My Genealogy Hound

Wilson Hall is a farmer and blacksmith, and also the proprietor of a cotton-gin and grist-mill in Bolivar Township. He was born in this county on the 6th day of January, 1836, and is the youngest of eight children born to Richmond and Mary (Cook) Hall, the former a native of North Carolina, and the latter of Mississippi. They were married in the latter State, and came to what is now Poinsett County, Ark., in 1828, when it was a wilderness of woods and canebrake, and entered a large tract of land, on which they settled and began clearing. Mr. Hall took a great interest in the improvement of the county, and was also quite active in politics, and the able manner in which he discharged the onerous duties of the offices to which he was elected won for him the respect and confidence of his fellow-men. He filled the office of county and probate judge for many years, was sheriff of the county for some time also, and in the fall of 1844 was elected to represent his county in the State legislature. His death occurred in 1863, his wife having passed away in 1840; they had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. Wilson Hall, our subject, has followed in the footsteps of his father, and has been a farmer all his life. His early education was received in the district schools of Poinsett County, but he afterward supplemented this by attending school at Batesville, Ark., where he acquired a good practical education. At the age of twenty-two years he began tilling the soil on his own responsibility, having at that time married Miss Rebecca G. Bradsher, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of John and Cynthia (Stafford) Bradsher, of North Carolina, who were early emigrants to this county, the father dying many years ago; the mother is a resident of this county. Mr. Hall’s first purchase of land was a timber tract consisting of 320 acres, and here he settled in the timber, where he cleared some fifty acres. He now has nearly 100 acres under the plow, and devotes a portion of the remainder to his stock, the raising of which receives much attention. Socially, he is a member of Lodge No. 154, A. F. & A. M., at Harrisburg, and his political views are in accord with the Democratic party, but he is not a strict partisan. He served a short time during the Rebellion, and from 1862 to 1863 he was a member of W. G. Gobey’s company. He was called upon to mourn the death of his estimable wife in 1877, she having borne him a family of ten children, eight of whom are living: John Wesley, who is married and resides near his father; Joseph Franklin, also a married man, living nearby; Thomas Jefferson, who makes his home with his father; William Price, married and residing in Craighead County; Richmond, who died in 1886, at the age of twenty-one years; Lama Ann, died in 1862, at the age of four years; James Henry, Wilson, Mary Cynthia and Nancy Clementine. During Mr. Hall’s residence of half a century in this county, he has witnessed almost incredible changes for improvement, and where once was a vast wilderness of woods, now can be seen finely cultivated farms and comfortable homes.