OBIT: William H. HALL, 1931, formerly of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
________________________________________________

WILLIAM H. HALL

William H. Hall Hears Last Call
Last Survivor of a Former Meyersdale Family Brought Here for Burial

  William H. Hall, last survivor of a former Meyersdale family, prominent in the 
early history of the borough, passed away in a hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., at 
9:30 o'clock last Saturday night, after a severe illness of several weeks' 
duration.  He was 64 years old.
  Mr. Hall was well known in Somerset County and throughout Western 
Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Southern New York.
  He was a son of the late Fielding K. Hall, M.D., and Sarah Wagaman Hall.  His 
father, of English descent, was a native of Virginia and a veteran of the War 
with Mexico.  After being mustered out of the army, he located at Hay's Mill, 
this county, to practive medicine.  While located there he met and married Sarah 
Wagaman, a member of one of the pioneer families of Northampton Township.  From 
Hay's Mill Dr. Hall and wife moved to Stoyestown and from there to Wellersburg 
where they resided until the completion of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad through 
Meyersdale in 1871, when they located here and Dr. Hall practiced medicine here 
until 1886 when the family moved to Pittsburgh where Dr. Hall died in 1898.
  Nine children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Hall, namely:  George, Franklin, 
Agnes, Alice, Emma, John, William, Charles and LeRoy.  All died young except 
Franklin, Agnes, John and William.  Franklin and Agnes were school teachers in 
this community after they grew up.  John went to Pittsburgh at the age of 18 and 
in a short while became a prosperous real estate operator.  As the result of his 
success the entire family moved to Pittsburgh in 1886.  John died there 
unmarried, at the age of 24, leaving his parents well provided for.
  William was not yet out of his teens when the family located in Pittsburgh.  
He obtained employment there and became successfully engaged in the oil business 
while still quite a young man.  Franklin was employed for many years in 
Pittsburgh as superintendent of a large office building and amassed a 
comfortable fortune.  He died about five years ago.  Miss Agnes also died in 
Pittsburgh some years ago, and after the death of his father, Will Hall resided 
with and continued to care for his mother in Pittsburgh.

Honored Father and Mother

  Twenty-one years ago, Mr. Hall disposed of his business interests in 
Pittsburgh and moved to Syracuse, N.Y., where he engaged in the wholesale and 
retail gasoline and oil business and established a fine home, taking his aged 
mother with him and caring for her most devotedly until her death, June 2, 1921.
  Mr. Hall's devotion to his mother was most ardent.  She was a very noble and 
handsome lady and lived to be over 90 years of age.  He brought her body to 
Meyersdale for interment in the family lot in Union Cemetery where the entire 
family now reposes, he being the last to be laid to rest.  After his mother's 
burial, Will Hall erected a fine monument in memory of his parents on the 
cemetery lot.  His father was a member of the Church of the Brethren, and when 
Will was a boy he attended the Sunday school and church of that denomination 
here until the family removed to Pittsburgh.
  The building of the beautiful new church edifice on the site of the old one in 
which Dr. Hall and members of his family worshipped, was commenced about the 
same time Mr. Hall's mother died, and that gave him the thought to donate a 
beautiful art glass window for the front of the church as a memorial to his 
parents. This he did.  The large circular window above the vestibule of the 
church is the one.  He also made a liberal cash donation to the building fund.
  
Interested in His Kin Folks

  His devotion to his mother prompted Mr. Hall to trace back the history of the 
Wagaman family for several centuries in this country and Switzerland where the 
pioneer of the family in Pennsylvania came from, John Philip Wagaman having 
located in Penn's Woodland in 1737.  He devoted much of his time the last three 
years to looking up members of the Wagaman kinship in this and other states, and 
organized an association for holding annual reunions of the members of the 
various branches of the family.  The first reunion was held at Gettysburg in 
1929, the second near Jeannette, Pa., in 1930, and the third at Somerset last 
June.  These reunions have been largely attended and gave Mr. Hall and his 
kinsmen much pleasure.
  Mr. Hall was a shrewd businessman and operated gasoline and oil stations at 
Syracuse, Utica and Elmira, N.Y.  He was a thirty-second degree mason and was 
greatly interested in Masonic institutions.

Funeral Services

  Masonic funeral services were held for him at Syracuse, Monday, after which 
his body was shipped to Meyersdale for interment in accordance with directions 
given by himself before his death.  Undertaker George Lohman of Syracuse 
personally escorted the body to this place and turned it over to Undertaker W. 
C. Price who had charge of the burial arrangements by pre-arrangements made by 
Ralph A. Poorbaugh of Stonycreek Township who was sent for by Mr. Hall during 
his last sickness to arrange for a church funeral and burial here.
  The remains arrived here Wednesday noon.  Others who accompanied the body from 
Syracuse were Mr. Hall's faithful housekeeper, Miss Elizabeth Fisher, and Cyrus 
Bittner and daughter, Miss Ada, formerly of Garrett, who have been employed by 
Mr. Hall at Syracuse.  Other relatives who came to attend the obsequies here 
were Mr. Hall's only daughter, Mrs. H. E. Beggs, and husband, of Oakdale, Pa.; 
Mr. and Mrs. Luke Broadwater of Wilmington, Del., Dr. S. M. Wagaman of 
Hagerstown, Md., and many of the Wagaman and Poorbaugh relations of this and 
other counties.  Ralph A. Poorbaugh arranged for all of those coming to the 
funeral from other places than Meyersdale or the immediate vicinity to have 
dinner together at the Colonial Hotel.  The number was so large that they filled 
the large dining room.
  When Mr. Hall attended the last Wagaman reunion at Somerset last June, he 
called on Rev. T. Rodney Coffman, pastor of the Church of the Brethren in 
Somerset, who was pastor at Meyersdale when the new church was being built, and 
requested him to hold himself in readiness to conduct funeral services for him 
in case he should pass away before the minister.  Accordingly the funeral sermon 
was preached by Rev. Coffman.  The church was well filled with relatives and 
friends of the deceased.  Rev. George L. Detweiler read the scripture lesson and 
a male quartet, composed of Galen Peck, Rev. Detweiler, William Blough and D. J. 
Meyers, sang several hymns.  Rev. Coffman preached a very effective sermon and 
extolled the virtures and philanthropy of Mr. Hall, stating how he became 
intimately acquainted with him through his donations to the church and the 
beautiful memorial window he had erected in honor of his parents.
  Dr. S. M. Wagaman, a scholarly retired physician of Hagerstown, Md., occupied 
the pulpit with Rev. Coffman and followed the latter's sermon with a written 
statement telling of Mr. Hall's devotion to his mother which impelled him to 
make an exhaustive search of authentic records in order to compile and preserve 
a history of the Wagaman family and to bring the scattered descendants of the 
pioneer, John Philip Wagaman, into closer relationship.  Dr. Wagaman's paper is 
given in full at the close of this report of the funeral.
  At the conclusion of the services in the church, the body of Mr. Hall was laid 
to rest with the other members of his family in Union Cemetery.  The pall-
bearers were six representatives of the Meyersdale Masonic lodge - W. H. 
Baldwin, W. H. Holzshu, Paul Critchfield, J. H. Blocher, J. B. Hummel and Harry 
F. Habel. 

Dr. Wagaman's Tribute

  Following is the tribute to William H. Hall paid by Dr. Samuel M. Wagaman of 
Hagerstown, Md., past president of the Wagaman Reunion Association.
  Four hundred years ago, in October, 1531, mortally wounded, a martyr to his 
religious beliefs, Ulric Zwingli exclaimed as he lay dying on the battlefield at 
Kappel, Switzerland, "They may kill the body but not the soul."  It was the 
invincible spirit of that man, his example and his precepts, - it was the 
undying soul of Zwingli which determined the events which bring us together 
today.
  The spirit of Ulric Zwingli was caught up by his disciples and his successors 
in the Reformation and in 1620 we find Ulric Wagaman, a devoted follower, at 
work in Zurich preaching the Gospel as expounded by Zwingli in the very canton 
if, indeed, not in the very parish which was the scene of the labors of Zwingli 
in the years immediately preceding his going forth to the battle-field at 
Kappel.
  Ulric Wagaman, a pastor of the Reformed congregation in Zurich, was, as far as 
can be authenticated by recorded narrative, the ancestor of John Philip Wagaman 
who was born in the Palatinate country in 1717 and at the age of 19 left his 
native land to seek religious freedom and civil liberty in the New World.  He 
landed in Philadelphia in 1736 and sought out the fertile lands in the interior 
of Penn's Forest, where he established his home and his family.
  Into this family were born seven sons; as to daughters, we are not reliably 
informed.  At least four of these sons fought with the Continental Army in the 
Revolutionary War and survived the hazards of the battlefield.  Fired with the 
spirit of independence for the establishment of which they had undergone many 
privations and hardships, urged by the love of adventure which had been awakened 
by their contacts in the army, spurred on by the sense of a rightful patrimony 
to a part of this new country whose freedom from foreign rule they had 
contributed so much to acquire, soon after their return from the army at the end 
of the war, they set out from home to seek their fortunes and establish homes 
for themselves.
  Two of these sons came to Western Pennsylvania and became the progenitors of 
the two large families of Wagamans and their descendants west of the 
Alleghenies. Other sons went into different parts of the Eastern portion of the 
State, and one down into Maryland.  From these secondary points of migration 
representatives of these seven sons have gone to all parts of the country.  Thus 
the family of John Philip in those early days were scattered over the land.  
Separated by almost trackless forests and the inevitable oblivion of time, 
families and even the names of families were forgotten and for more than 125 
years lived and died in almost complete ignorance of the existence of one 
another.  To a remarkable degree, however, they retained in common many 
characteristics as to customs, speech, and religious adherence.
  From time to time desultory attempts were made to piece together the fragments 
of history and traditions of this large family; but it was not until a few years 
ago when the inspiration came to him, to honor whom we have come here today that 
any real effort was made to search out and bring together these widely separated 
kinsmen.  With a zeal, a courage characteristic of his pioneering forefathers, 
with a sincerity of purpose, an almost religious devotion to a sacred cause, he 
has brought together, face to face, in the joyous communion of friendship 
literally many hundreds of kinsmen, those who today deeply mourn his loss and 
reverently honor his memory.
  On an occasion like this it seems proper to inquire as to what were the 
special endowments which inspired these acts; what particular characteristics 
impelled him to give so liberally of his time, his means and of his labors in 
this cause: - Love of the truth, Devotion to the memory of his mother, and Love 
for his fellow-men.
  The garnering of facts appeared to be almost an obsession with him and in 
their establishment with the keen perception of the true historian he accepted 
nothing which savored of the fanciful, the purely traditional or the inaccurate, 
- it must be ture, definitely proven to be true, before it was accepted for any 
place in his records.
  What the poet expressed so beautifully when he wrote - 
    The angels, whispering to one another,
    Can find among their burning terms of love,
    None so devotional as that of "Mother" -
 Our kinsman treasured very deeply in his heart and unobtrusively carried with 
him in his daily life.  Every allusion to his mother was made with a delicate 
reverence and when he spoke of her it was as though he had been with her but 
yesterday.  His devotion to her and his desire to learn more of her antecedents 
had much to do in stimulating him for the search of family records.
  Finally, he loved his kinsmen and was supremely happy when he had them 
gathered round him in large numbers - he exuded a contagion of joy, and all were 
better men, women and children for having caught in his presence some of that 
contagion.  And what better tribute can we pay to this lover of men than that 
expressed in these lines from Leigh Hunt?

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw . . . . . an angel writing in a book
     of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"  The vision raised its
     head.
. . . . And answered.  "The names of those who 
     love the Lord."
"And is mine one?  said Abou.  "Nay not so,"
Replied the angel.  Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still and said, "I pray thee, then.
Write me as one who loves his fellowmen."
The angel wrote and vanished.  The next
     night
It came again with a great awakening light.
"And showed the names whom love of God had
     blessed.
And lo, Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

Meyersdale Republican, October 8, 1931