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James Hall
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Hall, James, 1793-1868 (Aug. 19, 1793 - July 5, 1868), author, jurist, and banker, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., the son of John Hall, Revolutionary soldier and member of a family of Maryland planters, and Sarah (Ewing) Hall [q.v.], daughter of the Rev. John Ewing [q.v.], provost of the University of Pennsylvania. His mother had literary taste and considerable talent, and four of her sons, whose education was largely under her direction, became writers. One, John Elihu [q.v.], was for many years editor, and another, Harrison, was publisher of the Port Folio, to which she and James and another son, Thomas Mifflin Hall, contributed. James was sent to an academy at twelve, but so disliked school and teachers that he was soon allowed to continue his education at home, where he studied Latin and French and read widely, especially romantic poetry and fiction. He spent two years in a business office, and at eighteen began the study of law, which he interrupted to join the Washington Guards, the first company organized in Philadelphia for service in the War of 1812. In the next year he was made a lieutenant under Winfield Scott. He was in the battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Niagara, and Fort Erie, and was commended for "brave and meritorious service." At the close of the war in 1815 he was appointed one of five artillery officers to accompany Decatur's expedition against Algiers, but his vessel was too late to be of service. His diary of the trip contains a colorful account of the voyage and of his visit to Gibraltar and Malaga, and many poems. On his return he was stationed at Newport, R. I., and, in 1817, at Pittsburgh, where he had trouble with his superior officer and after a court-martial held on Sept. 11, 1817, was cashiered. The President remitted punishment and restored him to his rank. He published his defense in pamphlet form in 1820.
Hall resumed the study of law while in the army, and on being admitted to the bar in 1818 resigned his commission, spent two years mainly in writing and in further study, and in 1820 set out down the Ohio River for Illinois. Self-confident, able, romantic, and ambitious to win distinction, he landed at Shawneetown, then one of the most promising towns in that region. Within twelve years he had contributed in a surprising number of ways to the development of the infant commonwealth. He at once began the practice of law and at the same time became editor and part owner of the Illinois Gazette. Small in stature but dignified in bearing, ready and eloquent in speech, he was much in demand as a speaker at public meetings. Within a year he was appointed prosecuting attorney for a circuit that included nine counties, an immense raw and lawless area extending from the Ohio to the Mississippi. After four years of vigorous and effective service he was elected circuit judge for the same number of counties. As prosecutor he displayed energy and courage in attempting to rid the region of the organized gangs of horse thieves, counterfeiters, murderers, and "regulators" which infested it, and he was a just and able judge.
Following the abolition of the circuit system in 1828, he was appointed state treasurer and moved to Vandalia, the state capital, where he spent perhaps the most active years of his career. He reorganized the financial system of the state, and was a leader in the state agricultural society, first president of the state antiquarian society, officer in the state Bible society, vice-president, with Governor Coles, of the state lyceum, and a trustee of Illinois College. His last address in Illinois, on education, was the principal feature of the first meeting held to plan a state system of free public schools. Meanwhile, he was editor, 1829-32, of the Illinois Intelligencer, a leading paper at the state capital, and in 1830 established the Illinois Monthly Magazine, the first literary periodical west of Ohio. To this journal he contributed nearly half the contents.
His first wife, Mary Harrison Posey of Henderson County, Ky., whom he had married in 1823, the grandaughter of Gen. Thomas Posey and of Washington's "charming cousin, the beautiful Miss Thornton," died in 1832; his term as treasurer ended, and early in 1833 he moved to Cincinnati, where he spent the rest of his life. His second wife was Mary Louisa (Anderson) Alexander, a widow, whom he married on Sept. 3, 1839. For two years he edited the Western Monthly Magazine, as successor of the Illinois Monthly Magazine. It lost most of its subscribers in 1835 because of his vigorous defense of Catholics (May-June 1835) against Lyman Beecher's A Plea for the West (1835), and Hall withdrew from the editorship to become cashier of the Commercial Bank. In 1853 he became president of a reorganized bank of the same name.
Always an indefatigable writer of both prose and verse, Hall is remembered chiefly as one of the most important recorders and interpreters of pioneer history, life, and legend in Illinois and the Ohio Valley. He said that the sole intention even of his tales was to convey accurate descriptions of the scenery and population of the country. He was a close and discriminating observer, with a clear and vivid though often sentimental and self-conscious style. He was, moreover, a born controversialist, and much of the material which streamed from his pen to the newspapers and magazines was attack or defense in political, social, or literary debate. Before his removal to Cincinnati, especially while riding his circuit, his life was full of romantic and dangerous adventure. On his way down the Ohio to Shawneetown he wrote a series of letters, published in the Port Folio (July 1821-May 1822) and in the Illinois Gazette. These, with some additions, were published in book form as Letters from the West (London, 1828). Other works by Hall include: Legends of the West (1832); The Soldier's Bride and Other Tales (1833); Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the West (vol. I, 1834, vols. I and II, 1835); Statistics of the West at the Close of the Year 1836 (1836, later editions published as Notes on the Western States, Containing Descriptive Sketches of Their Soil, Climate, Resources and Scenery); History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Their Principal Chiefs (3 vols., folio, richly illustrated, vol. I, 1836, 1838; vol. II, 1842, vol. III, 1884), prepared in collaboration with Thomas L. McKenney, with Hall writing most of the text. Of these works probably the most valuable are the Legends of the West and the Sketches of History, Life and Manners. These and several other titles were very popular, and were published in many editions.
FURTHER READINGS
[The best account of Hall, by J. F. Meline, appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial, Oct. 16, 1868. See also: W. H. Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley (1891); R. L. Rusk, The Lit. of the Middle Western Frontier (1925); Nation (N. Y.), Nov. 12, 1868; Esther Shultz, "James Hall in Shawneetown," Ill. State Hist. Soc. Jour., Oct. 1929, and "James Hall in Vandalia," Ibid., Apr. 1930; H. W. Beckwith, The Land of the Illini; Davis L. James, "Judge James Hall," Ohio Archeol. and Hist. Quart., Oct. 1909, with a fairly complete bibliography; F. W. Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Ill. 1814-79 (1910); manuscript diary of trip to the Mediterranean in the possession of Hall's son in 1908, when it was seen by the writer; Trial and Defence of First Lieut. James Hall (1820); preface to Legends of the West (rev. ed., 1853); obituaries in Cincinnati Commercial, July 6, 1868, and Cincinnati Gazette, July 7, 1868.]
SOURCE CITATION
Franklin William Scott. "James Hall."Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
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