William Hayes Ackland

William Hayes Acklen was born on September 6, 1855, in Nashville, Tennessee.[1][2][3] He changed his last name to Ackland by 1892.[1]

He was a 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 (Hayes) Franklin Acklen (1817–1887). She was a wealthy widow when she married Col. Acklen, and their children benefitted by her wealth.[1][4] 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 served as President of the United States from 1877 to 1881.[4] William's older brother, Joseph H. Acklen (1850–1938), served as U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1878 to 1881.[1]

Acklen grew up at his family plantation home, Belmont Mansion, in Nashville, and on his mother's family plantations in Louisiana.[1] He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nashville, followed by a Bachelor of Laws from Vanderbilt University.[3] He was one of the first students at Vanderbilt, attending when the university first opened.[1]

After law school, Acklen moved to Washington, D.C., where he officially practiced as a lawyer.[1] In the 1880s, he also worked at journalism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1]

Acklen was part of a wealthy social class, spending much of his time attending society galas and balls in Washington, and also in Ormond Beach, Florida; Lake Mohonk, and York Harbor, Maine.[1][2] He traveled to England annually for its season.[1][2] He became known as a genteel gentleman and a member of high society.[1]

When Acklen published his novel Sterope: The Veiled Pleiad(1892), it was under his changed surname as "Ackland". He also published three volumes of poetry and a memoir.[1][2][3]

Ackland wrote plays and frequently attended theatre.[1][2] He corresponded with older writers such as 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).[2]

Ackland became an important art collector.[1][3] To preserve his art collection, he wanted to establish a museum on a Southern university campus.[3] But, Duke University and Rollins College rejected hosting a museum in his name.[3][4][5] The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed, and the Ackland Art Museum was established on its campus.[2][4][6]

Ackland married Laura Crocker (1871–1931) on June 2, 1896, in Cleveland, Ohio.[3] They had no children and divorced a year later.[3] He inherited US$100,000 from one of his late half-sisters.[3] By the time of his death, he left an estate of US$1,350,000.[3]

In his later years, Ackland became a Knight Templar.[7]

At the end of his life, Ackland resided in Ormond, Florida, where he died on February 16, 1940.[8] He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery,[8] but his body was moved in 1958 to the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill per his bequest, where it remains today.[9]

• William Hayes Ackland, Sterope: The Veiled Pleiad (Washington, D.C., 1892).[10]

• John Emil Larson, William Hayes Ackland, 1855–1940 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Ackland Memorial Art Center, 1958).