George Hall

HALL BEEBO

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/27/2010 at 20:38:18

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

George Hall
By Aliene Baker Lindgren

George Hall was born August 8, 1842, in Berkshire, England. He was the third son of Alfred and Rachel Hall. He came to America in 1854 and worked for a while at Trumpelo, Wisconsin. There he met Mary Matilda Beebo, whom he married on Joliet, Illinois, on December 14, 1868.

They travelled by covered wagon to their homestead at Lodi, now Wakonda, South Dakota. Mr Hall worked at team freighting form Council Bluffs through Sergeant Bluff to Lodi. Later he started a soft water route in Sioux City, hauling water from the river in a tank wagon to laundries, homes, and barber shops.

He moved his family from Sioux City to a farm he had pruchased in Liberty Township south of Sergeant Bluff in 1888. This was river front land and his 300 acres were sporadically eroded. In 1925, the Missouri River went on rampage during a period of June flooding. Only one acre of the farm ground was left after that. The family worked frantically trying to save their possessions. They started tearing down the house when the river was about one city block distance away. As they worked they could hear the huge cottonwood trees one after another drop kerplunk into the swirling muddy water. As the river cut it all away and was lapping under one corner of the house foundation before the family had finished the chore. A great grandson, Dan Mather, still retains the family plot and the river is slowly building back what was so violently taken away.

Fifteen children were born to George and Matilda Hall. George Edwin, ‘Ted’, 1869-1947, married Amanda Dula and had seven children. Rachel Mary, 1871-1932, married Frank Mather. Esther Olive, 1873, married Prim Couture. Harry, 1875-1945. Elsworth Noah, 1876-1938, married Ellen Holder. Clara Louise, 1878, married William Mather. Twins, Robert and Ralph, 1881, Ralph died at three months of age. Robert married Hattie Fisher. William, 1882, married Prudence Bradley and had three children. Arthur, called Red, 1884-1917, who married Edythe Copeland had three children who now live at Algona, Iowa. Matilda, 1886-1956, married William Dailey. Charles, 1889-1907. Esther, 1891, who lived only two days, and Mildred, 1892, who married Henry Dean and had one daughter, Mildred.

Rachel Elsworth and Clara lived out their lives at Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. Rachel married Frank Mather, farmer son of John Mather, pioneer settler, and raised a family of five. Matilda (Mrs Lyman Shafenberg, had three chidlren. Dale, with one daughter, Margaret Ruth. Keith with two chidlren, Keith and Linda, Margaret (Mrs Robert Lynch) with six children. Hazel Mather (Mrs Ward Baker) raised three daughters: Alliene (Mrs Conrad Lindgren) with three children: Janis (Mrs Boyd Harman); William Ward with two daughters, Angela and Jill; and Jerald Wayne; Harriet (Mrs George Wood) with two chidlren, Ward Douglas and Linda; and Phyllis (Mrs Fred Nance) with daughters, Marcia and Peggy. Aurelia Mather (Mrs Charley Paige) had two sons, Pat and Mike. She worked many years as an army nurse. Esther Mather (Mrs Frank Jones) had a daughter, Sharon. George Mather married Georgia McQuatters who taught school in Sergeant Bluff for many years. They farmed and later he worked at the Farmers’ Elevator. They had four children: George Ward, 1930-1981, had a Navy career. HE father five daughters and three sons. Frank Mather married Marilyn Hansen and they had four chidlren: Lance Kim, Kelly Jo, and Shawn. Frank adjusts insurance claims in the Chicago, Illinois, area. Dan Mather marreid RoseMary Stubblefield and they farm near Yankton, South Dakota. They have two sons, Darin and Dell. Nancy Mather (Mrs Wayne Cunningham) is a school librarian in Oklahoma. She has two daughters, Kristi, and Susan.

Elsworth Hall married Mary Ellen Holder in 1897. He served as postmaster and had a general store at Sergeant Bluff for a number of years. He served on the town council. He raised two children, George and Ruth. Both continue to reside at Sergeant Bluff. Ruth produced plays and entertainments. Later she worked for twenty-eight years as the secretary for the director of the Iowa State Department of Social Welfare in Sioux City. George farmed near Turin and south of Sergeant Bluff. He ran off enlisted in the army during World War I. He married Margaret Trimble. They operated a café along highway 75. Margaret had the repuration of baking the best pies in Woodbury County. She and George raised a family of four. June (Mrs Jerald Branin) has a daughter, Marianne, Robert, 1929, married Sally Smith and had four children, David, Steven, Jon, and Linda. Robert has recently married Patricia Brantwood of Greenville, South Carolina. James, 1933, married Gloria Blankenship and they have three children: Jeff, Kent, and Diane. Judy (Mrs Paul Burgan) lives in Orange, California. She has two children: Darrel and Dana.

Clara Hall (Mrs Will Mather) was born in 1878. She made nursing her life work. During the flu epidemic of World War I days, she worked out of Jefferson, South Dakota. Later she had her own nursing home in Sergeant Bluff. She delivered 559 babies. She is now 105 years of age and resides in the Pleasant View Nursing Home at Whiting, Iowa. Her husband and her son, Harry, both preceded her in death.

Matilda Beebo Hall, died November 30, 1913. George Hall died November 8, 1927. Both are buried at Sergeant Bluff Cemetey.

George Hall’s brother, Robert, 1840, also came to Woodbury County during the 1870’s. He changed his name to Robert Nibbs. He had gotten into trouble with the authorities for racing a horse they had previously disqualified. According to him, he had beaten the Queen’s favorite too often. To do so again, he had his chestnut mare painted black. She won, the ruse was discovered, and he fled under an assumed name to America.