Ben W. Hooper papers contains correspondence, political papers, legal papers, and financial papers documenting Ben W. Hooper and his time as governor of Tennessee (1910-1914). Included is Governor Ben W. Hooper’s last will and testament. The collection is stored in approximately 40 linear feet of boxes.
The Papers in opposition to Ben W. Hooper, circa 1914, mpa.210 / ms.2931 contains one campaign pamphlet from the 1914 Tennessee governor’s race. Collection location: row 11, box 4.
The Papers of Ben W. Hooper, 1900, mpa.311 / ms.2327 contains correspondence announcing Hooper’s candidacy. Collection location: row 11, box 12.
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.