In February 2009 Jim Hall was involved in an accident while exiting a bus in Pueblo, Colorado, and broke a hip. He died March 4 of complications from the injuries. Any obituaries will be published here later.

The Pueblo Poetry Group, of which he was a member, plans a poetry reading on March 11 in Jim’s memory with commentaries on what Jim meant to the group. He was a teacher and mentor of young poets and writers, and was characterized by the group’s director as a “Renaissance man.”

The family is planning to publish a volume of Jim’s poetry as a remembrance.

Jim Hall

Grandfather William Hansell Hall seated with his daughters and second wife around him. Left to right standing in back row are Barbara, Mary, Miss Kate (stepmother), Hartley, Mattie, and Margaret. Seated left to right are Rebecca, grandfather, and Sara.

Left to right 1st row: Mattie, Granddad, Miss Kate Hartley
Back row L to R: Mary. Barbara, Beck
Picture taken fall 1930

His son Richard (1635-1688) served in the provincial assembly for about 16 years, "was one of the greatest landowners of his time," a plantation owner known as the "kindly Quaker" who purchased the services of the famous Scotsman Ninian Beall as an indentured servant. Beall subsequently became a famous fighter, landowner, politician, and founder of Prince Georges County, Maryland. 

In the direct line of descent from the 17th Century Richard Hall to me and my five siblings, came Elisha Hall (1663-1717) who was bequeathed Richard Hall's main property ("Hall's Hills"), Elihu Hall (1692-1753), Elihu Hall II (1724-1791, a colonel in the American Revolution), James Augustus Hall, M.D. (1762-1793, a protege of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Revolutionary War fame), Thomas Hartley Hall (1792-1848), William Hansell Hall, M.D. (1828-1899, my great grandfather), William Hansell Hall, Jr. (1866-1942, my grandfather), and James Augustus Hall (1893-1988, my father). A third James Augustus Hall, a brother of William Hansell Hall, served in the 4th Georgia Infantry during the American Civil War. 

My oldest sibling is James Augustus Hall, Jr., (who prefers simply Jim or James Hall)
a multi-talented writer, poet, and linguist residing in Pueblo, Colorado.

http://jhall.4mg.com/index1.htm

A fellow descendant of prominent Maryland founder Richard Hall (1635-1688) has contacted me and expressed cautions about the accuracy of genealogical information on record about our family. Since she is an experienced genealogical researcher, we are interested to learn more. She notes that our alleged connection with John Hall, said to be father of Richard, has not been clearly established. The repetition of family names through the generations (especially John, Elisha, Elihu, and James) has led to a great deal of confusion about the exact relationships.

HALL FAMILY ORIGINS IN MARYLAND

Compiled by Richard H. Hall, Brentwood, Prince Georges County, Maryland
September 2007

The family of James A. Hall and Rachel Rudd consists of James, Jr., Robert Latane, William Hartley, Richard Harris, and John Eldridge (now deceased), and Mary Lou Hall Dabbs.

We trace back to Richard Hall (1635-1688), owner of “Hall's Hills” and numerous other properties in Calvert County and Cecil County. Richard married Elizabeth Finlay[son] and they had eight children, four males and four females, as follows:
(*) = Our line of descent

(*)Elisha (1663-1716). Married: Sarah Hooper Wingfield
Children:
Richard Hall II (1690-1739)
Elizabeth Hall (1691- )
(*)Elihu Hall (1692-1753)
m. Elizabeth Chew, four children incl. (*) Elisha (II), M.D. (1723-1757)
Sarah Hall (1694-1739)

Joseph (1665-1705). Married: Ann –
Children: Joseph II (Ca. 1701-1758), later lived in New Bern, N.C.

Benjamin (1667-1721). Married: Mary Brooke [Bowling] a widow
Children:
Francis Hall (1696- )
Eleanor Hall (1696-1702)
Twins?

Aaron (1669-1704). Married: Mary –
Children: None known

Rachel (1671-1730). Married: Walter Smith (?-1711)
Children: Seven, two males and five females. Most dates & marriages known.

Elizabeth (1673-1743). Married: (a) Richard Evans, 2 female children; (b) Dr. James Kingsbury

Lucia (1675- ). Married John Smith (?-1738). Children: No record.

Sarah (1677- ). Married: Robert Bradley (?-1724). Children: Robert Bradley II (1700-1772)

(To be continued)

Halls in Revolutionary War

(From C.F. Stein, A History of Calvert County, Maryland, 1976, p. 268)


"Descendants of Richard Hall [I] continued to live in Calvert County and to take an active part in its social and civic affairs to the present day, including Senator Edward T. Hall, who is also the Editor of the Calvert Independent. Richard Hall III had a younger son, Col. Elisha Hall, who settled in Cecil County on a tract of 2000 acres on the Susquehanna River. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Susquehanna Battalion of Militia in the Revolution. His son, Elisha Hall, Jr., of Cecil County, was a Major in the same Battalion when only twenty-one years old. Numerous Halls of Cecil, Harford, and Baltimore Counties are descended from this line of the Hall family." (Stein cites an article by Dr. Christopher Johnston, "The Halls of Calvert County" in Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. VIII (1913), pp. 291-301, 381-382.)

Looking like a scene out of an old movie, Dad with two of his sisters (my aunts) Beck and Sarah, and a photogenic dog, spring 1901, Georgia.

Three of Richard Hall's Aunts, left to right Annie Margaret Hall (1900-1992), Sarah Estelle Hall (1895-1982), and Rebecca Harris Hall (1897-1979). Photo taken in Milledgeville, Georgia, circa 1909.

"Lieutenant Dad." My father, James Augustus Hall, 326th Infantry, Chalancey, Haute Marne, France, Dec. 5, 1918

Left to right: James A. Hall (my father), Duke (a literally fabulous family pet), Robert L. Hall (my brother), and Rachel Rudd Hall (my mother). Photo taken at "Happy Acres," a family summer home in Connecticut circa 1935.

Dad, mother, brother Bill on crutches in background, friends, neighbors, and family pets galore. Pleasant Valley, Connecticut, 1943, during World War II.

Annie Estelle Dunn, my paternal grandmother, wife of W. H. Hall. Died age 40 in 1913.

The Gilbert School, attended by the Hall male siblings, along with Amenta, Halberstam, and Nader family offspring. Laura Nader, Ralph's sister, was my 1948 classmate.

William H. Hall, center (marked with "X"), in training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in Company A of the 503rd Military Police Battalion, May 12, 1951. He later served in the 361st MP Company.

For more information related to the Hall family, see Richard Hall's Photo Gallery and his brother Jack Hall's website.