Napoleon Hill

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. 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. For example, a reception held by Mrs. Hill in 1891 received detailed coverage, "The event of the week in society circles was the afternoon reception given by Mrs. Napoleon Hill Wednesday afternoon...."