“The U.S. House of Representatives - Portraits of Congressmen” Representatives

HEMPHILL, John James, (cousin of William Huggins Brawley, nephew of John Hemphill and great-uncle of Robert Witherspoon Hemphill), a Representative from South Carolina; born in Chester, Chester County, S.C., August 25, 1849; attended the public schools and was graduated from the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 1869; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1870 and practiced in Chester, S.C.; unsuccessful candidate for the State legislature in 1874; member of the State house of representatives 1876-1882; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1893); chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Fiftieth and Fifty-second Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892 to the Fifty-third Congress; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., while retaining his residence in South Carolina; unsuccessful candidate for election as United States Senator from South Carolina in 1902; died in Washington, D.C., May 11, 1912; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery.