Military History

The two World Wars, the Korean conflict and the Viet Nam era all had an impact on Hemphill County as was true all across the nation. Some nineteen men, early settlers, were veterans of the Civil War or Spanish American War having come here for a new start. Both the North and South were represented in this early migration.

The county was named in honor of John Hemphill (1803-1862) who was the First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Texas. He also served as Adjutant General of the Somervell Expedition, an invasion of Mexico while the state was a Republic, and was a Member of the first State Constitutional Convention and of the United States Senate.  John Hemphill was also a veteran of wars with Native Americans.

Our county is indeed fortunate that Julius Born, an early photographer, was here to take many pictures of the World War I and II participants. Although we don’t have names for many of the digitized images, some from glass negatives, they do provide an insight into the fervor of the times.

From a child dressed in a uniform, to the Studer family with four sons in uniform, we have a glimpse of the time of World War I in these pictures from the Julius Born Collection that do provide an insight into the fervor of the times.

By World War II, many families had cameras and therefore Julius Born was relied on less for photographs.  There are a couple within the Born Collection that are representative of the relative informality that existed by this time.