Hemphill, W. A.

The Atlanta Constitution was founded when Carey Wentworth Styles and two partners, James H. Anderson and W. A. Hemphill bought the Atlanta Daily Opinion newspaper and renamed it The Atlanta Constitution, beginning publication on June 16, 1868. A charter subscription to this early paper cost $10 a year, $1 a month. Atlanta was still under martial law during the Reconstruction era. The founders advocated the return of a constitutional government as had existed before the Civil War, thus the name. Styles sold out to Hemphill and his future father-in-law Anderson six months later. Not long after that Anderson turned his share over to Hemphill who was then the controlling stockholder until 1876.