William R. Hall, the 1875 Mayor of Marion, was born in Gallatin County, Illinois to John E. Hall (1814-1856) and Mary Hart Crenshaw (1818-1912) in 1844. Mary was the daughter of John Hart Crenshaw (1797–1871), owner of the old slave house located near Equality, Illinois and licensed overseer of salt production for the area.
In the 1850 census, the family was living in Shawneetown, Illinois. His father was a 36 year old Circuit Court Clerk for Gallatin County and claimed a real estate value of $1,600. Those present in the home were John E. 36, Mary 32, Margaret 15, William R. 5, Sarah 3 and newborn, Michael E. Hall.
William’s father, John, was instrumental in helping determine the county seat of Gallatin County and was serving as Circuit Court Clerk for Gallatin County when he was without any provocation and in a moment shot in the back by Robert C. Sloo in 1856 and murdered. At the May term of 1857 in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit with the Hon. Wesley Sloan, presiding, the jury found Sloo, the defendant, innocent due to insanity and he was released. Since then, numerous cases have been tried in which the insane plea of emotional insanity has resulted in a verdict of acquittal.
By the 1860 census, William’s widowed mother had moved the large family closer to their family holdings near Equality, Illinois. The 42 year old mother claimed a real estate value then of $28,000 and personal estate of $2,300. This would have been a very large sum in those days and one has to wonder if some sort of settlement came out of her husband’s murder, of course, her parental family was well off. Before his death, John Hall had managed to father three more children. Those present during this census were William R. 16, Sarah S. 13, Francis 8, and twins, John E. and Mary both aged 4. Also living in the home were a farm hand and a female domestic servant.
On June 2, 1869 William married Julia Goddard, daughter of J.T. Goddard, in Williamson County. When the 1870 federal census was taken, William 26 and Julia 21 already had a 3 month old son named John E. Hall, presumably named for William’s father. They were living in Marion in West Marion Township and William was operating a dry goods store. West Marion Township begins about one or two blocks west of the public square, indicating that the couple was living no closer than that distance to the square. The couple employed a domestic servant, 18 year old, Rebecca Jenkins.
Their son, John E. Hall, named after his grandfather, does not appear to have survived this period and is never mentioned on census records again.
In April of 1875, William was elected Mayor of Marion and served one, one year term. In the following year, a land transaction was found in which he purchased 80 acres of land around April of 1876.
Later, in the same year of 1876, a newspaper article from Austin, Texas indicated that William’s daughter, Mary Hall, had been badly burned. Since Mary appears to have been born in 1874, she would have been only two years old indicating that the family was living there by then. This is re-enforced by another article in 1877, stated that Julia Hall, wife of W.R. Hall, of Austin had been visited by brother-in-law, J.B. Bainbridge. The family connection on this one is that John B. Bainbridge had married Josephine Goddard, Julia Hall’s sister, both the daughters of J.T. Goddard. Both the Goddard family and the Bainbridge family were both important pioneer merchant families in Marion.
The good news, perhaps, is that Mary Hall’s burn incident doesn’t appear to have killed her. In the 1880 census, the family had moved to Lebanon, Missouri where William continued working as a dry good merchant. In the census, William was 36 and Julia 30. Children present were Mary Hall 6 and William aged 2. William had been born in Missouri indicating that they had been there at least 2 years, 1878, so their stay in Austin, Texas was fairly short. The family is also housing a 13 year old female, German, domestic servant named Ida Frochlich.
After this it gets fuzzy trying to follow Hall. Something significant appears to have happened in that same year, 1880. While living there, an article noted that Julia’s brother, Roy Goddard, had visited them. Another newspaper article dated 1881 indicated that W.R. Hall of Lebanon, Mo. formerly of this place, was talking of taking up residence in California.
Then an article appears stating that W.R. Hall formerly of this place had married Mrs. Brooks Johnson. Other notes were that his wife had remarried to a man named Harwood and had a daughter, who she interestingly named Marion.
By 1910 Julia was a widow living next door to her sons in Colorado on an Indian reservation where the boys were in business. Marion, the daughter, was born about 1889 in Indian Territory.
In 1920 Julia, was in a sanatorium and died a year later.
W.R. Hall was lost to us after his separation from his wife in Lebanon, Missouri and no further records were found on him. It is not currently known what happened to him or where he went.
(Extracted from History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties; Federal Census Records; Egyptian Press; Marion Monitor; compiled by Colleen Norman and Sam Lattuca)