The Simon Hall Family Bible

Monday, October 6, 2014

Boxes in the basement, attic trunks, flea markets, garage sales, online auctions, long lost cousins, old aunties, or nooks and crannies of historical societies and museums offer a chance to find an elusive prize, an old family Bible.   

Simon Hall's Bible

Many years ago, above the rooms of a building purchased from the estate of Carl Melchior, Tony Woles, the owner of a local jewelry store, found an ancient family Bible with a rare surprise inside.  The Bible belonged to Simon and Desire Hall and tucked inside was the couple’s 1851 marriage certificate.  

  

Simon Hall came to Wolf River in 1854 having followed his older brother, Abraham, one of Algoma’s earliest settlers.  Abraham Hall owned a saw mill and the first mercantile (general store) in Kewaunee County.

The yellowed but well-preserved marriage certificate found in the Hall’s Bible reads:  “This certifies that Simon Hall of Fleming, and Miss D. D. Smith of West Lancing were by me united in holy matrimony on the eight day of January in the year of our Lord, 1851, in conformity with the laws of the State of New York and the Ordinance of God.”  It was signed “George Plumer, minister of the gospel.”

Simon and Desire (Desiah) Smith Hall were both born in New York state in 1826.  Hall brought his wife and family to Racine from New York.  In the fall of 1854, Simon Hall traveled to Kewaunee on the steamer “Fashion” and walked up the beach to Wolf River, now Algoma, to find his brother’s mill.    

Later that fall, Simon loaded his household furniture and his young wife and two small children on the schooner “Erie” at Racine and they sailed to Wolf River.  With no pier at the landing site, the family came ashore near the hill in a fishing boat manned by a Mr. Tweedale (possibly Edwin Tweedale, who was among the first handful of settlers in Wolf River).  Hall’s family goods were brought to their new home on a scow. 

 The Hall Bible, before it was found in an attic rummaged through by Mr. Woles, had belonged to May Elliott.  It was given to her by her “Sabbath teacher” Tweedale (maybe “M. J.” Mary Jane Tweedale).  It was likely left by May’s grandparents, Simon and Desire Hall, to their daughter, Sarah Hall Elliott, or to Tweedale, and ultimately gifted to her, Sarah’s daughter, Elsie May Elliott Boedecker.   

While this old hard-covered tome is a rare book, these ornate Bibles were popular with households in the mid-1800s for recording births, marriages, and deaths of generations of family members.  Now their record pages with lists of begets and begots, marriages, and deaths are historical gems for the lucky few who discover them.

Gifted to or purchased by couples at the time of their marriage, a family Bible would be used for ages, passed down from parents to surviving children, then grandchildren and great-grands to, hopefully, come to rest with descendants who cherish them or others who will keep them safe.

Family Bibles were the keepers of milestones.   Sometimes they were the keepers of the important documents like the Hall marriage certificate, too.  Simon Hall’s family Bible is on display today at the Jail Museum operated by the Kewaunee County Historical Society in Kewaunee.