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   The Goodspeed Publishing Company,
   History of Tennessee, 1887

       W. P. HAMILTON, Proprietor of the Hamilton House, of Bristol, the
   most popular one between Knoxville and Lynchburg, Va., was born near
   Blountville July 12. 1838. The great-grandfather, WILLIAM, was a native
   of the North of Ireland, and for many years was a surgeon on the sea.
   He afterward went to Scotland, where he married CATHARINE GRAHAM, and
   then came to what is now Fauquier County, Va. Their children were JOHN,
   JAMES, ROBERT, CATHARINE, JANE, MARGARET and ELLEN. They first settled
   in Kentucky, the next in Tennessee. The grandfather settled in Hawkins
   County, Tenn., where he married SARAH B., a daughter of JARRET BRANDON,
   whose wife, MARGARET, was a sister of JOHN BELL’S father who came from
   the North of Ireland. The grandfather reared thirteen children-seven
   sons and six daughters; one of these, WILLIAM, married MATILDA HICKS,
   and they reared six sons and four daughters. JOHN B., the second son,
   and the father of our subject was born in Hawkins County, February 16,
   1798, and in 1827 came to this county and settled near Blountville. He
   served as sheriff for six years, beginning with 1840, and in 1846 and
   1847 represented this county in the Legislature. He was a stock dealer
   and a farmer.  May 12, 1822, he married ELIZABETH, the daughter of
   STEPHEN HICKS who was of German origin. She was born near Blountville,
   February 12, 1790, and deceased February 14, 1856. The father died on
   October 23, 1862. He was a Presbyterian, while the mother belonged to
   the Baptist Church. Their children were STEPHEN J., ROBERT P., GEORGE
   B., JACOB, JOHN S., MARTHA E., MARY E. and our subject. He was educated
   at Fall Branch Seminary, and Jefferson Academy, at Blountville.  When
   eighteen years old he left the farm, and December 11, 1856, went to
   Blountville, where he became a clerk for JOHN POWELL. In January, 1859,
   he became clerk for JAMES & SENEKER at Bristol, and in January, 1861,
   he entered the store of R. T. LANCASTER. In June, following, he joined
   Company G, Nineteenth Confederate Tennessee Infantry, and afterward was
   transferred to Capt. JACOB HAMILTON’S company of the Twenty-ninth
   Tennessee, and became second lieutenant, afterward first lieutenant.
   His health compelled him to return home, and in March, 1863, he resigned
   his command. In December, 1864, he was captured in East Tennessee, and
   placed in the hospital at Knoxville, where he remained until February,
   1865. In 1866 he left Bristol, and went to Christian County, Ky., but
   after four years farming returned to Bristol, and was variously engaged
   until 1876, when he opened his present hotel.  In 1882 he bought the
   brick propefty on the Virginia side of Bristol, and continued his hotel
   until 1883, when he leased the NICKELS House. Three years later he came
   to his present building, where he is doing a large business in the only
   first-class hotel in Bristol. December 24, 1861 - he married KATE P.,
   the daughter of Rev. E. W. and ANN R. ROACH, the former a Baptist
   minister, of Virginia. She was born in Charlotte County, Va., December
   20, 1839. Her mother was a daughter of Col. ISHAM HARVEY. Our subject’s
   children were EMMA L., now Mrs. W. J. THOMAS, ELIJAH B., deceased in
   infancy; WILLIAM W., in business with his father, and CHARMIE B.


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