Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Hall, Henry H.

Born: 1795-07-XX Ireland, United Kingdom

Henry H. Hall was a physician, merchant, farmer, tavern keeper, and pioneer settler of Morgan and Cass counties, Illinois. Born in County Antrim, Hall received his early education in local schools before matriculating to the University of Glasgow, where he completed his collegiate literary and classical studies. He received his medical degree from the medical college in Belfast, and subsequently completed a special course in surgery at the Royal Hospital in Dublin. Through family connections, Hall received a commission as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. After a few years at sea, he resigned his commission and immigrated to the United States, settling first in Baltimore, where he offered his services as a physician. Unhappy in the medical profession, Hall left Baltimore and medicine and moved to Accomack County, Virginia, where he became a planter. In December 1818, he married Ann P. Beard, with whom he would have ten children, five dying in childhood. Hall and his wife settled on a plantation, where he worked in vain to reap a living from the sandy soil of Virginia's Eastern Shore. In 1831, Hall traveled to Illinois to seek out new opportunities, purchasing a large portion of land in that part of Morgan County that would become Cass County, thirteen miles east of Beardstown. He returned to Virginia, sold his plantation, and moved his family to Philadelphia for the winter of 1834-35. In the spring of 1835, Hall and his family moved to Illinois, settling on his homestead. Hall also opened a mercantile establishment and a tavern in Beardstown. In 1836, he surveyed and platted a new town in the vicinity of his farm, which he named Virginia. Hall played a prominent role in getting the Illinois General Assembly to carve Cass County out of Morgan County, and he also worked to get Virginia named the seat of government for the new county. He eventually sold his store and tavern, and in 1841, he built a home on his Lin Grove farm, south of Virginia, where he lived the remainder of his life. By 1845, Hall's health began to fail, and he succumbed to dropsy (edema) in his country home.

J. N. Gridley and Others, Historical Sketches [of Cass County, Illinois] (Virginia, IL: Virginia Enquirer, 1907), 94-105.