Small and Simple Things Joseph Smith Hall Hello! If you are a descendant of Joseph Smith Hall, you might enjoy sharing this connection activity with your family for Family Home Evening. Did You Know? • Joseph Smith Hall crossed the western plains to Utah with the Alfred Cordon company in 1851. He was eight years old. His family resided in Salt Lake City, where he worked as cow herder for the city. • When Joseph was 22, he married Margaret Hill (January 20, 1865) in the Endowment House. Heber C. Kimball performed the ceremony. Margaret travelled to Utah in the same handcart company, so they may have played as children, but they didn’t meet until much later. • Shortly after they were married, the Halls were asked by Brigham Young to help settle St. George, Utah. They traveled more than 250 miles by wagon and then lived in the wagon box while Joseph cut logs and built a small house. Joseph’s health was not good in St. George—it was too hot, so they moved north again and were among the first families to homestead what would become Fairview, Idaho. • When Fairview needed a public school, Joseph invited the school board to use a building that he had just finished and intended to use as a stable. • Joseph was known for his big heart and generosity. He and Margaret took several boys into their home over the years, who had come from other countries and places. One of these boys, Andrew Bean was ill. The Halls cared for him, nursing him back to full health and he as a result he changed his name from Bean to Hall. • Joseph loved people and loved to visit his neighbors, which he did nearly every morning. He would hitch the horses on the buggy and go for the mail and many times stop along the way to check in on family friends. • Mary Bodily Olson remembers a time when her family had no flour. Her father saddled a horse and sent her with an empty sack to borrow some from the Halls. Joseph had just returned from Muddy Mill with a load of grist. (Wikipedia: grain that has been ground at a gristmill) He hooked the horses to the wagon, loaded it with a full sack of flour and delivered Mary, her horse and the flour to her family. • On Margaret’s 42nd birthday, Joseph helped organize a surprise party and gave his wife her first wedding ring. • Joseph had dark, curly hair, blue green eyes and thick eye brows, which he had to trim regularly.
Myrtle Thompson Choules, a granddaughter remembers a box of stick candy that her Grandpa Hall kept on the clock shelf. Whenever grandchildren would come to visit, he would take the box down and pass it around. Here’s a small and simple thing: Purchase a tin of stick candy and keep it along with a photo of Grandpa Hall on a shelf in your home. Share it when friends and family come to visit.
Story created by Stacy Hall Julian, a descendant of William Roy Hall, Joseph and Margaret’s 9th child of twelve.