Napoleon Hill (Memphis businessman), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetNapoleon Hill (Memphis businessman)
American businessman of Memphis, Tennessee
Date of Birth: 25-Aug-1830
Place of Birth: Tennessee, United States
Date of Death: 02-Nov-1909
Profession: businessperson
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Virgo 
About Napoleon Hill (Memphis businessman)
- Napoleon Hill (1830–1909) was an American businessman of Memphis, Tennessee, tagged as "the merchant prince of Memphis" by his contemporaries.
- He first inherited wealth from his father, made more in the California Gold Rush, and then moved to Memphis, where he became a leading businessman and investor. Hill was the second of eleven children of Duncan Hill, a physician and plantation owner, and Olivia L.
- Bill.
- Duncan Hill died in 1844, leaving his mother the Marshall County, Mississippi plantation, worth $40,000 at the time.
- She remarried to Josiah Deloach in 1848 and she and the children continued to live on the plantation.
- At age sixteen Hill left home and worked as a store clerk for a time, but left Tennessee for the 1849 California Gold Rush.
- Successful in California, he returned to Tennessee and by 1857 was living in Memphis, where he built a wholesale grocery business and traded in cotton on commission just before the American Civil War. Hill prospered in Memphis, and during the post-Civil War period he became a one of Memphis' most significant businessmen.
- His largest investment was Hill, Fontaine and Company, a cotton and wholesale grocery business.
- In addition, he invested in banks, real estate, and industrial development.
- Hill participated in organizing The Memphis Cotton Exchange in 1873 and served as its president from 1881 to 1883.
- In 1885 Hill and other prominent Memphis businessmen started a Memphis streetcar line, later acquired by the Memphis City Railroad Company.
- Hill was an early investor in the Birmingham, Alabama, steel industry, and was a major investor in Memphis' Union and Planters Bank, predecessor of Union Planters, and served as a bank director.Hill's businesses and investments made him became wealthy, powerful, and socially prominent.
- In 1881 Hill built a large mansion in the ornate French Renaissance style at the corner of 3rd and Madison Streets in downtown Memphis.
- The central business district location later led to its downfall, as the landmark mansion was torn down by 1930 to build the Sterick Building.
- In 1902 he commissioned the Scimitar Building at 179 Madison Avenue and Third Street, directly across from his home.
- He died in 1909 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.
- At the time of his death, his estate was considered the largest in Tennessee.
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