Benjamin Homer Hall
Papers, 1795-1884

SC10714

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Biographical Note:

Benjamin Homer Hall, Lawyer and author, was born at Troy, NY, November 14, 1830, a son of Daniel Hall and Anjinette (Fitch) Hall. He was prepared for college at private schools and at Phillip's Andover Academy, and was graduated from Harvard in 1851. On the completion of his college course he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1856, and engaged in the practice of law at Troy. He was City Clerk in 1858 and Chamberlain of Troy from 1874 to 1877 and again from 1884 to 1885. A building erected at corner of First and River streets in Troy that bore his name for many years before being called the Rice Building.

Hall was widely known as an author and historian. His most significant works were A Collection of College Works and Customs (ca. 1850), History of Eastern Vermont, from its Earliest Settlement to the Close of the Eighteenth Century(1858), and Bibliography of the Unites States (1860). From April 1878 to August 1880, he was the editor of the "Troy Morning Whig." On June 1, 1859, he married Margaret McCoun Lane, daughter of the late Jacob L. Lane, of Troy. Benjamin H. Hall died April 6, 1893.

Daniel Hall was born July 17, 1787 in Westminster, Vermont, the son of Lot and Mary (Homer) Hall. After he graduated from Middlebury College in 1806, he moved to Troy, New York to study law under William M. Bliss.  John P. Cushman and William L. Marcy also studied law under Bliss at the time.  Hall was admitted to the bar in Troy, 1809, and then appears to have commenced practice with Bliss and others. Later, he appears to have established practice on his own as well as becoming secretary of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Insurance Company and director of various banks. At the time of his death his was the oldest name born on the rolls of the Rensselaer County bar.  He married Anjinette (Anjenith) Fitch in April 1819.  They had at least 8 children. He died December 19, 1868 at Troy, New York.

Scope and Content Note:

A series of letters and other papers related to personal, family, and business interests of Benjamin Hall and his father, Daniel Hall. Among the letters addressed to Daniel Hall are four items from Amos Eaton, noted geologist and founder of Rensselaer Institute. The letters concern property insurance for the buildings and grounds of Rensselaer Institute. Other notable correspondents of Daniel and Benjamin Hall include Edward Everett, William H. Seward, Hamilton Fish, Robert Todd Lincoln, Horatio Seymour, William L. Marcy, John E. Wool, and Asa Fitch.  These letters concern matters of business, education, law, politics, and government.

These papers also include two other original manuscript letters of Amos Eaton that were not specifically addressed to Daniel or Benjamin H. Hall.  First, a lengthy letter to his wife, Sally Eaton, dated February 7, 1814 that was written while he was in prison. (In 1811 Eaton was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned on charges of forgery in a land dispute.  See the Amos Eaton Papers for further details.).  This letter details his experiences of imprisonment. Second, a letter addressed to the Reverend Dr. Coe, J. Cushman, and others, dated November 9, 1819, in regards to his religious beliefs.  

Another letter of significance that is not addressed to members of the Hall family was authored by Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811-1857), who was professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.  He was noted for pioneer research in microscopy.  The letter, dated September 7, 1835, was addressed to his mother, Jane Whitman Keely, wife of George Washington Keely, a professor at Waterville College (later Colby College), in Waterville, Maine.  Jane Whitman was first married in 1810 to Isaac Baily, who passed away in 1824. She was married to George Keely in 1829.  The letter itself concerns personal and family matters.

Ancillary papers include a poem about Amos Eaton that was probably penned by Benjamin Homer Hall, and a diary attributed to Daniel Hall, which details his travels in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 1808.  The journey entailed travel by boat on the Hudson and Delaware rivers and overland by stage. Another interesting item is a signed copy of the constitution of the Philonomian Society, a legal debating society, formed "for the purpose of facilitating our progress in legal knowledge, of creating a laudable ambition among the Students and of cultivating friendship and harmony."  The constitution is dated at Troy, November 27, 1807, and bears the signatures of 19 members, including Reuben Hyde Walworth as secretary.

The papers also include broadsides and printed circulars relative civic, educational, and political organizations.  One of the broadsides relates to a meeting of Federalists held in Troy in April 1821.  Another broadside printed at Vergennes in 1901 relates to "A scheme of exercises at the public exhibition in Middlebury College, Vermont on May 5th, 1801." This program included Latin and Greek orations, as well as orations on genius, the progressive improvement, the propensity to admiration, and on immortality of the soul, as well as several dialogs of an allegorical character.  Still another broadside contains rates of toll on Fort Miller Bridge about 1861.

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