William Rule (American editor)
| William Rule | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 10, 1839 Knox County, Tennessee, United States |
| Died | July 26, 1928 (aged 89) Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Resting place |
Old Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Occupation | Newspaper publisher and editor |
| Notable work | Standard History of Knoxville (1900) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Lucy Ann Maxey |
| Parent(s) | Frederick and Sarah Brakebill Rule |
William Rule (May 10, 1839 – July 26, 1928) was an American newspaper editor and politician, best known as the founder of the Knoxville Journal, which was published in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1870 until 1991. A protégé of vitriolic newspaper editor William G. "Parson" Brownlow, Rule established the Journal (initially called the Chronicle) as a successor to Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. Rule twice served as mayor of Knoxville (in 1873 and 1898), and published the city's first comprehensive history, Standard History of Knoxville, in 1900.
Rule was born in rural Knox County, Tennessee, about 7 miles (11 km) south of Knoxville, the son of Frederick and Sarah Brakebill Rule. He occasionally attended county schools, but was largely self-educated. In 1858, Rule and his brother, James, opened a general store at the corner of State Street and Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville. By 1860, this store had closed, and William joined the staff of Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, a radical and controversial pro-Union newspaper.
On November 10, 1861, in the early days of the Civil War, Rule eluded Knoxville's Confederate occupiers to carry news and messages to Brownlow, who was hiding out in Wears Valley. Rule eventually fled to Kentucky and enlisted in Company A of the 6th Tennessee Infantry, rising to the rank of captain before he was mustered out in 1865. After the war, Rule rejoined the Whig, this time serving as the paper's City Editor. He was elected to his first office, Knox County Court Clerk, in 1866, and was reelected in 1870, but resigned after one year.
In 1869, the Whig, which was the only pro-Republican newspaper in the post-bellum South, was sold to Knoxville businessman Joseph Mabry, who attempted to rebrand it as a Democratic Party newspaper. To ensure the survival of Knoxville's pro-Republican newspaper tradition, Rule left the Whig in 1870 and formed the Knoxville Chronicle, which he considered the true successor to Brownlow's paper. When Brownlow returned to Knoxville after his Senate term had ended in 1875, he purchased a half stake in the Chronicle, and the paper was published as the Whig and Chronicle until Brownlow's death in 1877.
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