W. Rhode Hill (1832-1895) and his wife Laura Nance (1847-1900) were prominent citizens of Atlanta in the late 19th century. Before the Civil War, W. Rhode Hill worked as a railroad conductor for Western and Atlantic Railroad. During Reconstruction, he entered into a partnership with W.B. Cox and started Cox, Hill and Company, a wholesale wine and liquor establishment which proved to be enormously profitable. The Hills had one daughter, Helen “Buddie” Hill who married J. Carroll Payne (1855-1936) in 1885. J. Carroll Payne was the son of Major Rice W. and Virginia Semmes Payne of Virginia. J. Carroll Payne was educated at Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and the University of Louisiana at New Orleans. He became a law partner in the prominent Atlanta law firm of Payne and Tye. During his life, he was a member of the Church of the Immaculate Conception and a patron of the arts. J. Carroll Payne and Helen Hill Payne had two daughters, Laura Hill Payne who married Alexander Wyly Smith, Jr. in 1911 and Helen Hill Payne who married Charles Thomas Hopkins, Jr. in 1913 and one son named John Carroll Payne.