Hall, Willard P.

Born: 1820-05-09 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Died: 1882-11-02 Saint Joseph, Missouri

Willard P. Hall was an attorney, U.S. representative, and lieutenant governor and governor of Missouri. Hall attended private school in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Yale College in 1839. He accompanied his father to Randolph County, Missouri in 1840 and studied law. He earned admittance to the bar in Huntsville, Missouri, in 1841 and commenced practice in Sparta, Missouri, in 1842. A year later, Hall received appointment to circuit attorney, a position had would hold for several years. During the presidential election of 1844, he was a presidential elector for the Democrats. Upon commencement of the Mexican War, Hall enlisted as a private in the First Missouri Cavalry and later earned promotion to lieutenant. General Stephen W. Kearny appointed Hall and Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan to create the code of civil laws known as the "Kearny Code" in both English and Spanish for the territory acquired from Mexico. In 1846, Hall won election, as a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1847 to 1853. He moved to St .Joseph in 1854 and opened a law practice. Hall ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1856, but served as a member of the constitutional convention of Missouri in 1861. From 1861 to 1864, he was provisional lieutenant governor of Missouri. Hall was also a brigadier general in the Missouri Militia, commanding the northwestern Missouri district until 1863. Hall elevated to the governor's chair in 1864, remaining governor until 1865, when he returned to his law practice in St. Joseph.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1145; Gravestone, Mount Mora Cemetery, Saint Joseph, MO.