OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (HALL.) 



545 



New Orleans, offered to pay his expenses as a stu- 

 dent of law, whereupon he entered the Harvard 

 Law School. After one term he returned to New 

 York, where he was in a lawyer's office for a brief 

 time. He then went to New Orleans, took up in 

 turn almost every branch of law, and mastered 

 each. While studying he was obliged to earn 

 money to support himself, and reported for several 

 papers. He remained in New Orleans two years, 

 returned to New York, and was admitted to the bar 

 there in 1848, becoming a member of the firm of 

 Brown, Hall & Vanderpool. In 1850 Mr, Hall was 

 appointed assistant district attorney ; in 1854 was 

 elected district attorney, and was re-elected twice 

 to the office, declining a fourth term to resume law 

 practice. He again returned to the district at- 

 torney's office in 1861, remaining seven years as its 

 chief. While there he argued before the Supreme 

 Court and Court of Appeals more than 200 cases. 

 In 18G8 lie was nominated by Tammany for the 

 office of Mayor, and was elected. During his term 

 the great Tweed ring frauds were disclosed. The 

 most careful investigation in court and out of it, as 

 to Mr. Hall's criminal relation to the acts com- 

 mitted by the "ring" exonerated him from any 

 such participation. He held the office two terms, 

 and the Tammany overthrow in 1872 ended his po- 

 litical career. On Dec. 18, 1875, he ventured on a 

 short dramatic career, playing Wilmot Keviton in 

 an original piece, " Crucible," at the Park Theater. 

 For a time he returned to his old profession of 

 journalism ; was city editor of the " World " ; went 

 to London as a newspaper correspondent ; from 

 1883 till 1888 represented the "Herald " there; and 

 again in 1890 went there as correspondent for the 

 " Journal." In 1889 he brought a suit against Prof. 

 James Bryce, author of " The American Common- 

 wealth," claiming damages to the amount of 20,- 

 000 for libel in the chapter on the Tammany scan- 

 dals. The offending chapter was omitted in suc- 

 ceeding editions, but the suit dragged on and was 

 finally dismissed with costs in 1897. In 1891 he re- 

 turned to New York and re-engaged in his law 

 practice, which he continued till his death. Mr. 

 Hall's political vagaries won for him much criti- 

 cism ; he was first of all a Whig ; then a Repub- 

 lican, supported the Know-nothings, and finally 

 became a Democrat. In matters of religion, too, 

 he was of unsettled belief: reared a Presbyterian, 

 I he turned in manhood to the faith of Swedenborg, 

 and then, with his wife, became a con vert to Roman 

 j Catholicism. He published a pamphlet on Horace 

 Greeley and a volume of " Ballads," under the signa- 

 ture of " Hans Yorke " (1880). 



Hall, Kphraim B., jurist, born in Martinsburg, 

 Va. (now W. Va.), about 1828; died in Santa Bar- 

 bara, Cal., Jan. 20, 1898. He was admitted to the 

 bar in 1851. In 1861, as a member of the Rich- 

 i nond Convention, he voted against the ordinance of 

 secession, and later, as a member of the Wheeling 

 Convention, he earnestly advocated the reorganiza- 

 ion of the Virginia State Government on the basis 

 of loyalty to the Union. For these acts he was pro- 

 lounced guilty of treason to his State, and a price 

 vas set on his head by the Confederate authorities, 

 fudge Hall was a member of the convention that 

 'rained the first Constitution of West Virginia, and 

 >ne of a committee of five appointed under it to 

 >rocure the admission of the new State into the 

 Jnion. He was Attorney-General of West Virginia 

 bur years, resigning to accept appointment to the 

 >ench of the circuit court. In 1870 he was chosen 

 >ne of three commissioners to settle the debt ques- 

 ion between Virginia and West Virginia, and 

 | -fterward he held a judgeship till 1872, when he 

 esigned and removed to Santa Barbara, where he 

 ; ngaged in private practice. 

 VOL. xxxvni. ?j5 A 



Hall. James, geologist, born in Ilingham, Mass., 

 Sept. 12, 1811; died in Echo Hill, near Bethlehem. 

 N. H.. Aug. 7, 1898. He was the son of James Hall 

 and Susanna Dourdain, natives of Lancashire, Eng- 

 land. His early education was received in the pub- 

 lic schools of Hingham, and in 1831 he entered the 

 Rensselaer School in Troy (now the Rensselaer Poly- 

 technic Institute), where he came under the influ- 

 ence of Amos Eaton, then in charge of the scientific 

 studies. He was gradu- 

 ated in 1832, but remained 

 at the Institute as Assist- 

 ant Professor of Chemis- 

 try and Natural Science, 

 which chair he then held 

 until 1854, when he was 

 made Professor of Geol- 

 ogy, which appointment 

 he retained until 1876, 

 when he was made emeri- 

 tus professor. The geo- 

 logical survey of New 

 York was organized in 

 1836. and the State di- 

 vided into four districts. 

 Prof. Hall was made an 

 assistant geologist and assigned to the second dis- 

 trict, under Ebenezer Emmons. A year later he 

 became State Geologist and took charge of the 

 fourth district. He began his explorations in the 

 western part of the State, and from 1838 till 1841 

 prepared the second to the fifth annual reports on the 

 the work. In 1843 he published his final report of the 

 survey of the fourth geological district as " Geology 

 of New York, Part IV " (Albany, 1843), in which, 

 according to T. Sterry Hunt, ''he described in a 

 very complete and exhaustive manner the order 

 and succession of the strata, their mineralogical 

 and lithological characters, and the organic remains 

 which they contain." He retained the title of State 

 Geologist, and in 1843 assumed charge of the pahe- 

 ontological work of the State survey. His results 

 are contained in 13 volumes of the " Natural History 

 of New York," bearing the subtitle " Palaeontology " 

 (Vols. I to VIII, Albany, 1847-'94). This is considered 

 "the most comprehensive work of the kind which 

 any State or country in the world possesses." The 

 first appropriation ($15,000) that was made for this 

 work was with the understanding that it should be 

 completed for that sum, but again and again, as the 

 work progressed, Prof. Hall appealed for additional 

 funds for its completion, until in 1894 it was esti- 

 mated that the entire work had cost the State more 

 than $1,000,000. The comprehensive studies by 

 Prof. Hall on the palajontology of New York natu- 

 rally demanded researches beyond the limits of the 

 State, and these he extended westward to the Rocky 

 Mountains, and it is generally admitted that his 

 investigations have served as the basis of all our 

 knowledge of the geology of the Mississippi basin. 

 In 1855 he was offered the charge of the pala?on- 

 tology of the Geological Survey of Canada, with the 

 promise of succeeding Sir William E. Logan as 

 director on the retirement of the latter ; but as he 

 was about to accept promises of more liberal ap- 

 propriations from the Legislature and the influence 

 of many American scientists, including Louis Agas- 

 siz and James D. Dana, he declined the offer a 

 decision which, as the promises never were realized, 

 he came to regard as " the great mistake of his 

 life." Subsequently he prepared a monograph on 

 the "Graphtolites of the Quebec Group "(Montreal. 

 1865), which he contributed to the publications of 

 the Canadian survey, and it was accepted as " the 

 most complete work on that class of fossils." In 

 addition to his State appointment in New York he 

 held the office of State Geologist in Iowa in 1855. 



