William Rule (editor)

William Rule
Born(1839-05-10)May 10, 1839
Knox County, Tennessee, United States
DiedJuly 26, 1928(1928-07-26) (aged 89)
Knoxville, Tennessee
Resting placeOld Gray Cemetery
Knoxville, Tennessee
Occupation(s)Newspaper publisher and editor
Notable workStandard History of Knoxville (1900)
Political partyRepublican
SpouseLucy Ann Maxey[1]
Parent(s)Frederick and Sarah Brakebill Rule[1]

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.

A Union officer in the Civil War, Rule twice served as mayor of Knoxville (in 1873 and 1898). He published the city's first comprehensive history, Standard History of Knoxville, in 1900.[1]

  1. ^ a b c East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 478-479.