James HALL, an ancestor of Jessie Belle HALL, came from Ireland in 1720. He married Purdence RADDY in 1730 in Daughin County, Pennsylvania. All of their ten children were born in Pennsylvania, except Alexander, the youngest, who was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, after the family moved down through the Shenandoah Valley to North Carolina, in 1752.

During 1830 to 1835, six sons of Thomas HALL, the eldest son of James HALL, imigrated with their families to Tipton County, along the Elk River in Tennessee. This movement was prompted by a 3,000 acre grant of land by the government to Thomas HALL, who had served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War, as compensation for his services.

Many of the young HALL men from these families moved on into Indiana and Ohio. It is recorded that Stuart HALL and his wife, Rebecca, moved from Iredell County, North Carolina, bringing their family of four children with them to Jackson County, Indiana, those children being: Margaret, Elizabeth, Rufus and Thomas Milton. Thomas Milton HALL, youngest son of Stuart and Rebecca HALL, who were Scotch Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch lineage, was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, September 12, 1828, was three years old at the time of this journey.

Thomas Milton HALL lived in Indiana to young manhood, farming near White River, plagued by spring floods, and "ague." In 1853, he married Mary Ann GUTHRIE, daughter of Samuel and Thirza GUTHRIE.

In the spring of 1855, Thomas Milton HALL, his wife Mary Ann and infant daughter, Theodocia, joined a wagon train heading west. He said he "was going to the hills if he raised nothing but blackeyed peas." When the wagon train came to the Mississippi River to cross into Iowa, a raft was made by lashing logs together to ferry the wagons across the river. It was told by Thomas Milton HALL that his black team of horses hitched to the wagon carrying his family was driven onto the raft.

The horses became frightened as the raft began moving in the swift, flowing water and started backing up. Thomas Milton HALL said he "dropped the chock stick," a crude brake made of a sharpened pole, which caught between the logs and saved his family from being backed into the Mississippi River.

The wagon train arrived in what was then called West Fork Township, now Rice Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, in early November, 1855. Thomas Milton HALL was one of the first three settlers to enter that territory, the other two being Alex McCARTHY and Edward PAGE.

In the spring of 1856, Thomas Milton HALL walked from his home in Rice Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, to the State Capitol, then located at Iowa City, to pay for his land and some of his neighbors', at $1.25 per acre. It has been told in the family that the only form of weapon carried for protection on this 230-mile trip was a hickory walking stick.

Thomas Milton and Mary Ann HALL had five children: Theodocial Madewell, Samuel Stuart, Theora, Thirza, and Rebecca Ann. Mrs. HALL died February 8, 1868, at the age of 31 years.

On September 12, 1871, Thomas Milton HALL and Mary Elizabeth GOLLIDAY were married. Mary Elizabeth was born in Indiana and taken as an infant to Greene County, Wisconsin, by her parents. Later they returned to Taylor County, Iowa. Thomas Milton and Mary Elizabeth had eight children. Two sets of twins, and a boy, John, and a girl, Nina, all died in infancy. Only two children grew to adulthood: Jessie Bell, born September 25, 1976, and Dicy Mae, born September 25, 1881.

Jessie Bell, at age 16, was thrown into full responsibility of the Thomas HALL family upon the death of her mother. About that same time an older half-sister, Rebecca Ann JONES, died, leaving a family of five, Maude, the oldest, being twelve years old. It fell to Jessie Bell HALL to mother these orphaned children as well as her younger sister, Dicy May HALL.

Jessie Bell HALL married John Frank CABORET (sic, should be CABARET), March 12, 1903, and lived in Washington Township. They had five daughters: Esther, Ethel, Clorice, Rhada, and Frances. John Frank and Jessie Bell HALL CABORET are buried in the Marshalltown Cemetery in Rice Township, near her father, Thomas Milton HALL'S grave.

NOTE: Thomas Milton HALL died at the age of 84 years, 3 months and 21 days on December 28, 1912.

Mary Ann (GUTHRIE) HALL died at the age of 31 years, 4 months and 10 days on February 7, 1868.
Mary Elizabeth (GOLLIDAY) HALL died at the age of 49 years, 4 months and 4 days on April 10, 1893.
John T. HALL died on September 15, 1874.
Nina HALL, born September 12, 1878, died at the age of 8 months and 14 days on May 26, 1879.
Minnie HALL, born in 1879, died at the age of 8 months in 1880.
Thirza HALL, born February 1, 1861, died at the age of 20 years, 7 months and 20 days on September 20, 1882.
Jessie Bell (HALL) CABARET died on August 10, 1948; John F. CABARET was born on September 19, 1874, and died on May 15, 1955.
They were all interred at Marshalltown Cemetery.

SOURCE: 1887 - Benton, Iowa Centennial - 1987. Pp. 138-39. Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, Mount Ayr IA

Transcriptions and notes by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2012

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