217

Papers of the Hall family of Illinois, part of Abraham Lincoln's extended family.

Various places, bulk 1863-1942
Several hundred items (1.7 linear feet); condition varies.

A remarkable multi-generational archive of photographs, manuscripts and ephemera kept by Abraham Lincoln's extended family.

Abraham Lincoln was raised in what we now call a blended family. He was born in 1809. After his mother died in 1818, his father remarried to the widow Sarah Bush Johnston (1788-1869), who brought three children of her own into the family. By all accounts, Abraham had a close relationship with his stepmother. In 1830, the whole extended family emigrated from Indiana to Illinois in ox wagons, including 21-year-old Abraham. Also in the small party was his 18-year-old stepsister Matilda Johnston Hall (1811-1878), who had married a Lincoln-Hanks cousin named Squire Levi Hall (1805-1851), and their infant son. 

That little boy, the president's step-nephew and second cousin John Johnston Hall (1829-1909), spent most of his life as a farmer in Pleasant Grove, IL, raising a large family on the Lincoln family homestead.  He is the patriarch figure in this family archive. We have no evidence that the Halls remained in contact with Abraham Lincoln as he rose to fame, and they lived humble lives. However, this archive demonstrated their enduring pride in their famous relative, and their efforts to preserve the history of his early Illinois roots.

PHOTOGRAPHS.
The collection contains approximately 125 photographs, in addition to manuscript and printed material. 

81 photos are housed in a modern accordion folder.  At least three and possibly several more are definitely John Johnston Hall (1829-1909), either identified on verso or close matches for other known photographs. They include a cabinet card portrait taken late in his life in Greenup, IL (worn with scratches in image), and a tintype wearing a striped sweater (illustrated). Most notably, a faded cabinet card-sized print (illustrated) shows him standing by the Lerna, IL grave of his mother's mother Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (1788-1869) and his mother's step-father Thomas Lincoln (1778-1851), with the family name "Lincoln" faintly visible. One rather spooky whole-plate tintype with retouched eyes may be John Johnston Hall (illustrated). 

Some show siblings of John Johnston Hall: one early copy print shows Elizabeth Jane Hall Berry (1838-1900); a carte-de-visite is believed to show Sarah Louisa Hall Fox (1841-1935); and a Real Photo postcard shows youngest child Harriet Hall Landrus (1851-1927). Also included is a worn and damaged photograph of an engraving of Abraham Lincoln.

We find several of Clarence Thomas Hall (1892-1967), step-great-grand-grandnephew of the president, son of Nancy Hall. Clarence was tall and lean, cultivated a beard, and would sometimes don a stove-pipe hat or split some rails to play up a resemblance to his great-grandmother's stepbrother, as seen in several photos (illustrated).

In addition to the loose photos, a family photograph album, nearly disbound, contains 22 cabinet cards and 22 smaller photos (13 tintypes, 7 cartes-de-visite, and 2 later cameos). The eldest person appearing in the cabinet cards is Elizabeth Taylor Gaston Hall (1835-1899), wife of John Johnston Hall. One of the tintypes shows John Johnston Hall (1829-1909) circa the 1870s; he appears to be the eldest figure in this older group of smaller photographs, which are mostly quite worn.

MANUSCRIPTS.
From John Johnston Hall (1829-1909), the president's step-nephew, we have an Autograph Letter Signed to his son and daughter, expressing what we might call "tough love": "Rent the farm to some body else. I know you are not able to farm it. There is too much hard work. I won't sign any notes. You had beter kick out of debt. I won't help you go in debt on that farm. I know you are not able to roun that farm. No man that hasen't done a day's work in ten years can stand hard work. It looks to me like you was going crazy." Charleston, IL, 23 January 1909. Also included are two deeds bearing his signature from 1886 and 1907, and a 1907 insurance receipt.

Shortly after John Johnston Hall's 1909 death, his heirs filed a suit against the late president's son Robert Todd Lincoln regarding property title. Included here are a July 1909 estate partition certificate; and a 17 August 1909 letter from the law firm of Isham, Lincoln & Beale featuring "Robert T. Lincoln (retired from practice)" on the letterhead, responding to the claim on Lincoln's behalf.
 
The earliest manuscript here is a letter to Amanda Melvina Hall (1843-1928), step-niece of the president (and sister of John Johnston Hall above). It was addressed to her by Civil War soldier John S. Webster of the 5th Illinois Cavalry, who writes: "I don't want to come home as long as there is an armed rebellion in existence. . . . You expressed your fears that the boys was all getting killed off for the Black Negro forces. I am convinced they are as brave as soldiers and although I have had some bad time, I cannot complain that my life is in danger more than any of them." Camp near Helena, AR, 31 March 1863.

6 letters are addressed to Joseph Allen Hall (1876-1938), step-grandnephew of the president, and son of John Johnton Hall above. One is a fragment of a family letter from brother Squire Hall (1867-1927): "Well Joe, Paw is getting better. . . . He wants you to straighten things up and take him back with you. . .  . You better come right away, Joe." 2 are from researcher Charles M. Thompson of the Lincoln Way Investigation, 1913-1914, seeking information on the family's 1830 emigration route. Two are from Lincoln scholar Eleanor Gridley of the Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association, 1929 and 1936, remembering him as "Little Joe" and seeking information about the cabin's destruction in 1891. A 1930 letter from Illinois governor Louis L. Emmerson discusses the route of Lincoln National Memorial Highway.

Nancy Ann Hall (1870-1949), a step-grandniece of the president, was daughter of John Johnston Hall above. A small group of her papers includes a 1942 letter from historian John Herr of Lebanon, IN, concerning Lincoln artifacts he had purchased from her, including a plow, musket, and walnut board, mentioning "how your father had come in possession of the relics and how they descended down to you, and finally how and why you sold them to me. Before I got thru I gave the dickens to Ill. for the neglect and shameful oversight it is guilty of for not allowing both of you a modern home on the Cabin Farm where you could meet the people as Lincoln Relatives." Nancy Hall is mentioned frequently in Herr's 1943 book, "In Defense of the Lincoln Family." Also included is a certificate Nacy Hall wrote up and signed regarding another artifact, describing how she "knit this lace of which is 5 yards when I was 13 years old and when I lived in the old Log Cabin  that stood here on this old Thomas Lincoln / John J. Hall farm . . . and anyone who would like to buy it my price is $1.00." A letter of recommendation testifies that Nancy and her son Clarence "have stood for their rights on the old Lincoln Homestead all their life. . . . They should have the honor to be at the World Fair in Chicago . . . They are the only people that should be allowed to explain all about Abraham Lincoln & her relics." 

PRINTED MATERIAL.
The collection includes 12 books, most relating to Lincoln or local history, many with the family's notes or inscriptions (list upon request). Other printed ephemera includes an 1899 reprint of the Lincoln assassination issue of the New York Herald, numerous Lincoln-related pamphlets and postcards, and newspaper clippings, in addition to research notes and property title research extending through the late 20th century.

Provenance: consigned by the family.

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