MS 608 - The Andrew Brown and Jeanette Hall Family Papers
MLA Citation
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| Title | MS 608 - The Andrew Brown and Jeanette Hall Family Papers |
|---|---|
| Introduction |
The collection was donated to the Center for Archival Collections by Dr. William Heinlen Hall, in October 1992. Literary and property rights have been dedicated to the public and duplication is permitted for the purpose of preservation and scholarly research. A listing of all correspondence is included in the printed register. The collection was arranged and the finding aid prepared by Susan K. Irwin. This project was completed in February 1994. |
| Biographical Sketch | The Hall Family Papers include materials from several families which fall mostly within the early part of the 1900's. Several genealogy charts are included, which will also help with identifying family members mentioned in the correspondence. The two primary families in the collection are the A. B. Hall and Jeanette Heinlen families. Also included through marriage are the Steen and Walker families. The following family sketches were made available by Dr. W. H. Hall. Andrew Brown Hall was born in Cario, West Virginia on November 3, 1886 to William and Edith Hall. As a youth he was employed at the age of twelve by the Oil Well Supply Company. He was later associated with his father and brother in the hardware business. He graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1906 with a seminary degree and was later a member of the Emeritus Club of that College. As a student he specialized in Latin and German and served for some time as an assistant instructor in German. Always interested in athletics, he was also a member of the varsity football and baseball teams. A. B. Hall married Jeanette Heinlen on January 15, 1908 and they moved to McComb, Ohio in 1911 where he and his brother, and only sibling, Burl M. Hall, operated a hardware store for 50 years until their retirement on November 1, 1962. Brown, also known as "Dutch ", was very involved in the town of McComb. He served as a member of the McComb School Board during the years of planning that preceded the construction of the present school building in 1924. Through his work with his wife he was a strong supporter of the McComb Public Library. He was a charter member of the McComb Rotary Club and the Shady Acres Golf Association. He was a life long member of the Presbyterian Church having come to this naturally from a long line of Scotch ancestors. For nearly 30 years he served as treasurer of the McComb Presbyterian Church. Jeanette Hall was also involved in the church as well as the McComb Library, Philomath Club and Missionary Society. Brown and Jeanette provided a congenial home for many of Jeanette's ten brothers and sisters. During different years Edward, Florence and Helen each lived with them. Brown and Jeanette had one son, William Heinlen Hall who became a Professor of Chemistry and taught at Bowling Green State University. Heinlen Hall married Mildred Walker, daughter of John W. Walker and Lena (Rosenworth) Walker who had arrived in McComb in 1912. Heinlen and Mildred established their home in Bowling Green, Ohio and raised their two sons John Brown Hall and James Walker Hall. Jeanette Heinlen Hall's family was large and well traveled. Her father and mother, Reuben Heinlen and Laura Meyer Heinlen, were both born and raised in Ohio. They were married in Ada, Ohio on May 26, 1886. Reuben was a student at Ohio Northern where he had just completed the third year of their Classical Program when he married. Reuben and Laura lived in Ada, then moved to Bucyrus where five children were born: Jeanette (1887), Laura Mae (1890), Helen (1892), Edward Clinton (1894), and Florence (1896). In 1899 they moved to Waverly, Ohio and during that year another daughter, Mary, was born. In 1901, they moved to Cairo, West Virginia and the following children were born: Carl (1901), Martha (1904), and Wallace (1906). In 1907 they returned briefly to Ada, Ohio before establishing themselves in nearby Jackson Center where George was born in 1909. Their family was then complete. The family moved at least nine times during the remainder of their long and stable married life. The following is a list of the localities in which they lived and the year of initial residence: Ada, Ohio (1886); Bucyrus, Ohio (1888); Waverly, Ohio (1899); Cairo, West Virginia (1901); Ada, Ohio and then Jackson Center, Ohio (1907); Wichita Falls, Texas (1910); Great Bend, Kansas (1911); Harrison, Arkansas and then Flat Rock, Arkansas (1911); Harrison, Arkansas (1915); Wirt, Oklahoma (1916); Ranger, Texas (1919); Gideon, Missouri (1921?) and, Fayetteville, Arkansas (1926). R.E. had several jobs as well. These included working for the Handle Works in Bucyrus, Ohio; membership in the Ohio National Guard; ticket agent and auditor for the Cairo & Kanawaha Railroad Company; manager of oil well sites for the American Crude Oil Company; manager of the Mountain State Feed Company; Mayor of Cario, West Virginia; a railroad agent; owner of a Grocery store and farm; and superintendent of oil fields for Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company. Reuben and Laura spent their last few years living for varying periods with their children. They had lived briefly with their oldest daughter Jeanette and Brown Hall in McComb, Ohio when Reuben died in New Mexico while on a family vacation in August of 1938. Laura died in McComb, following a fall in 1947. Each of the ten children married and each had only one spouse. Florence married Lester M. Ridenour of McComb and they lived in Findlay and Mansfield, Ohio where they raised a son, George Meyer. Helen married W. J. Steen, who immigrated to this country in 1919 from Great Britain and who worked as a grocer. For other marriages and relationships see the Genealogy charts following this sketch. A. B. Hall Family William Heinlen Hall (1910- ) Names in ( ) are children, included when possible. Jeanette Heinlen Family Samuel Heinlen (1832-1911) Reuben Edward Heinlen (1863-1938) Jeanette Heinlen (1888-1966) - m - A. B. Hall (1886-1966) (W.H. Hall) Names in ( ) are children, included when possible. Walker Family Vaughn R. Walker - m - Catherine (Vaughn) |
| Scope and Content | The Hall Family Papers contain an abundance of information in many different forms including photographs, scrapbook materials, a large collection of postcards dating back to the early 1900's, school papers from A. B. and Heinlen Hall, literary productions, legal documents which outline the deeds and wills of several important family members, printed materials such as certificates, invitations and programs, and most importantly, correspondence. The correspondence includes several important blocks of time. There is the correspondence between A. B. Hall and his parents and friends while at college; letters between Jeanette and A. B. before their marriage; letters from Jeanette's brother Edward while serving in World War I; letters to Jeanette from members of her family as they made their many moves throughout the country; and typical correspondence between family members which help define family relationships. The correspondence also serves to define the time in which it was written. The postcards, while they may not offer much in the way of written information about the families, they do offer information about the times, and many are photographic reminders of several locations in Ohio, including Ada, McComb, and Jackson Center, as well as other places throughout the country. Many of the postcards date back to the early 1900's and offer us social commentary on the times as well. Though not all of the correspondence offers important or interesting information the very existence of it demonstrates that this form of communication was most important. The photographs compliment the correspondence as they let us visualize the authors. Some of the more interesting photographs include those of Edward Heinlen during his service in World War I, snapshots of A. B. Hall's friends during college and several of him working for Hall Hardware as a painter and clerk. Many of the photographs are of family members and help to identify relationships, as well as put a face to a name. They also express how tightly intertwined these families were with one another. The photographs also include many from McComb, Ohio, and some from Cairo, West Virginia. Because of the large amount of photographic materials, a list identifying each photograph has been made in order to advance the progress of a researcher looking only for certain types of photographs. Included in this collection are papers by A. B. and Heinlen Hall written during college, report cards from school, notebooks and notes from college and high school, and lab reports from college, and Heinlen Hall's notebooks from his years at Ohio State University. These papers may serve of interest to those studying education, or those who want to gain an impression of the personalities of the writers. Some of the notes and reports may be difficult to read, but general information can be ascertained. Many of the legal documents are difficult and confusing to read and may require close study in order to ascertain their relationship to the collection's families. Also included in this series are birth and death certificates, naturalization papers, marriage licenses, mortgage papers, stock certificates, and estate papers. The financial documents include receipts from A. B. and Heinlen Hall from college, as well as other family member's miscellaneous receipts. Scrapbook materials include newspaper clippings related to the family, the place cards from Jeanette and A. B.'s wedding, baby books, autograph books from the late 1800's, notebooks, and postcard albums which contain a wide variety of postcards, some with correspondence. There is a great deal of printed material in this collection as well. Some of this includes certificates and awards from various family members, pamphlets on historical, scientific, and religious subjects, as well as travel and advertising. Although these may not relate directly to the families they do give examples of advertising, etc., of the time. Also included are invitations and announcements, a ration book from the 1940's, football programs, yearbooks and newspapers, and several memorial books. The yearbooks are those of A. B. and Heinlen Hall. Several books are also included as well as several plays, in which J. W. Walker was involved and which there are photographs as well. Lastly, there are Bibles from Jeanette's family (Keifer (Kaifer), which are in German and contain some family information. Three bibles, two prayer books and one book of hymns are included. There are also floor plans and architectural notes from Heinlen Hall's home in Bowling Green, Ohio. One audio recording is included in this collection. It is an interview by Heinlen Hall with Janet Powell, a friend of the Hall family. The interview gives some information about family relationships, and about where the Hall's and Heinlen's lived in Cairo, West Virginia. Last, this collection also contains some business and organizational records. Correspondence, financial reports, ledgers and legal documents are included in the Hall Hardware Collection. The records are dated from 1911 to 1975 and document the activities of this small-town family-owned store. The Presbyterian Church and Woman's Missionary Society Collections documents the history of this church, located in McComb, Ohio, as well as the activities of the women of the Church. The records, dating from 1912-1963, include minutes, correspondence, reports, pamphlets and programs. The activities of the McComb Philomath Club, a literary club, also are documented in this collection. Yearbooks, papers (mostly written by Jeanette Hall), newsclippings and programs are included and dated from 1923-1967. This collection certainly spans a large amount of time with varying degrees of completeness. It all serves to express the close relationships within a family. It also creates an impression through the photographs, personal mementos and correspondence of what life was like at that time, how people dressed, where they lived, and how they expressed themselves. This collection offers an exceptionally complete history of not only the Hall and Heinlen families, but also of the early part of the 20th century. |
| Series Description |
MEMBERSHIP MATERIALS HALL FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE POSTCARDS SCHOOL GRADE REPORTS SPEECHES MANUSCRIPTS NOTEBOOKS. MISCELLANEOUS LEGAL DOCUMENTS. ABSTRACTS OF TITLE DEEDS ESTATE PAPERS MARRIAGE LICENSES MORTGAGE PAPERS LEDGERS BANK BOOKS RECEIPTS STOCKS
SCRAPBOOKS AND SCRAPBOOK MATERIALS SCRAPBOOKS NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS MEMENTOS AUTOGRAPH BOOKS POSTCARD ALBUMS CERTIFICATES/AWARDS PAMPHLETS FLYERS INVITATIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS RATION BOOK PROGRAMS NEWSLETTERS NEWSPAPERS MEMORIALS YEARBOOKS BOOKS BIBLES HOUSE FLOOR PLANS AUDIO CASSETTE PHOTOGRAPHS OTHER HALL HARDWARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/WOMEN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY MCCOMB PHILOMATH CLUB Note to Correspondence A.B. Hall = "Dutch", "Brown" All women are identified by married name. |
| Inventory |
Folder
Box 2: Correspondence Folder
Box 3: Correspondence Folder
Box 4: Correspondence Folder
Box 5: Correspondence Folder
Box 6: Correspondence Folder
Box 7: Correspondence Folder
Box 7a: Correspondence
Box 8: Proceedings, Reports, Literary Productions Folder
Box 9: Literary Productions Folder
Box 10: Literary Productions Folder
Folder
Box 12: Printed Material, Scrapbooks Folder
Box 13: Printed Material Folder
Box 14: Printed Material Folder
Box 15: Printed Material Folder
Box 16: Printed Material, Audio/Visual Folder
Box 17: Printed Material Folder
Box 18: Printed Material Folder
Box 19: Printed Material Folder
Box 20: Printed Material Folder
Box 21: Printed Material Folder
Folder 1Aa Wesleyan University, West Virginia Box 23: Photographs Folders 1Dm Portrait, young man by chair Box 24: Photographs Folder 3Aa Portrait, Helen Ruth (Heinlen) Box 25: Photographs Folder 4Aa Snapshot, Margaret (Meyer) Lazier, Mary Lazier 1955 Box 26: Photographs Folder 5Aa Snapshot, "Grandmother Meyer" Box 27: Photographs Folder 6A Photo Album - Heinlen family, 1800s Box 28: Hardware Folder
Box 29: The Presbyterian Church and Woman's Home Missionary Society, McComb, Ohio Folder
Box 30: The McComb Philomath Club Folder
Oversize Box 1 Description
Oversize Box 2 Description
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