Bill Arp

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Born Charles Henry Smith (June 15, 1826 – August 24, 1903) he was a Georgia politician but was more widely known by his nom de plume Bill Arp under which he wrote for nearly 40 years.

Born and raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Smith enrolled at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia; however, he did not graduate. He enlisted in the Confederate Army and served in the U.S. Civil War. Afterwards settling in Rome, Georgia where he served as mayor beginning in 1867.

After the war and until his death, he wrote "letters to the editor" to the Atlanta Constitution as Bill Arp which were typically in "Cracker dialect" talking about all manner of things that he couldn't say as a public figure. [1]

He also edited newspapers in Rome, Cartersville and Atlanta and published five books: Bill Arp's Letters (1870), Bill Arp's Scrap Book (1884), The Farm and Fireside (1891), History of Georgia (1895), From the Uncivil War to Date (1903).

Smith died in Cartersville, Georgia in 1903 and was buried in that same city.

[edit] References

• Collected works online at UNC
• History of the University of Georgia by Thomas Walter Reed, Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, pp. 522-525

[edit] External links

• Bill Arp at Find A Grave

Persondata
NAME	Arp, Bill (pseudonym)
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Smith, Charles Henry (birth name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Writer, newspaper editor, politician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 15, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lawrenceville, Georgia
DATE OF DEATH	August 24, 1903
PLACE OF DEATH	Cartersville, Georgia