| Ben W. HooperOpen Collections |
Ben Hooper (1870-1957) was a Republican governor of Tennessee from 1911-1915, the only governor from that party between 1880 and 1920. Hooper was a lawyer who served two terms in the State House in the late 1800s, before serving as a captain in the Spanish-American War. In 1910, Democrats were split over the issue of prohibition, and the Republican Party used the division to elect Hooper as governor. He is known for a number of progressive reforms, including expanding compulsory education and strictly limiting the liquor trade in Tennessee. Hooper lost the election of 1914, as well as two subsequent U.S. Senate campaigns. He served as a U.S. Railroad Labor Board member under President Harding, and returned to TN to serve as the chief land-purchasing agent for the Great Smoky Mountains and vice-chairman of the state Constitutional Convention of 1953. He died of pneumonia in 1957.
The first collection contains correspondence, political papers, legal papers, and financial papers documenting Ben W. Hooper and his time as governor of Tennessee (1910-1914). The second collection consists of Governor Ben W. Hooper's last will and testament to a possible George Taylor, who worked as Hooper's secretary.
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Contact the Archives
The Modern Political Archives
Baker Center for Public Policy
1640 Cumberland Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37996-3340
Phone: 865.974.0931
Fax: 865.974.8777
Email: bobby.holt@utk.edu