Caledonia

HALL, Isaac N.

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, pp 175-176 
(portrait p 176)

Isaac N. HALL, late of Groton [Caledonia County, Vermont], was born 03 June 
1808 in Rumney [Grafton County], New Hampshire, son of Henry and Susan 
(BURNHAM) HALL. He was of English descent and came from a long-lived family. 
His grandfather lived to eighty-six years and his great grandfather died at 
ninety-three years, while his maternal great grandmother, Lydia BRADLEY, 
attained the age of one hundred and four. An ancestress of the latter was 
taken captive by the Indians near Haverhill [Essex County], Massachusetts, in 
the early colonial times. The parents of Mr. HALL were not in affluent 
circumstances, and his only educational advantages were those afforded by the 
district schools in the time of his early youth. At the age of fourteen he 
was apprenticed to his uncle, Moses BURNHAM, a noted carpenter and builder, 
with whom he served his time, and upon his master's removal to Groton the 
young apprentice accompanied him and at the expiration of his term of service 
settled in that town and has remained there ever since. In 1826 he lost his 
father, and his mother immediately after her husband's death moved to Groton 
and made her home with her son, living to the age of eighty-one.

It can truly be said of Judge HALL that he enjoyed the confidence of the 
people in a remarkable degree, as shown by his election to many responsible 
offices; was justice of the peace and town clerk for more than a generation; 
represented his town in the Legislature in 1835, 1836, 1840, and 1867; was 
elected assistant judge of Caledonia County court in 1842, 1844, and 1845, 
and in 1848, 18760, and 1861 was senator for Caledonia County; was appointed 
a state's prison director in 1868 and 1869; was a delegate to the 
Constitutional Convention in 1850; was also made one of the directors of the 
bank at Newbury [Orange County, Vermont], at Wells River [Orange County], and 
served as U. S. assistant assessor of the second district of the state of 
Vermont; was one of the first projectors and builders of the Montpelier & 
Wells River Railroad, and was one of its directors until the railroad was put 
into the hands of the bondholders, and its president from 1873 to 1877. In a 
sketch of early settlers of Groton it is said of him: "His agency and 
usefulness in all matters of public interest will be discovered in all that 
relates to the growth and prosperity of the town for the last sixty years. 
There is not man who has exerted a greater influence for good or who has 
advanced the interests and morals of the town in a greater degree." In early 
life he joined and was ever after an earnest and consistent member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church; was a delegate to its general quadrennial 
conference held at Cincinnati.

On 28 April 1829 Mr. [Isaac N.] HALL married Elizabeth, daughter of William 
TAISEY of Groton [author usually specifies a state if other than Vermont, 
thus assume Groton Caledonia County, Vermont; other possibility Groton, 
Middlesex County, Massachusetts]; nine children have been born to them, seven 
daughters and two sons. Of these five are living: (1) Judge T. B. HALL, of 
Groton [Caledonia County, Vermont]; (2) Maria, Mrs. Stephen VANCE, of Albany 
[Orleans County], Vermont; (3) Helen, Mrs. George WILLARD, of Waltham 
[Middlesex County], Massachusetts; (4) Theresa, Mrs. Alexander COCHRAN, of 
Groton [Vermont]; and (5) Lydia, Mrs. WHITNEY, of San Francisco [San 
Francisco County, California]. The first Mrs. HALL [Elizabeth] died 11 
November 1873, and he [Isaac N. HALL] contracted a second alliance with Mrs. 
Louisa A. (WEBSTER) HALL, of Plymouth [Grafton County], New Hampshire. [her 
first married surname also HALL?]. Judge [Isaac N.] HALL, while with Mrs. 
[Louisa A.] HALL at the residence of her daughter [name of daughter not 
given], died at South Chicago [Cook County, Illinois], 21 November 1893, and 
on 25 November 1893 he was buried at Groton [Caledonia County, Vermont].

Submitted by Cathy Kubly