Fay Hempstead

Fay Hempstead (November 24, 1847 – April 24, 1934) was a lawyer, author, and poet in Arkansas. He wrote about the state's history and politics. He wrote the state's first history textbook.

His father was Samuel Hutchinson Hempstead, an attorney and postmaster in Little Rock, Arkansas, and his mother was Elizabeth Rebecca Beall Hempstead. He had private tutors and went to St. John's College, a Masonic school in Little Rock. He studied law at the University of Virginia after the Civil War. He was an active freemason.

He married Gertrude Blair O'Neale who he met while in Charlottesville, Virginia. He served as a Registrar in Bankruptcy. One of his poems addressed evolution and science. Others dealt with love, memory, and patriotism. He wrote a poem about travelers from Arkansas who were massacred in Utah.

He wrote about his recollections of Little Rock as it was during his youth including extensive use of blue tinted whitewash on buildings, cobblestone paving, and the Civil War. A 2018 article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette notes his status as the "Poet Laureate of Freemasonry". Robert Burns was the first to receive the honor of the designation and Henpstead was the third.

Hempstead died at his home in Little Rock, following a lengthy illness, at the age of 86.

Writings

• Random Arrows Lippincott (1878), a book of poetry
• A History of the State of Arkansas for the Use of Schools (1889)
• A Pictorial History of Arkansas, a three volume history of Arkansas
• A History of Cryptic Masonry in Arkansas

Further reading

• History of the Laureation of R. W: Bro, Fay Hempstead, Poet Laureate of Freemasonry