BIOGRAPHY: Frederick C. Hall; Lebanon, Madison co., NY

submitted by W. D. Samuelsen
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Biographical Review
The Leading Citizens of Madison County, New York
pub. 1894, Boston, Biographical Review Publishing Company

FREDERICK C. HALL, a veteran of the late war, residing in Lebanon, was born in
Madison, Madison County, N.Y., June 11, 1827. His father, William Hall, and
his grandfather, George Hall, Jr., were natives of Portsmouth, R. I., where
they lived on a plantation of three hundred acres purchased at an early date
by Colonel George Hall, great-grandfather of Frederick, a native of England,
and an ex-officer of the English army. Coming to America and taking up his
abode in this Quaker settlement, many of his neighbors being of that faith,
Colonel Hall became a member of the Society of Friends. George Hall, Jr., died
at the Portsmouth homestead, at the age of eighty-four. His wife, Charity
Fish, of Newport, R.I., died four years later, at the same age.

William Hall, son of George Hall, Jr., was born March 28, 1767. He married
first Mary Durfee, by whom he had ten children. She died January 26, 1816. His
second wife, Mary Harrington, was born in Cherry Valley, Otsego County, N.Y.,
in December, 1793, and died January 26, 1838. She was the mother of five
children. It is a remarkable fact that these fifteen children of one father
all married and had families of their own. William Hall made his first visit
to New York in 1797, and bought a tract of timber land in what is now the town
of Madison, then a wilderness, the price of land in this yet unorganized
county being from two dollars and a half to five dollars per acre. In the
autumn Mr. Hall returned to Portsmouth, travelling back and forth several
times. In the course of five years he cleared twenty acres and built a log
house. The family removal to the new home took place in 1802, wife and
children journeying in a wagon drawn by a single horse, the household goods
and other movables being brought in a cart to which were yoked a pair of oxen
and two cows. Industrious and thrifty, William Hall worked at his own
profitable trade, - boot and shoe making, - learned in Rhode Island, and hired
men to clear his land, which soon came to be an excellent farm. Surviving his
second wife fifteen years, he died at his son Frederick's home in Waterville,
in 1853, aged eighty-six years. He was a consistent member of the Society of
Friends.

The death of the second Mrs. William Hall, in 1838, brought great changes to
the household. Frederick, then in his eleventh year, went to live with his
step-grandmother Durfee. At the age of sixteen he was sent to Waterville to
learn harness-making. After two years of apprentice work in this place he
served six months at Richfield and six months at Utica. He then followed the
trade one year at Binghamton, another at Owego, Tioga County, and next, after
a short time at Waterville, went to North Brookfield, and became a
carriage-trimmer. In this occupation he continued until his enlistment in
August, 1864, in Company I, One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York Volunteer
Infantry. He went with the regiment to Charleston, S.C., and was in all its
campaigns until his discharge at Charleston, July 10, 1865. Being at this time
sick in a hospital, he remained there some weeks. On his return home he
resumed his old trade, continuing at it until a recent date. In 1869 he bought
his present farm, the birthplace and home of his wife, Hannah M. I-latch, whom
he married in 1851.

Ira B. Hatch, the father of Mrs. Hall, was born in Egremont, Mass., in 1790,
the son of Benjamin Hatch, a native of the same place, who served seven years
in the War of the Revolution, and who emigrated to Lebanon with his family in
1802. Here he died in 1854 in his one hundredth year. His wife's maiden name
was Christina Pierce. Ira, a lad of twelve years, accompanied his father to
Lebanon, and, succeeding him in the owner-ship of the home farm, resided upon
it until his death. Mrs. Hall's mother, Polly Sharp before her marriage, was
born in the town of Greene, Chenango County, N.Y., a daughter of Hendrick
Sharp, a pioneer in that town. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have five children living, -
Edward, Frederick, Julia, Lucia, and Thomas. Mr. Hall is a birthright member
of the Society of Friends, and in his daily life illustrates the well-known
virtues of the disciples of George Fox. Mrs. Hall is of the Presbyterian
faith.