Wetzel County, West Virginia Biography of Septimius HALL ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , May 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 135-136 SEPTIMIUS HALL, of New Martinsville, is the oldest dele- gate in point of continuous service in the West Virginia Legislature. He is one of the two or three surviving mem- bers of the Constitutional Convention of 1872, and upon all questions regarding the original conception of the or- ganic law members of the Legislature have made a prac- tice of referring to Mr. Hall as the chief authority. For over seventy years members of the Hall family have been prominent at the bar of Wetzel County. Septimius Hall was born in Ritchie County, February 14, 1847. His grandfather, Samuel Gregg Hall, was born in 1803, in what is now Barbour County, West Virginia, where he was reared and married. He was a farmer by occupation. About 1840 he removed to Middle Island Creek in Tyler County, from there to Bond's Creek in Ritchie County, and in 1844 started for the Far West, floating his goods on a flatboat down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Wabash, and then up that stream to Lafayette, Indiana, whence he proceeded by canal from Lafayette to Logansport, and from there overland to New Buffalo, Michigan by wagon. He and a half brother and some cousins jointly owned a lumber mill at New Buffalo. At that time New Buffalo, Michigan, was the promising rival of Chicago on the other side of the lake. The great trunk lines of railroads then building from the East were being influenced to establish their terminals at New Buffalo, but when they were constructed two or three years later they went around the southern end of the lake, and from that time New Buffalo steadily declined in im- portance. Samuel G. Hall died at New Buffalo in 1846, while the town was still one of great promise. He married Rachel Hudkins, who was born in Barbour County, January 9, 1805, and died at St. Marys, West Virginia, January 24, 1883. Leonard S. Hall, father of Septimius, was born in Bar- bour County in September, 1824, and as a boy accompanied his parents to Middle Island Creek, at what is now Wait Joseph's Mills in Tyler County. At the age of fifteen he left West Virginia and joined his uncle, Thomas Hall, in Kosciusko County, Indiana. He returned from there and settled at Bond's Creek in Ritchie County, where he mar- ried and where he began the study of law. About 1849 he located in New Martinsville, where during the rest of his life he was a leader at the bar. He was a strong South- ern man in sympathies, and was a member of the Secession Convention at Richmond in 1861, which passed the Ordi- nance of Secession, and continued a member of the Vir- ginia Legislature during the war. For a number of terms he held the office of prosecuting attorney of Wetzel County, and he died at New Martinsville, November 10, 1875. In his younger years he was a member of the Methodist Church, and was affiliated, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Leonard S. Hall married Jeanette McGregor, who was born in Ritchie County and died at Wheeling in her eighty-third year and now rests at New Martinsville. Septimius was the oldest of five children. William Mc- Gregor, the second, became a merchant and later a lawyer at New Martinsville, and died at Wheeling Hospital. Susanna is the wife of James W. Newman, a New Martins- ville attorney. Bruce is a member of the New Martinsville bar. Addie is the wife of Wilbur P. Baggs, their home being on Wheeling Island. Mr. Baggs is a member of the firm, Spence, Baggs & Company, operating one of the old established foundries at Martins Ferry, Ohio. Septimius Hall, who was born in Ritchie County, Feb- ruary 14, 1847, was an infant when his father began the practice of law in New Martinsville, where he attended the public schools. He studied law in his father's office and when just ready for examination for the bar he organized the Pittsburg Stave Company, and operated that industry at New Martinsville for about twelve years. Mr. Hall has always been one of the leaders in the demo- cratic party in this section of the state. He was chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention in October, 1871, in the last October election ever held in the state. He had an active part in drawing up the organic law, and was then elected a member of the first State Senate under the new constitution, sen ing throughout the long sessions of 1872-73. He was chairman of the committee on banks and corporations, and drew up the first general railroad law of the state, a measure that has stood the acid test of time and most of its provisions are still on the statute books. Mr. Hall represented the Second Senatorial District, in- cluding Marshall, Marion and Wetzel counties. About ten years later he was elected a member of the House of Delegates, serving from 1881 to 1884, while the capital was at Wheeling. He was representative of Wetzel County. Mr. Hall also served as mayor of New Martins- ville one year. In 1906 he was again elected to represent Wetzel County in the House of Delegates, and beginning with the session of 1907 has been continuously a member of that body, being now in his eighth consecutive term. He has been assigned to some of the most important com- mittees in the Legislature, including taxation and finance, and was a member of the Virginia Debt Committee. He is a past grand of Magnolia Lodge No. 42, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past grand master of the Grand Lodge of the state, and has represented the State Grand Lodge in three meetings of the Sovereign Grand Lodge, He is also a Royal Arch Mason. Mr. Hall and family reside at 705 Maple Avenue in New Martinsville. He married in June, 1875, at Moundsville, Miss Fannie Anschutz, daughter of Christian and Rebecca (Woodwell) Anschutz, now deceased. Her father for a number of years was owner of the Moundsville Flouring Mills. Mr. Hall has four children. Charles Leonard is an attorney for oil corporations at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Lulu, living with her parents, is the widow of Samuel Brice Blair, who was an attorney of Moundsville; Septimius, Jr., is connected with the Tulsa Mapping Company in Oklahoma; LaMoine is a constructive engineer at Muskogee, Oklahoma.