My Genealogy Hound

W. B. HALL, land agent for the Illinois Central Railway Company, has been a prominent factor in the upbuilding of southern Illinois, and is numbered among the leading citizens of Du Quoin. He was born in Posey County, Ind., on the 20th of October, 1848. His father, John Hall, was a native of Kentucky, and emigrating northward, became one of the pioneers of Posey County. By occupation he was a farmer. He, twice represented his district in the Indiana Legislature, having become a prominent and influential citizen of the community in which he made his home.

The family is of Welsh origin, and the grandfather of our subject, who was a native of Wales, came to this country in early life. The family removed to Illinois in 1854, settling in Blairsville, Williamson County, where the father of our subject built the first steam flouring mill in southern Illinois. This he operated in connection with merchandising until 1860, when he settled upon his farm and there remained until 1872. Removing to Franklin County in the latter year, he there married Mrs. Clarissa Blake, who still survives. He passed away in 1876. His first wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Harris, died ten years previous to his demise.

Mr. Hall of this sketch was one of a family of ten children, four sons and six daughters, but he is now the only survivor. He was a lad of six summers at the time of the removal of the family from Indiana to Illinois. His early life was spent at Blairsville, and his education was acquired in the Southern Illinois College, of Carbondale, and in Ewing (Ill.) College, which he attended in 1870-71. When his school life was ended he embarked in farming on his own account, and followed that pursuit until 1875. In 1879 he came to Du Quoin, where he engaged in the real-estate business and also dealt in machinery, but the latter pursuit he abandoned in 1890, as his other enterprises had grown to such proportions that he was compelled to devote his entire attention to his real-estate interests.

Mr. Hall was first married in 1876, but his wife died a few months later. On the 8th of March, 1882, he wedded Miss Lizzie Emery, and their union has been blessed with two children: Gussie, aged nine, and Bessie, a maiden of seven summers.

In 1891 Mr. Hall was appointed agent for the Illinois Central Railroad Land Department, and has done more to help build up this portion of southern Illinois than any other one man. He had but small means when he came to Du Quoin, but by strict attention to business and well directed efforts he has acquired a handsome competence. He is now a stockholder and director in the First National Bank, which he helped to organize, and also owns some five hundred acres of valuable land, together with considerable property in Du Quoin. In politics he is a Prohibitionist, and has served for several terms in the City Council. He is also a prominent Odd Fellow, and no man in Du Quoin has more friends or stands higher in the regard of his fellow-townsmen than does W. B. Hall.