| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 127 |
CHARLES W. HALL.
CHARLES W. HALL has spent his entire life in the Mississippi Valley and the progressive spirit which dominates this section of the country, and has led to its wonderful advancement is manifest in his business career. He was born in Belvidere, Illinois, on the 26th of October, 1852, and is a son of Edward and Helen (Wickes) Hall, the former a native of New York, and the latter of Michigan. From the Wolverine state they removed to Illinois, where the mother died in 1861, at the age of twenty-seven years. She had two children, but Charles W. is the only one now living.
When nine years of age Charles W. Hall went to the Empire state where he resided for a time, afterward living in Illinois and Michigan. He pursued his education in the common schools supplemented by one term's attendance at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. From early youth he has made his own way in the world, dependent entirely upon his own resources for a livelihood. At the age of eighteen he began steamboating on the river, learned the work of a marine engineer and successfully passed the engineer's examination, given by Mr. Cole of Port Huron. He then spent three years as an engineer on the Saginaw river, and on leaving the water returned to Michigan, where he purchased a farm.
Mr. Hall then completed his arrangements for a home by his marriage to Miss Florence Larnbie, in 1875. Their children are: Lottie, wife of Joseph Reynolds; Nettie, Mary, George and Grace, who are still with their parents. For eleven years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hall resided in Michigan, but in 1884 became residents of Denver, Colorado, where he carried on business as a contractor and builder until 1893, the year of his arrival in Allen county, Kansas.
In Allen county Mr. Hall purchased a farm of eighty acres in Cottage Grove township, five miles south-east of Humboldt, and has erected upon it a nice residence, a good barn and many other improvements found upon a farm of the twentieth century. Depending entirely upon his own resources he has worked his way upward, brooking no obstacles that could be overcome by determined purpose and honorable labor. This has been the strongest factor in his success. While residing in Denver he was appointed city inspector and held that position for four years. For seven years he was chairman of the county central committee, and has always taken an active part in political work, doing everything in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of the party in which he firmly believes.
Page 127, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.
