4. Nathan, b. on Sabbath, July 25, 1784.---Family 4.
Family 4.---
NATHAN HALL, pedigree as before: was born July 25, 1784, in Monongalia county, Virginia.
He spent his minority working on the farm and attending school. Schools were formed by paying a teacher so much per scholar. School commenced at or before sunrise in the morning and continued until dark. He often went three miles to such schools, getting there as soon as there was light enough to read. In that way he received rather more than an average common school education for those times. It seems that he must have attended school after his majority, as I have now an old leather-covered arithmetic, called "The School-Masters Assistant," by Thomas Dillworth, which father bought the 6th day of March, 1809. Some time during the war or 1812, father and uncle Allen Hall enlisted in the army under Captain Ice, one of their neighbors, to serve under General William H. Harrison. After some hard marching and great exposure, they reached Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river, a little south of what is now Perrysburgh, Ohio, where they remained until discharged,--the next May. The soldiers kept together for a time, but finally scattered to their several homes, in different states. Father and uncle Allen arrived at their homes in safety.
At the time of their enlistment, one of the neighbors said, "Boys, I wouldn't enlist; you wont like it." Uncle Allen asked, "Why, what ails it?" He answered, "You will find out what ails it." They did.
After he came out of the army, father took a trip north through the Wilderness, as far as Niagara Falls, then west to what is now Trumbull county, Ohio, and became acquainted with the family of Alex. Stanley, and finally married his eldest daughter, Permelia, on the 14th day of May, 1814. They soon went to Virginia, and grandfather Asa Hall dying on the 9th day of June, 1815, father helped to settle up the estate. Alex. Stanley (mother's father) having a tract of land of l00 acres in Medina county, Ohio, offered to give it to his oldest son, Titus, and mother jointly if they would settle on it. About 1817 the two families moved onto the land, there in the wilderness, with but one white family besides themselves in the township. Indians were plentiful, but friendly. There were a few outlaws that went from place to place, but never doing them any harm. Game was very plentiful, especially deer; They were seen quite frequently near the house browsing on the fallen trees. The two families divided the place and each cleared and fenced some five acres, and each built a good log house. Here their second daughter was born--the first white child born in that township. But the title to the land not being forthcoming, father went about 12 miles south in Canaan township, Wayne county, and took 169 acres of government land, and moved onto it about 1819. He soon sold one-half of it, and improved and lived on the other half until 1834, when the title to the land in Medina county becoming satisfactory, they removed to it in May, 1834. During his residence in Canaan, Wayne county, father was captain of the militia for a number of years, and Township Clerk for 12 years in succession. The township in Medina county, to which they removed from Canaan, had now become Chatham, with quite a number of inhabitants. A colony from Massachusetts came in 1832 or '34 under the leadership of Frank Packard, Esq., and nearly all settled in Chatham. They were as a rule very intelligent and enterprising, especially in the matter of schools, so that the first summer we were there we had a good school, taught in a log school house in the woods. In this township our family lived until about the year 1852. Father getting a land warrant of 160 acres for his services in the army, went to Michigan and located it in Prairieville, Barry county. A part of his children were then in Michigan. He sold out in Chatham and went to Michigan about 1852. Father and my brother, Jonas A., bought a farm on Crooked Lake in Prairieville, which they kept a few years, then sold, and father went to Hope, Barry county, and bought a small piece of land near his son-in-law, S. H. Tillotson. Here he lived until the first of 1863. While visiting with their daughter, N. M. Johnson, who lived at Richland, Kalamazoo county, mother was taken sick and died on the 26th day of February, 1863, aged 68 years. 6 months, and 8 days. Father then broke up housekeeping and went to live with his daughter, Elizabeth P. Tillotson. In 1864 her husband, S. H. Tillotson, died in the army, and the family with father moved to Prairieville village. Here he lived with E. P. Tillotson and my youngest brother, Amos C., until his death, which took place January 20, 1873.
In stature father was five feet, nine inches, "thick set," his best weight being about 180 pounds, brown eyes, Roman nose, and quite bald as long ago as I can remember. He and mother were members of the old school, or Scottish Presbyterian church. He was always a deacon. After they moved to Chatham they joined the same church they had belonged to sixteen years before. Having a little difficulty with the church, on account of some modern innovations, the which his conscience could not prove, he, with a few others, withdrew, and built a log house at a place in Harrisville, called Crawford's Corners, and held their meetings there.
He was known far and near as Deacon Hall. He was lively, full of jokes, a great favorite with the young, who were always welcome and sure of a good time at Deacon Hall's. Scrupulously honest; his ideas of right and wrong were well established; charitable to all; a friend to all he esteemed good, and a foe to all wrong doers.
His posterity are proud to own him.---By John E. Hall.
