Role Author Nationality American Died 1940 | Spouse(s) Laura Crocker Parents Adelicia Acklen Name William Ackland Grandparents Oliver Bliss Hayes | |
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Full Name William Hayes Acklen Occupation AuthorLawyerArt collector Similar People Joseph H Acklen, Adelicia Acklen, Isaac Franklin | ||
William Hayes Ackland (September 6, 1855 – February 16, 1940) was an American author, lawyer and art collector.
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Early life
William Hayes Acklen was born on September 6, 1855, in Nashville, Tennessee. He later changed his last name to Ackland. He was the son of Colonel Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen (1816–1863), a lawyer from Alabama who had served in the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848, and Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), a wealthy widow and socialite. His maternal grandfather, Oliver Bliss Hayes (1783–1858), was a lawyer and later Presbyterian minister from South Hadley, Massachusetts; he was related to Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893), who went on to serve as the 19th President of the United States from 1877 to 1881. His brother, Joseph H. Acklen (1850–1938), served as U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1878 to 1881.
Acklen grew up at his family plantation home, the Belmont Mansion, in Nashville, and on family plantations in Louisiana. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nashville, followed by a Bachelor of Laws from Vanderbilt University. Indeed, he was one of the very first students at Vanderbilt, as he attended when the university had just been opened.
Career
Acklen's legal residence was in Washington, D.C., where he officially practised as a lawyer. However, he became a socialite, spending much of his time attending society galas and balls in Washington, but also in Ormond Beach, Florida, Lake Mohonk, and York Harbor, Maine. He would go to England once a year for the English season. He became known as a genteel gentleman and a member of high society.
Acklen published a novel about Sterope, one of the seven Pleiades in Greek mythology, and three volumes of poetry. He also wrote his memoirs. In the 1880s, he did some journalism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also wrote plays and attended theater performances often. He also corresponded with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), and John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892).
Additionally, over the years, Acklen became an important art collector. To preserve his art collection, he wanted to establish a museum on a Southern university campus. However, the idea of a museum in his honor was rejected by Duke University and Rollins College. Instead, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed, and the Ackland Art Museum was established on its campus.
Personal life and death
Acklen married Laura Crocker (1871–1931) on June 2, 1896, in Cleveland, Ohio. They had no children and divorced a year later. He inherited US$100,000 from one of his late half-sisters. By the time of his death, he left an estate of US$1,350,000.
Acklen died on February 16, 1940.