Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Hall, Warren P  
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com December 3, 2007, 12:45 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1885

Warren P. Hall (deceased), late of the Langford & Hall Lumber Company, and a 
prominent citizen of Fulton, was born in the town of Bristol, Ontario Co., N. 
Y., Sept. 5, 1826, and was the son of Perez and Ruth (Hicks) Hall. When he was 
only a year old his parents moved to West Bloomfield, of the same county, 
where his boyhood was passed. When he was 13 years of age, he removed with his 
parents to Burton, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y.; and six years later he left home to 
work with a Mr. Lemuel Smith, a manufacturer of lumber at Portville. He spent 
ten years with Mr. Smith, during which time he learned the lumber business 
thoroughly, especially the mechanical part, for which Mr. Hall had a peculiar 
fitness. His natural love of machinery and of mechanical construction found a 
fair field for expansion in his chosen employment. Soon after leaving Mr. 
Smith, he engaged in the lumber business for himself, at Portville, 
Cattaraugus County, but continued it only two years, when he was burned out. 
He then went to Berlin, Wis., where he was employed as foreman by Mr. Ruddock, 
an extensive lumber manufacturer on the Fox River. He was married in that city 
Dec. 30, 1858, to Miss Catharine Swarts, daughter of George and Margaret 
(Barry) Swarts. Mrs. Hall was born in Hamilton, Monroe Co., Penn. One year 
after their marriage, Mr. Hall and wife moved to Janesville, Wis., where he 
was employed in the lumber business. In 1861 he removed to Dixon, Ill., where 
he set up a mill and operated it for Mr. A. K. Norris till the spring of 1865. 
He came to Fulton April 6 of that year, and engaged as foreman with Mr. C. E. 
Langford, a lumber manufacturer of that place. In January, 1866, he entered 
into partnership with Mr. Langford, under the firm name of "Langford & Hall." 
Mr. Hall took charge of the mill and manufacturing department, and under his 
superior management the present extensive and complete mills of the Langford & 
Hall Lumber Company were built in 1876-7. It was largely due to Mr. Hall's 
successful management of the operating department that the company made such 
rapid progress in increasing and extending their business. In Jan., 1878, the 
Langford & Hall Lumber Company was incorporated, in which Mr. Hall held shares 
to the amount of $35,000. He was elected president and also superintendent of 
the company in 1880, which positions he held till the happening of the 
terrible accident that cut short his valuable life in the noon-day of his 
success and prosperity. Mr. Hall lost his life on the 7th of July, 1881, by a 
blow from a falling timber, while assisting his men in removing the hoisting 
poles after having raised a smoke-stack at the mill. The sudden death of such 
a man as Warren P. Hall was a sad blow, not only to his wife and children, to 
whom he had been a devoted husband and father, but also to his business 
associates, employes and fellow-citizens. Mr. Hall experienced religion at the 
early age of 11 years, and became a member of the Presbyterian Church of West 
Bloomfield, N. Y. He continued a consistent member of that Church till 19 
years of age, when he severed his connection and united with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church at Portville, N. Y. He continued during the remainder of his 
life an earnest, zealous worker in that denomination. He filled the offices of 
Steward, Class-leader and Trustee for many years, and by his good example, 
sincere piety and liberal support, was veritably a pillar of the Church. He 
was punctual in attendance at services, prayer-meetings and class-meetings, 
while his purse was always open in support of the Church, its missions and its 
charities.
The funeral services were conducted by the Masonic fraternity, of which he had 
long been an honored member. The attendance was remarkably large, both from 
city and country, and showed the high esteem in which the deceased was held. 
The Revs. R. M. Smith, Carr and David delivered appropriate discourses. Mr. 
Hall left a wife and two daughters to mourn his loss. The family had been 
bereaved only a few years before by the death of an only son, George, who was 
drowned while skating on the so-called Cattail, Jan. 15, 1876. He was a 
bright, promising lad in his 16th year. He had experienced religion three 
years before, and was a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He 
was the eldest of the children, and was born at Janesville, Wis. Estella, the 
second child and eldest daughter, was born at Dixon, Ill., and is the wife of 
Silas E. Morris, of Darlington, Wis. Grace E., the youngest, was born at 
Fulton. Mr. Hall was a Republican with strong prohibition sympathies. His 
temperance views were well known, and it may truthfully be said of him that in 
all the walks of life he aimed to be right and his influence was always in 
favor of that which was calculated to make the world better and purer.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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