Biography of Charles W. Hall - Mercer Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 568


CHARLES W. HALL is president and general manager of
the Princeton Foundry & Supply Company, which conducts
one of the substantial and important industrial enterprises
at Princeton, Mercer County. This company, with a modern
plant of the best equipment, specializes in machine, boiler
and foundry work, and in the manufacturing of the "Per-
fection" Cone Stove Sand-drier and Hall's Improved
Shaker Grates for stationary engines, of both of which
remarkably effective and valuable devices Mr. Hall was the
inventor and both of which have proved of great practical
value in connection with the coal-mining industry of West
Virginia and other states. Mr. Hall's experience in the
West Virginia coal fields began in 1888, and he has been
actively identified with the development of the coal industry
in the state.

Mr. Hall was born at Christiansburg, Montgomery County,
Virginia, April 9, 1867, and is a son of John Newton John-
son Hall and Margaret (Pannell) Hall, the former of whom
was born at Fincastle, Craig County, Virginia, and the
latter in Montgomery County, that state. The father was a
pioneer in the mining of anthracite coal in Virginia, where
his operations were conducted on the rather small scale that
then marked the industry in that state. He was a loyal
soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, took part in
numerous engagements, was wounded at the battle of
Manassas, and in the latter part of the war was held a
prisoner of the Federal Government for a few months at
Elmira, New York. He was a stanch democrat, and he and
his wife were zealous members of the Baptist Church, in
which he served as a deacon. The original American repre-
sentatives of the Hall family came from Scotland, and
members settled in Massachusetts, Virginia, and in other
parts of the South prior to the War of the Revolution. The
family was thus founded in Craig County, Virginia, in the
Colonial period. John N. J. Hall was fifty-three years of
age at the time of his death, in 1896, and his widow passed
away in 1917, at the age of seventy years. Of the seven
children Charles W., of this review, is the eldest. Another
son, Edward D., is a machinist in the employ of the Norfolk
& Western Railroad Company at Eckman, West Virginia.

Charles W. Hall gained his early education in the schools
of his native place, and thereafter passed one year as a stu-
dent in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg.
At the age of nineteen years he entered upon an apprentice-
ship in the foundry of J. P. Witherow & Company of New
Castle, Pennsylvania, and he continued seven years in the
employ of this company. He then came to West Virginia
and became a machinist in the employ of the Norfolk &
Western Railroad Company at Bluefield, where he was thus
stationed at the time when the company's roundhouse was
constructed at that point. After a period of four years Mr.
Hall re-entered the employ of J. P. Witherow & Company,
with which he was in service at Graham, Virginia, while
the company was building its furnaces at that place. He
next entered the employ of the Carter Coal Company at
Tom's Creek, Virginia, where he remained seven years as
master mechanic, the title of the company having in the
meanwhile been changed to the Virginia Iron & Coal Com-
pany. For twelve years thereafter Mr. Hall was master
mechanic and chief electrician with the American Coal Com-
pany at McComas, Mercer County, West Virginia, and upon
severing this connection he became the executive head of
the Pocahontas Foundry & Machine Company at Kingston.
The plant of this company was later destroyed by fire, and
in 1920 Mr. Hall became associated with the organization of
the Princeton Foundry & Supply Company, which forthwith
initiated the construction of the present modern plant, and
he has continued as president and general manager of the
progressive corporation. In the manufacturing department
the company gives major attention to the production of the
two inventions of Mr. Hall, as noted in an earlier paragraph
of this sketch. He has marked inventive ability, and has
recently perfected a device that will prove a valuable
attachment for the lighting systems of automobiles. Mr.
Hall is a democrat, and in the Masonic fraternity is affiliated
with the Blue Lodge at Coburn, Virginia, and the Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons at Bramwell, West Virginia. His
wife is a member of the Baptist Church.

October 2, 1889, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hall and
Miss Barbara Kirk, daughter of John Kirk, of Mercer
County, and of this union there are five sons and three
daughters. Two of the sons were in the nation's service in
the World war period. John W., who received his pre-
liminary training at Port Worth, Texas, became a gun in-
structor at Mount Clemens, Michigan.  Charles W., who
entered the United States navy on the 6th of April, 1917,
became an electrician on the battleship Florida, and was in
the convoy service in the transportation of American troops
to the stage of war. He received his honorable discharge
after a service of eighteen months.


Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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