (later known as Mary), and Margaret Elizabeth, and three sons, John, Robert, and James Calvin. They owned Lindo, a forced labor plantation in Due West, S.C. Their first son, John Lind Hemphill (1838-1899), was pastor of the ARP church in Moreland, Georgia until his death, and made his home in Newnan, Georgia. He served in the Confederate Army and was taken prisoner; his time in prison affected his health for the rest of his life. He and Nancy Hannah McKemy married and had one son, also John Lind.

Robert Reid Hemphill, the second son, was born May 3, 1840 in the Calhoun Section of Abbeville County, on his father's plantation, Lindo. He attended Erskine College. For a short while he edited the Abbeville Medium and then moved into politics, serving in the state senate. He also served in the Confederate Army and was imprisoned in Baltimore; he represented South Carolina at Jefferson Davis's funeral. He and his wife Eugenia Brewton Hemphill had nine children. He died December 28, 1908, at his home in the section of Abbeville called Fort Pickens.

James Calvin (J.C.) Hemphill, was born in Due West, South Carolina, on May 18, 1850. He attended Erskine College, where he earned a A.B. (1870), A.M. (1872), and LL.D. (1909). James Calvin Hemphill married Rebecca M. True on November 19, 1878; she was the daughter of the Reverend C. K. True of Flushing, Long Island. They had no children. James Calvin worked briefly as a teacher at Lowell, Kentucky, in 1870, but spent the majority of his career as a journalist. He was the editor of the South Carolina Abbeville Medium, 1871-1880; chief of the Columbia bureau, 1881-1882; city editor and acting manager, 1886-1888; and manager and editor-in-chief of the Charleston News and Courier, 1888-1910. He then was editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch, 1910-1911; editor of the Charlotte Observer, 1911; on the editorial staff of the New York Times, 1912; was Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger; and was editor of the Spartanburg Journal for five years. Aside from his journalism career, James Calvin Hemphill was an active Democrat. He was an organizer and board member of the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition at Charleston, 1901-1902. He died in Abbeville, South Carolina, on November 20, 1927.

There is additional genealogical information about the Hemphill family in information folders in the collection.

Acquisition information:
The Hemphill family papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from Hemphill family descendants from 1950-1981.
Processing information:

Processed and described by Rubenstein Library Staff, 1993.

Encoded by Meghan Lyon, February 2011.

Photographs rehoused and description enhanced by Paula Jeannet, April 2023.

Reparative description of collection by Paula Jeannet, April 2023.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged in the following series: Correspondence, Sermons, Writings and Addresses, Financial Papers, Legal Papers, Photographs, Print Materials and Manuscript Volumes, Other Papers, Oversize Materials, and Volumes.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
African Americans -- South Carolina
Antislavery movements -- United States
Clergy -- Correspondence
Freed persons -- Southern States -- 19th century
Journalism -- United States -- History
Journalists -- Correspondence
Lawyers -- South Carolina
Presbyterian Church -- Clergy
Presbyterian Church -- South Carolina -- History
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Repatriation -- Africa -- History
Temperance
Slavery -- South Carolina -- History -- 19th century
Format:
Account books
Albumen prints
Black-and-white photographs
Gelatin silver prints
Journals (accounts)
Letter books
Scrapbooks
Tintypes (prints)
Names:
American Colonization Society
Page, Walter Hines, 1855-1918
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1809
Elder, Matthew, Jr., 1813-1892
Hemphill, Robert Reid, 1840-1908
Hemphill, J. C. (James Calvin), 1850-1927
Places:
Abbeville (S.C.) -- History
Charleston (S.C.) -- History -- 19th century
Charleston (S.C.) -- Photographs
Confederate States of America -- History, Military
Confederate States of America -- Politics and government
Due West (S.C.) -- History -- 19th century
South Carolina -- History -- 1775-1865
South Carolina -- History -- 1865-
South Carolina -- Photographs
South Carolina -- Politics and government
South Carolina -- Race relations
Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1865
Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950
United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century

Contents

Using These Materials

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Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Hemphill family papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m17327