- GEORGE W. HALL, SR., of Evansville, Rock county, has had
a varied and eventful history. He
- has thoroughly tried all changes of fortune, and knows by
sad experience the meaning of the "ups and downs" of
life. He has made money, and scattered it to the winds. He began
life for himself with no capital but his ambitious spirit and
clever brain. Drifting into the show business, and finding himself
peculiarly fitted for it, he made it his life occupation, and
has but recently retired from the sawdust arena. He has now disposed
of all of his circus property, and is living in Evansville, with
extensive real-estate investments in Rock county and elsewhere.
- Mr. HALL was born in Lowell, Mass., Dec. 5, 1837, and is
a son of Joseph B. and Susan
- (NICHOLS) HALL, both natives of New Hampshire. Six children
were born to them: George W.; Benjamin Franklin, who during the
Civil war became a member of the 13th Wis. V. I., and died in
the hospital at Nashville; Orrin, of Oshkosh, Wis.; James, a
farmer at Antigo, Wis.; and Byron and Charles, both of whom died
when children, from scarlet fever. The father was a watchman
at Lowell, Mass., when a young man, and then went to Manchester,
N.H., where he ran a stationary engine. In mature life he became
a partner in a sash, door and blind factory, under the firm name
of BALDWIN, STEPHENS & HALL. The factory burned down, and
Mr. HALL became connected with a car-making firm at Bakersville,
N.H. He afterward owned a steam mill on the Merrimac river, opposite
Manchester, until it was destroyed by fire. He owned a farm at
Hillsboro, N.H., and in 1859 came to Rock county, Wis., and bought
a farm at Magnolia, where he spent the last years of his life.
He died in 1882, at the age of seventy-four. His widow survived
a number of years, dying in 1895, at the age of eighty. He was
a Baptist, and she a Methodist.
- John HALL, the grandfather of George W., Sr., was a native
of New Hampshire, and came of
- English stock. He was a farmer, and died in middle life,
in his native State. He was the father of four sons and one daughter.
His father was a veteran of the Revolution, and for many years
drew a pension for his services in that struggle.
- Samuel NICHOLS, the father of Susan, mentioned above, was
a native of Massachusetts, and of
- Scottish descent. He was a farmer in the town of Stoddard,
and died in his native State when between ninety and one hundred
years old. He had four sons and one daughter. His father also
served in the Revolution, and drew a pension.
- George W. HALL spent his early years in Lowell and Manchester,
until he reached the age of ten.
- Then an uncontrollable longing to be with the circus manifested
itself, and he would run away from home in the spring, spend
the summer with some circus, and then return home in the fall
to spend the winter at home. He did this until he was about seventeen,
when he graduated from the district school, as he himself says,
by having a fracas with the teacher, and with that he made his
way to Boston, and found work in a candy factory at $4 a month.
When he had accumulated $13.63 he quit. He went to Concord, and
started peddling popcorn on the trains and at various towns.
In 1855 he took himself to New York, and followed the same business
during the winter, spending the summer season with various circus
organizations. From these experiences he acquired the name of
"Pop-corn George," a name that he has never lost through
all the mutations of fortune.
- Mr. HALL joined the Dick-Sands wagon show in New York in
1860, came by wagon road
- through Canada into the West, and spent the following winter
with his father in Magnolia, Wis. He followed the side show business
with various organizations for several years. He was with Jesse
MAYBELL, and after leaving him organized a show of his own, and
attached himself to the great BAILEY show, and later in the same
season to the VAN AMBERG organization. He left that organization
at Cleveland, and made the round of the county fairs. He spent
the next winter at Magnolia, and occupied himself as a trapper.
The next season he was with the ORTON side show, left them at
Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and joined HOWE's European Show, and when
the county fair season came on he made that route. In the late
fall he went to Madison, Wis., and had a museum during the winter.
Subsequently he was with Frank HOWE's show, then started another
museum combination, and conducted it at Madison during the winter.
The following year he and John LONG, of Janesville, organized
a show, which they ran through the lead-mining regions of Wisconsin,
and came back to Janesville in June completely bankrupt. Mr.
HALL reorganized it as a side show, put it alongside of the Jim
FRENCH circus, and traveled in this way until the fair season
began. This was the most prosperous year that he had so far experienced.
He closed the season with $4,800 and a farm which he had bought
and paid for, all after his June failure.
- Mr. HALL had a side show of his own with McKINZIE & JOHNSON,
prominent circus men,
- and ran with them for several years. In 1881 he organized
a large circus for himself. He had a circus, menagerie and museum,
and traveled with the same until 1885, visiting every State in
the Union except Montana, Nevada and California. He crossed the
Atlantic, and the Caribbean Sea in 1885, and showed in all the
West Indies, including the Bahama Islands. The next year he returned
to the United States and leased his show to George DeHAVEN, and
at a later period sold it to him. For five years the show traveled
under the name of "Col. George W. HALL's United States Railroad
Shows." In 1887 our subject bought the BIGNLEY show, reorganized
it, and conducted it for two years. In the fall of 1889 he formed
a partnership with Samuel McFLYNN, and was with him until the
summer of 1891, when he sold to Mr. McFLYNN. He formed a partnership
afterwards with his son Charles, reorganized a show and went
South, and remained in that region two years. He afterwards bought
his son's interests, and continued alone in the business until
1898. In 1897 he went to Mexico, crossing at El Paso and Juarez,
and showed about a year in that country, with ORRIN Brothers.
They spent six weeks in the city of Mexico, and visited all the
important Mexican cities except Tampico. In 1898 Mr. HALL disposed
of all his show interests, and is now making his home in the
city of Evansville, where he has a fine residence in the southern
part of the town, surrounded by twenty acres of tobacco land.
He has extensive real-estate investments in Rock county, and
owns altogether 466 acres in the county. He owns fine residences
in Tampa, Fla., in Denver, Colo., and in Anoka county, Minnesota.
- Mr. HALL and Miss Sarah WILDER were married in March, 1855.
Mrs. HALL is a daughter of
- Levi WILDER, and has been a helpful companion to her ambitious
and enterprising husband. They have four children, George W.,
Ida, Charles and Jessie. George married Miss Lida WOOD and they
have three children, Frank, Grace and Charles Russell. Ida married
a Mr. BLAIR, and died when thirty-three years old. Charles died
in Meridian, Miss., where he was a partner with "Sam"
McFLYNN at the time of his illness and death. Jessie married
Frank MACART, and is the mother of two children, Fred and Vivian.
- Mr. HALL is the oldest showman now living, in the point of
years of continuous travel. He claims
- to be the first person to introduce the breeding of Poland-China
hogs in Rock county, and one of the first to encourage tobacco
raising on a large scale. He has proved that marsh tilling is
a success - a fact which will be of interest to the farmers of
Rock county - having made the marsh land the most productive
land in his locality. In his extensive travels Mr. HALL has had
many thrilling experiences that would be deeply interesting if
submitted to the public. However, he prefers not to exploit his
adventures in a boastful or sensational manner.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 122-124.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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