My Genealogy Hound

RALPH A. HALL, a member of the banking firm of Dean & Hall, of Brocton, was born at Sedgwick, Hancock county, Maine, June 5, 1844, and is a son of Dr. James A. and Caroline (Herrick) Hall. Of the early settlers of the town of Portland one was Ahira Hall, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and who came from his native State of Connecticut in 1818. He was a lawyer, served as justice of the peace for some years and managed his farm until his death in 1856, at eighty- two years of age. He was an ardent methodist in religious faith, and all of his thirteen children were members of the M. E. church. His son, Dr. James A. Hall, was born in Connecticut in 1815, and died April 8, 1865, at Brocton. He was a graduate of Bowdoin college, read medicine, and located at Brocton in 1844, and shortly afterwards graduated from the medical department of Bowdoin college. He served during the late civil war as surgeon of the 49th regiment, Maine Vols., was a methodist and republican. He had a large practice, and married Caroline Herrick, of Brooklin, Maine, who was born in 1823, and is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Ralph A. Hall was reared principally at Brocton. He received his education in the public schools and Fredonia academy, and then obtained a situation as a clerk in a mercantile house at Sherman where he remained for three years. He then (1870) engaged in the hardware business at Brocton, in which he continued until 1881, when he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale hardware house in Buffalo. Three years later he left the road and became a member of the present banking firm of Dean & Hall, of Brocton. They are conservative and safe as financiers, and the management of their bank is based upon correct and economical financial principles.

In 1870 Mr. Hall married Mary J., daughter of Mark Haight, of Brocton. They have one child, a daughter named Eva H.

In addition to his investment in the banking business Mr. Hall owns a good grape farm and is interested in a land syndicate which is known as the “Brocton Land and Improvement Company.” He is a republican, and a member and trustee of the Brocton M. E. church. He is a member of Castle Hall, No. 284, Knights of Pythias, which was organized February 19, 1864; Brocton Council, No. 18, Royal Templars of Temperance, organized in 1877, and Brocton Lodge, No. 8, Ancient Order of United Workmen, the oldest order of its kind in the United States, having been established at Meadville, Pa., October 28, 1868.