Tuesday, November 4th, 1862

To day I rode my horse Rat down to my friend Richard Cole's in company with a party of gentlemen for the express purpose of going out ducking which we did and had pretty fair success I having bagged fifteen. We returned to Cole's for dinner and I confess that I sat down to a splendid one, the time passing off very agreeably & pleasantly. We all returned home in the evening. Mr. A.B. Trowell left on the cars in route to Waul's legion in Mississippi & by whom I sent a letter to Captain Wrigley, notifying him of my intention to remove from Liberty up to my mill [i.e., to Houston County], where my family has been for the past five months. The boys are now busily engaged in digging potatoes. In the evening after Tea, I visited Charley Lunds and spent a pleasant time with him & his family. I then returned to my solitary abode to cogitate upon the past. weather clear & pleasant.

Saturday, May 25th, 1861

To day I am still in Galveston, and in consequence of the steamships all having suspended their trips between New Orleans and this point there is no prospect for my obtaining a passage to the former city. The mouth of the Mississippi river is now in a state of blockade by the Northern Government. weather clear & pleasant.

Wednesday, August 8th, 1860

After running all night I arrived at Canton Miss. for breakfast, changed cars and to Magnolia for dinner, and to New Orleans at 9 P.M. for supper. put up at the St. Charles [see image on the left]. expenses of the day $1.70. weather warm, cloudy and occasionally showers of rain.

Tuesday, July 10th, 1860

Tuesday, July 10th, 1860. After travelling all night I arrived at Canton Mississippi for breakfast much fatigued for the want of sleep. After breakfast we proceeded on our way and arrived at Grand Junction Tennessee about 4 a.m. here we remained for supper and at 10 P.M. left Grand Junction by the Memphis & Charleston cars. expenses of the day $1.50. weather clear & warm.

Monday, July 9th, 1860

Monday, July 9th, 1860. To day I arrived at Berwick bay at 9 A.M. and proceeded immediately to N. Orleans by the Opolousas cars and arrived in New Orleans at 1½ o'clock P.M. I stoped at the City Hotel. While in N.O. I met Harry Broth??? and in company with him & a Mr. Burke we took dinner at the N.? restaurant. I left N.O. by the Mississippi Central cars at 8 P.M. I purchased in N.O. 1 pair of sleeve buttons at 12$ and 1 collar button at $2.50. expenses of day $6.25. weather warm & clear, and some considerable yellow fever prevailing in N.O.

Saturday, March 24th, 1860

To day I moved my negroes home. Mr. Tanner bundled ? some augers & chisels. we clear up & fixed for planting a potato patch. weather clear & pleasant. I executed my note to Herndon's adms. ? for $137.75 for purchases made at the sale, due and payable 12 months, with W.A. Stewart & James Collins, ? as my securities.

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YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 24, 1860, p. 1, c. 5. Kitchen Memoranda. -- Potatoes to be washed -- meat to be put to soak -- lamps to fill -- knives to scour -- furniture to be dusted -- silver to be polished -- front entry to be washed -- beds to be made -- apples to be pared -- flour to sift -- shirts to be ironed -- dishes to be washed -- beets to be cleaned -- carpets to be swept -- fires to be tended -- dinner to get -- pig to be fed -- pudding to be made -- a run to the store -- front door to tend -- children to be waited on -- baby's frock to be washed -- stockings to be darned -- button to be sewed on the shirts -- skirts to be done up -- tea to get -- griddle cakes -- doughnuts, custards, ginger bread, preserves -- dishes to clear away -- company -- meetings -- bed time. What merchant, politician or president has a longer list of daily avocations than the good housewife; and yet how little are they considered. The hard and constant fatigue of the mother should elicit a deep sympathy, and a more strenuous effort to lighten her burdens. 

Saturday, March 17th, 1860

To day I started 3 plows planting corn. I also received notice and a quietus (but I say no more on this subject) I also paid Darby all I am due him for splitting rails save 59 for which I still owe. Weather clear pleasant.

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YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 17, 1860, p. 2, c. 4. Negro's Crop.—Our attention was directed to a load of five bags of cotton in Broad street this morning, and we were informed that it was the crop of the "house gang" (for the information of our friends up towards the North pole, we will tell them that the house gang signifies the cook and negro children about the house too young for regular work) belonging to Mrs. O'Conner, of Mount Vintage, Edgefield district, S. C. The cotton was of extra quality, and brought 12½ cents, producing nearly $250 for the cook-woman and her little "drab shets," a very comfortable sum to spend in luxuries, and more money than thousands of poor men and women in New England see in one sum in the whole course of their lives. Augusta Dispatch.

Saturday, March 10th, 1860

To day we commenced to plant corn in the old ground with two plows running. In the evening Sam* Sharp & John Wootters came out from Crockett; Weather clear but cold. I paid Bill Hicks in cash $1. on a/c of rails.

*This Sam Sharp is a 2nd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog.

 

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YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], March 10, 1860, p. 3, c. 1. Our neighbor grows eloquent and witty over a grape vine chair, and talks also of "grape vine committees." She thinks that grape vines are better adapted for the manufacture of chairs and wicker work than for hanging Yankees with. She also hopes that because she happened to be born in the "good old Dutch city of Albany," she may not be made a victim of the "Grape Vine Committee." We have always had our opinion of Yankees, for our own part, and that is, that as long as they behave themselves they are as good as white people, and consequently, we are decidedly opposed to hanging innocent Yankees on grape vines.

Saturday, February 11th, 1860

Still at work in the clearing. It was cloudy and disagreeable in the morning but became very clear in the evening and a white frost at night.

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YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], February 11, 1860, p. 3, c. 1. St. Valentine's Day will be next Tuesday. We would remind the young folks that is the day upon which, it is said, that birds mate and if we are not mistaken, it was on this day that the "stars" first sang together. We would also remind our lady friends that this is Leap Year, and if any of them want to mate us, we promise them we will not "climb a tree from them." After this announcement, we expect to receive at least a dozen Valentines, by way of opening negotiations. Any number of the most elegant kind can be found at the store of our friends, Compton & Thomas. 

Joshua James Hall

Around 1835, Joshua James Hall (1790-1871) came to Houston County, Texas. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1790. In 1812 he volunteered for military service for the defense of America against the British. February 19, 1819, he and his first wife Elizabeth had a son, who was named James Madison Hall.

From Baltimore, Joshua went to Natchez, Mississippi. On the rolls there of the Andrew Jackson Masonic Lodge, in 1820, he is found as a member.

Sometime in 1823, he moved to Vicksburg. There he went into a General Store business, and he married his second wife. Vicksburg was his home about ten years.

His son James Madison Hall moved with his father to New Orleans in 1833. At this time, there was a Yellow Fever epidemic, and Joshua being a fine wood craftsman, opened a business in making coffins for the many dead of the fever.

With a nice sum of money from this business, he moved with James Madison to Conroe, Texas in 1834. In Conroe, he had a General Retail Store.

While there, he began to make land investments. One of these investments was the purchase of the "Ramon de Garza" grant which was located in the northwestern part of Houston County. This grant had 24,000 acres of land. The Elkhart Creek ran through this land, and the Trinity River to one side.

This is where Joshua had a large story and one half house built. There were two large fireplaces on each side of this house with a long 'dog trot' running down the middle of the house.

He built near the Trinity River, a General Store and a Post Office. While Joshua had been in Mississippi, he had also been in the steam boat business. So, he went into the steam boat business again on the Trinity River. A dock was built on some high bluffs over the river and it was there that river steamers began to go up and down the river carrying the cotton and goods of the citizens of Houston County to Galveston.

This became a thriving place, and became known as the Hall's Bluff. Hall's Bluff was very busy in those early days, until the coming of the railroad to Crockett.

James Madison Hall would help with the family business, and he traveled to Liberty, Texas many times by horse over muddy roads from Crockett to Liberty.

Joshua was the gentleman type settler. He wore store bought clothes from New York. He wore the tall beaver hat that was the style of a gentleman of that day. Each year he went to Maryland and to New York for a visit.

In 1850, he married his third [sic] wife, Mahala Roberts Sharp, a widow who came to Houston County before 1835. She was the daughter of Elisha Roberts, an early Spanish Alcalde, of San Augustine, Texas.

To this union were born two children, a daughter Roberta, born May 25, 1852, and a son, Horace was born September 22, 1854. Both of these children were born on the Elkhart Creek Plantation. Horace was called "Toby" by the slaves. He was very close to these people and he always included them as his friends.

Joshua and Mahala were very fond of dancing. They went into Crockett to dancing school. At their Plantation, they had balls for the benefit of the Confederacy. They were active Methodists in the early Methodist church of Crockett.

In 1861, he is shown as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Soule University, a Methodist School at Chappel Hill. He had been elected to this post by the East Texas Methodist Conference. Throughout his life he was an active Mason.

In 1871, he died at his home at Elkhart Creek, where he was buried in the family cemetery.


by
Esther M. Biggers nee Hall
great-granddaughter of Joshua & Mahala

 

The above information was sent to the Keeper of this family history blog in November of 1998 from Pat Stephenson of Madisonville, Texas. In response to my Internet query, Pat wrote . . . "The Halls from Houston County are not my line but I live in Madison County, a Houston County neighbor. I looked at the Houston County history book, published 1979, in the Madison County Library and there is a story in it on Joshua James Hall. . . ." 

 


Virginia Ann Hall was Joshua Hall's third wife. He divorced her soon after marrying her because she would not come to Texas with him in 1850.

He married his second wife in Baltimore, Maryland. I will have to get his records out again to tell you this wife's name. She died in Vicksburg. This marriage was performed by a Rev. Duncan. I have the record for this marriage.

Joshua's first wife was Elizabeth Ann Hall, the mother to James Madison Hall. Not much is known about her. Joshua married her it seems at a very young age.

James Madison came to New Orleans with his father around 1820. Joshua made a lot of money in New Orleans during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1832-1833, as he was a cabinet maker. He had his business in the French Quarters which means that he could speak French. The cabinet maker made coffins in the early days.

When he made his fortune at this time, and he made a trip to his home city Baltimore, and that is when he married his second wife. She came back to New Orleans with him, then went to Vicksburg, Miss., where Joshua had a store and a Ferry across the Mississippi River.

The "Hall's Ferry" road is still there today. I have the land deed of just where his business was. It was on the River. It seems that Joshua used the same business principal he had in Vicksburg when he set up Hall's Bluff.

James Madison came to Texas first with his cousin John L. Hall. They fought the Mexicans, General Cos at San Antonia in the year 1835 of which the Mexicans were sent back to Mexico. For this battle the men received some Texas Land. James Madison and John L. Hall got theirs in Houston, County (Journal records this).

Joshua still lived in New Orleans then to Vicksburg. Joshua was a citizen of two areas -- Miss. and new Texas. He traveled back and forth between Vicksburg and Houston County.

He paid for the 24,000 acres of a Mexican Land Grant (I have that record) for $39,000 which was a very large amount of money for that day in 1839. His son James, and nephew John were his managers. He came to Texas in the very early 1850's for keeps.

He married Elisha Roberts' daughter, Mahala, a widow of Sam Sharp [John M. Sharp]. Mahala had lived in the northern west part of Houston county with Sam [John] when they came there as a young bride and groom from San Augustine.

The above info was originally shared by Esther Biggers on the 11th of January in 2001.