Samuel Hall

HALL, LISSENBERRY-LAZENBETHY

Posted By: J. Breen (email)
Date: 10/1/2020 at 10:09:10

Samuel Hall Died Saturday Night
Widely known Colored Man Answers Final Summons at Age of 95 Years
Funeral Tomorrow Afternoon
Service Will Be Held in the A. M. E. Church at 3:00 P. M., Conducted by Revs. Stovall and Brown

Samuel Hall died Saturday night at 10:15 at this home in Washington at the age of 95 years, 2 months and 26 days. Mr. Hall had been ill for a long while, although his illness had confined him to his home and to his bed but a comparatively short time. He was up and about just as longas he was possibly able to get around and took to his bed only in the last extreme. His death closed a very remarkable career. He was born in slavery and almost the half of his life was spent as a slave. His father’s name was Samuel Hennick, but at his birth Mr. Hall took the name of the master who owned his mother, therefore the name of Hall. Mr. Hall’s father was a Liberian Negro, from which country he was kidnapped and brought to the United States in the year 1771. Mr. Hall was one, of the two, of a second set of children of which Saml. Hennick was the father. Mr. Hennick died a slave at the age of 88 years in Iradel county, North Carolina. That was the scene of Saml. Hall’s birth and there he lived until he was sold from his first wife and their children and bought by a Tennessee man for $1,125.00. This sale separated Mr. Hall from his wife and five children. During his second slave period Mr. Hall was again married. This wedding occurred in September, 1857, and Mr. and Mrs. Hall and their children came north at the end of the civil war and located in Washington. Mr. Hall and his second wife celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, the wife dying six months after the celebration of that happy event, her death occurring in this city.

Mr. Hall always spoke of his life in Washington as a very happy period of his existence. He had a hard-cruel early life, but his later life was chuck full of happiness. He was a man of deeply religious convictions and he lived and died in the hope of eternal happiness that would make full amends for the injustices which he endured in the south for over two score years. He did well in the north too, reared and educated his family of children and accumulated some property. For a number of years, he farmed and later he came to town and gardened. He worked just as long as he possibly could and gave up with reluctance. The prospect of death never caused him to falter. He was long since prepared for death in order that he might be relieved from the pain he was forced to endure the latter months of his life.

Saturday he was about as usual so far as outward appearances evidenced and just a few moments before he died, he sat upon the side of the bed and visited with Nate Black who had dropped in. His daughter, Mrs. Anna Cecil with whom he lived and who had cared for him during the past few months told him it was time for to take his pill. He remarked that it seemed to go down hard and the daughter remarked that it was a young biscuit which he was trying to swallow. He slapped her playfully on the arm, laughed heartily with the remark that she was always teasing him and laid back on his pillow and breathed his last in almost an instant. So died a man who was a noble specimen of his race, by nature, a captain, though born a slave.

Mr. Hall is survived by three children by his first wife: Augustus of West Liberty, and Anna and Margaret of North Carolina, and five children by his second wife: Benjamin of Honolulu; Abram L. of this city; James, whose residence is unknown; Issac of Peoria, Ill; Mrs. Anna Cecil of this city. Funeral service will be held tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock in the A. M. E. church, of which Mr. Hall was a member and will be conducted by the Rev. T. H. Stovall of Davenport, Mr. Hall’s former pastor, and Rev. D. W. Brown, the present pastor as the local A. M. E. church. Interment will be in the City cemetery.

Source: Washington Evening Journal, August 4, 1913

Samuel Hall Headstone
 

Washington Obituaries maintained by Joanne L. Breen.
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