Background
William Hardy was born on February 12, 1837, at Collirene, Alabama, United States, the son of Robert Williams Hardy and Temperance L. (Toney) Hardy.
William Hardy was born on February 12, 1837, at Collirene, Alabama, United States, the son of Robert Williams Hardy and Temperance L. (Toney) Hardy.
At the age of seventeen William entered Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, and was a student at that institution for two years, until a severe attack of pneumonia caused his withdrawal.
In 1856 William Hardy visited some relatives near Montrose, Jasper County, Mississippi, and accepted a position as teacher of the Montrose school. He removed to Smith County and established the Sylvarena school. While teaching he studied law, and in 1858 located at Raleigh, Mississippi, for the practice of his profession.
On April 27, 1861, Hardy was elected captain of the Defenders of Smith County, a company which afterward became part of the 16th Mississippi Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia. During the latter years of the Civil War he was aide-de-camp to General James A. Smith. In 1865 he removed to Paulding, Jasper County, Mississippi.
In April 1873 Hardy moved to Meridian, Mississippi, for the practice of law and for the promotion of the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad, from Meridian to New Orleans, a project which he had been advocating since 1868 and in which lie interested a London syndicate. In 1886 he reorganized the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad and was made president of the company. He had a new survey made from Jackson to the Gulf of Mexico.
Hardy was elected state senator from Lauderdale County in 1895 and served from 1896 to 1900. He introduced a bill, which was passed by the Senate, for the building of a new capitol on the penitentiary site. In 1896 he was a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by John Sharp Williams. He was appointed circuit judge of the second district by Governor Vardaman in 1906 and was one of the commission which drafted the Mississippi code of 1906.
Hardy was a frequent contributor to the press of articles of a political, economic, and historical nature. In 1875 he edited the Tri-Weekly Homestead, published at Meridian, and was one of the first editors of the state to advocate the overthrow of Republican rule by the impeachment of Governor Adelbert Ames. He was the author of “Recollections of Reconstruction in East and Southeast Mississippi, ” which appeared in the Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society (vol. IV, 1901). He died in Gulfport and is buried there.
On October 10, 1860, Hardy married Sallie, daughter of Thomas H. Johnson of Raleigh, formerly of Gallatin, Tennessee. In 1872 his wife died, leaving six children, and on December 1, 1873, he married Hattie Lott of Mobile. In 1895 Hardy lost his second wife. He removed to Hattiesburg in 1899, and on May 14, 1900, married Ida V. May.