J. C. Hall Biography


	This biography appears on pages 669-670 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	J. C. HALL, one of the representative agriculturists of Brown 
county, also a merchant and grain dealer and a breeder of full-blooded 
Shropshire sheep, has been an honored resident of South Dakota since 
July, 1880, at which time he located on a homestead near the present 
town of Bath and lived on the same until converting it into one of the 
finest farms in that part of the country. His success during the 
interim has been marked and all of his undertakings appear to have 
prospered even surpassing his most ardent expectations. After living 
where he originally settled until the year 1897, Mr. Hall moved to his 
present home on Elm river, eight miles north of Aberdeen, where he owns 
a beautiful place of one hundred and sixty acres, which he devotes 
chiefly to the raising of highly prized Shropshire breed of sheep, in 
connection with which he also carries on agriculture, buys and ships 
grain and runs a large, general store in the town of Ordway. As a sheep 
raiser he has a wide reputation, many of his animals having been 
exhibited at the different fairs throughout the state, with the result 
that they have invariably been awarded the highest premiums wherever 
entered for competition. His flock at this time consists of one hundred 
and seventy five head, all registered and of the highest grade of 
excellence, their unmixed blood and general supremity over the best 
animals of other breeds creating a great demand far in excess of the 
owner's inclination or ability to supply. Mr. Hall began breeding sheep 
in 1878 and since that time has given his attention exclusively to the 
Shropshire variety, which he finds superior in every respect to any 
other species, and which he hopes to see generally introduced among the 
farmers and stockmen of Dakota at no distant day. Through his 
instrumentality a number of people have been induced to improve their 
flock and he is certainly entitled to great credit for his interest in 
behalf of one of the large and rapidly growing industries of the west, 
which is destined to become more important with each recurring year.  

	As already stated, Mr. Hall's attention is by no means confined 
to one line of business, his mercantile interests at Ordway being large 
and steadily growing and his grain dealing at the same place has given 
him marked prestige in the business circles of South Dakota and other 
states. He manages a large elevator with capacity sufficient to handle 
all the grain in his part of the country and he buys and ships upon an 
average of fifty thousand bushels a year, much of which he grows, and 
all coming from farms in the vicinity of his place of business. 
Essentially a progressive man of affairs and as such ranking with the 
most enterprising and successful of his contemporaries, Mr. Hall has 
also been prominently before the public in other than business 
capacities, being a politician of much more than local repute and a 
leader of the Republican party in Brown county. He took an active and 
vigorous part in the first election ever held in the county, the one to 
decide upon the location of the seat of justice, and in 1893 was 
elected to a seat in the general assembly, this being the third session 
of the legislature after Dakota's admission to the Union as a state. 
Mr. Hall's record as a lawmaker was not only creditable to himself and 
satisfactory to the constituency he represented, but proved eminently 
honorable to the state, as he was instrumental in bringing about 
legislation which had an important bearing on the commonwealth and 
proved greatly beneficial to the people. As a member of the committee 
on railroads he introduced the first bill relating to the railway 
interests of the state, but a strong opposition prevented its passage 
at that time, although the wisdom of the measure was recognized by 
every member of the body and the people with few exceptions were 
decidedly of the opinion that it should become a law. Mr. Hall was 
chairman of the county central committee in 1898, when the Populists 
sustained such a severe defeat, the Republican victory of that year 
being directly attributed to the complete organization which he 
perfected and his skillful leadership in the campaign that followed.  

	Mr. Hall has an abiding faith in South Dakota and believes that 
it is destined in the no distant future to become one of the greatest 
of western commonwealths and second to few states in the Union. He is 
laboring hard and using his influence to the end that this high ideal 
may be realized, few men in this part of the county being as 
enterprising and public-spirited and none are doing more to promote the 
general welfare. He is a western man in the full sense of the term, 
broad-minded, generous in thought and deed, inflexible in his honesty 
and integrity and a symmetrically developed American whose ideas of 
citizenship transcend the narrow limits of community and self-interest, 
in larger bounds within which the good of the people as a whole is to 
be considered.  

	Mr. Hall was born October 18, 1857, in Hillsdale county, 
Michigan, and the first twenty-one years of his life were spent there, 
in Erie county, New York, and in Shelby county, Missouri, coming from 
the latter place to Dakota in March, 1879. Mr. Hall was married in 
Shelby county, Missouri, on March 8, 1881, to Miss Annie M. Cox, of 
that county, the union resulting in the birth of three children, Mono 
M., Moro O. and John B.