Born 23 Dec 1879, died Sept 1955, Hallsboro, NC.
This photo was recently discovered in an old cedar chest belonging to my grandmother, Virginia Hall Turner. This is her father as a young man, c. 1900. Loving the ears. Manly chin, too.
He is listed in 1880 census as " J. W. Hall, 5 months old."
John was Postmaster at Hallsboro, and ran a general store, a blacksmith shop and a grist mill
(his general store was the only store in Hallsboro that sold coffins - Mom remembers playing in the store and being creeped out by the coffins.)
He was also a farmer, sheriff of Columbus County, NC, from 1923 to 1936, a staunch Presbyterian who helped found the Hallsboro Presbyterian Church in 1916, where he served as an elder until his death. He was also the superintendent of Sunday School.
John studied at Horner Military Academy at Oxford, North Carolina, before he married. He refrained from drinking because alcohol ruined his father's health.
John was sheriff when my grandfather's house on the Honey Hill Road was torched one warm, early fall night after midnight. It was apparently the last serious attempt by White supremacy groups to kill Granddaddy and they plainly intended to burn everyone up inside the house. Sheriff Hall investigated. That may seem unremarkable, since his wife's cousin (my Grandmother Elva Jackson Frink) was among the intended victims, but at the time there was considerable risk in mounting an investigation of that kind of terrorism. Granddaddy admired him for taking that risk.
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for sharing this. I just read this aloud to my Mother (granddaughter of John) and she asked when this event occurred? What a troubling story! NC, for all her virtues, was a hotbed of KKK activity, at one point earning us the name of "Clansville, USA". Your grandfather sounded like a brave man.
DeleteToward the end of John Hall's time as sheriff. The attacks began in the early 1900s and included an attempt to erase my branch of Frink family from the tree of life and a boycott which destroyed my Great Grandfather Frink's retail/wholesale business. Like 1898 events in Wilmington, they were fundamentally business strategy with a racial ideology wrapping. BTW, the Turner cousin of the Formyduvals I knew was Jan. If she is your mother and recalls me at all, it is probably as Buster.
ReplyDeleteHi Rio I know this is an old post so this is a long shot, but if you're still active here and happen to see this, I think we may be related! Would love to chat!
ReplyDeleteHey cousin Okiima, I hope someone responds because because we're definitely related, CONFIRMED.
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