REV. WILLIAM RAMSEY HEMPHILL
1806 — 1876

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Born in Hopewell, Chester County, South Carolina on March 14, 1806, William Ramsey Hemphill was a son of Rev. John Hemphill, D. D., a conspicuous figure in the history of the Associate Reformed Church for the first quarter of the 19th century.
It seems that he was kept back several years from his educational pursuits, being engaged with his brother in a mercantile business in Providence, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina but in 1831 he entered Jefferson College, Pa., then under the Presidency of Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D. Later he entered the junior class and on the 4th of Oct., 1833, obtained a diploma.

At the age of seventeen he had been admitted to the communion of the Church, being examined on that occasion by the Rev. William Blackstock, who happened to be present as an assistant to his father, and after his graduation he turned his attention to theology and entered the Seminary at Allegheny, at that time under the presidency of Dr. John T. Pressly.

He attached himself to one of the Presbyteries about Pittsburg during his theological course, but that Presbytery refused to license him on the ground that the candidate was suspected of being somewhat heterodox on the subject of slavery. He returned South, and was licensed by the First Presbytery in June, 1836.

In June of 1837, he was ordained and installed by the Second Presbytery pastor of Cedar Springs and Long Cane, Abbeville County, S. C During the ten years of his pastorate he studied hard, preached with all his might, spared neither body nor mind, and succeeded in laying the foundation of his ministerial fame.

In 1848 he was elected by Synod to the Chair of Latin in Erskine College. This position he filled until the College was temporarily broken up by the war. In 1871 he removed to New Hope, Madison Co., Ky., where he remained three or four years, until failing health caused his return to his old home in Due West.

On May 10, 1837, Dr. Hemphill had married Miss Hannah Smith Lind, the daughter of the Rev. John Lind, who was for a long time pastor of the A. R. Church at Greencastle, Pa. To them were born five children. Mrs. Hemphill died Oct. 5th, 1895 in the 87th year of her age, at Gen. R. R. Hemphill's, Abbeville, S. C

Attention has been directed to Dr. Hemphill as a student, as a pastor, and as a professor, he also merits some attention as an agent, a thankless occupation, but one which the interest of the Church and of educational institutions require to be performed. In 1851 ho helped to raise money to pay for the erection of Lindsay Hall, in 1853 to raise the old Endowment, since the war to get up the Five Year Endowment, and later, the $100,000 Endowment. How much talking, how much explaining of things, how much reasoning with people, how many objections, how many unreasonable and hard things have to be listened to, how much traveling in bad weather over bad roads, what long periods of absence from home fall to the lot of the minister who occupies the unenviable position of an agent. A man whom most people do not want to see and one whose absence is about as agreeable as his presence. This service Dr. Hemphill rendered the Church and the College with skill, perseverance, self-denial, and long-suffering. He also enjoyed a wide reputation as a writer. His newspaper articles, if collected, would fill several volumes. These articles are on a variety of topics—agriculture, trade, politics, literature, travel, and theology. The characteristics of his style were humor and piquancy.

He was somewhat of a polemic, indulging occasionally in the controversial. About the year 1843 and 1844 he was drawn into a controversy in the "Charleston Observer" with "Charlestoniensis" I Dr. Thomas Smyth) on the subject of Psalmody. The fire was kept up for some time with spirit on both sides, neither party being willing to admit that he had been beaten.

This well-known and highly esteemed minister departed this life at his home in Due West, Abbeville County, S. C., on the morning of Friday, July 28, 1876, aged 70 years. 4 months, and 14 days.

Source of Photo and sketch biography information:
The Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church: 1803-1903
Published by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1905