MATHEW W. HALL.
The position that our subject holds indicates that he is a man of many parts. He has been Clerk of the Circuit Court of Saline County for five years, a position that exacts of a man a fair knowledge of the rules of legal practice. He must be an accountant, for under his keeping is a large amount of book-keeping of a particular sort. He has charge of the seal of the court, and with him is the custody of all the court records, bills, declarations and pleadings. Not an insignificant position is that which our subject holds.
Mr. Hall was born at Arrow Rock, Saline County, August 16, 1853. His father, Hon. M. W. Hall, M.D. was born just out of Lexington, Ky., March 15, 1817, and is a son of the Rev. Nathan H. Hall, who was for thirty years Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lexington. Ky. Our subject's father grew to maturity and was educated at Lexington, where he acquired his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the old medical college. Later he moved to Saline. Ill., where he was engaged in the practice of his profession for twelve years, and while there he was married to Miss Agnes Lester. In February, 1845, he moved to Saline County, Mo., locating at Arrow Rock, where he was soon in requisition as an experienced physician. In 1857 he moved to his present home, twelve miles west of Arrow Rock, and has practiced continuously, with the exception of a short time when he was a prisoner at Alton during the late war, having been captured at the Black Water surrender. He owns a fine farm of which he acquired the preemption papers direct from the Government. This has been the family home since 1857.
Mathew Hall spent his boyhood days on the old home farm, and acquired the rudiments of his education m the district schools. Later, he entered Westminster College, at Fulton, Mo., and then returned to Saline County to engage in farming, his tract being only a mile distant from the old homestead, where he still lives. He was elected to his present position in 1886, and in 1890 was re-elected for the second time. It goes without saying, in view of his re-elections, that his incumbency of the office has been highly satisfactory.
Mr. Hall was married February 15, 1883, to Miss Minnie Woods, a daughter of the Rev. C. C. Woods, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. They have two children whose names are John and Woods, and these they are bringing up to a noble ideal of manhood and in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Our subject is one of a family of eight children, of whom three of the boys became physicians. The eldest is Dr. C. Lester, of Kansas City; W. E. is an attorney in Kansas City; John R. is a physician at Marshall; Louise is now Mrs. W. W. Trigg, of Boonville. Mo.; our subject, Mathew W., is next in order; Dr. T. B. is practicing at the old homestead; Florida is the wife of D. W. Shackelford, of Boonville; and Ettie is Mrs. Fred W. Glover, of Kansas City.
Our subject's father was a member of the State Legislature in 1861 during the memorable session that voted to carry Missouri out of the Union.
