James Norman Hall was born on April 22, 1887 in Colfax, Iowa ( USA), oneof three sons and two daughters born to Arthur Wright Hall and Ella Annette(Young) Hall. Hall felt his family ties like apparently no other of his siblings and was curious about his ancestors before him. The following is an extract from " The Memories of Chaucer" written while a prisoner of war in Landshut Germany. It was Nancy and Nick's source of inspirationfor their continuous efforts to preserve and open the writer's home to the public.
My Dear Grandchildren,
Many years from now, when this narrative is placed in your hands, you may wonder why I should have written it, with you in mind, long before any of you were born, when in fact, I had no idea who your grandmother was to be. Let me tell you, then, that I have a sense of family that none of the Halls, up to my time, seem to have had, or the Youngs, my mother's people. Like many of the families of Middle-Western America, who, toward the fifties of the last century, peopled the prairies of the Mississippi Valley,we know almost nothing beyond our grandparents, and little enough concerning them. A few have a vague existence in that their names and the dates of their birth and death can still be deciphered on mouldering tombstones in country cemeteries, but the earlier ones no longer exist, even in this shadowy sense. They have vanished without leaving a trace behind them, with no word of farewell, of counsel, of friendly greeting, to those who should come after them, and we shall never know what manner of men and women they were.
This seems to me a great pity, and I have resolved to do what I can to remedy matters, for even in families of no particular distinction, such as ours seemsto have been, if intimate and truthful records should be prepared and handed down from generation to generation, we should have, at last, the means for judging of the worth of our blood. We might then see what our family virtues are -or be assured, at least, that we have none- and what shortcomings have been carried over from one generation to the next.
But my real purpose in preparing this narrative is a selfish one at the bottom. The thought that I shall live for you in these pages and that I shall perhaps be something more than a name to your children and your children's children, gives me the keenest pleasure. And I cannot urge you too strongly to follow my example in this matter, otherwise, your own grandchildren may know of you, if at all, only through hearsay. With such a precedent once established and followed faithfully by our descendents, we should eventually accumulate a library of family history more interesting than the most fascinating of fiction could be; for those who come after us could say, as they read:' Thisis my great-great- grandfather (or grandmother) who is speaking. These things really happened to members of my kindred'.
In the mind's eye, I see the pleasant book-lined room of the house, where, five centuries hence, these records would be kept--an old house, high-walled and secret from the outside world. Here, young men and women of our own line would come, now and then, to spend some time with the family ghosts, to read of joys and sorrows, once as keen as theirs, of hopes as bright, of disappointment that seemed catastrophic and were yet survived. And so again and again, our shades would assume the shapes of men and women of flesh and blood, and none of them, I am sure, would frisk about more gaily than mine, knowing that I was the Nestor of you all.
ISAAC GRIFFIN (born February 27, 1756, died October 12, 1827) son of SAMUEL GRIFFIN (died 1769) and MARTHA ( died 1781) married MARY MORRIS ( born 20 July 1756, died 23 May 1836), daughter of JAMES MORRIS II, (born 1723 died 1786) and ANN TILTON.
Their third of eight children , HARRIET GRIFFIN, (b. 5 March 1782, died?) married EDWARD HALL ( b. 1775, died 1852) son of JOHN and MARTHA HALL.
Their fourth of twelve children, JAMES GRIFFEN HALL ( born April 12, 1808, died 2 June 1873) married CELESTIA MILLER on March 20, 1832 in Connerville Indiana (Celestia was born on March 10, 1812, died November 3, 1891). They had 10 children:
-SARAH MADELINE HALL Born December 16, 1832
-
HARRIET DELINE HALL born July 18, 1834;
-
WILLIAM CLARK HALL born March ( or April) 26 1838, died December 10, 1885,
married NETTIE ERRETT Nov 29 1870.
-
MORRIS OLIPHANT HALL, August 5, 1840.
-
WALTER FRANCES HALL born June 6, 1842, married JENNIE BROWN June 7, 1883
-
JULIA MARY HALL, born September 27, 1844, married GAMALIEL
WILLIAMS on January 21, 1866,
-
WILFRED HALL b 4 July 1846;
-
EDWARD ISAAC HALL Born January 29, 1850, married 1) CARRIEFERRELL
1874, 2) SARAH A. ESTLER 1880.
-
FRANCES ANNE HALL Born January 22 1855 married WILLIAM H. HUGHES on
December 4, 1877 in Columbus City? Indiana
-
ARTHUR WRIGHT HALL born November 22, 1832, died May 28, 1931 married Ella
Annette Young on August 16, 1882. They had 5 children:
I. FRED YOUNG HALL born September 1, 1884
2.
JAMES NORMAN HALL born April 22, 1887
in Colfax Iowa, married SARAH WINCHESTER in 1925.
They
had 2 children:
Son CONRAD LAFCADIO HEARN HALL Born June 21, 1926 in Toanui Tahiti . Married and had three children:
-CONRAD WINCHESTER-HALL
-NAIA HALL
-KATE HALL
3 HARVEY WRIGHT HALL, born August 24, 1890
Left to right: Nick Rutgers III, Jamie Rutgers, Cindy Rutgers-Overhardt, Tony Rutgers.
Daughter NANCY ELLA HALL, born August 10, 1930, married NICHOLAS GOUVENEUR-RUTGERS, Jr on April 5, 1947 in Santa Barbara California. They had four children, nine grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild:
- NICHOLAS GOUVERNEUR-RUTGERS III
- JAMES NORMAN HALL-RUTGERS
- ANTHONY LIVINGSTONE-RUTGERS,
- CINDY RUTGERS-OVERHARDT
4 DOROTHY ELIZABETH HALL born March 10, 1894, married J. CLARK GRAHAM
5 MARJORIE CELESTIA HALL born April 17, 1900, married CLAIRE FORSYTH