Augustus Hall
Augustus Hall (April 29, 1814 - February 1, 1861), a lawyer, was a one-term Democrat U.S. Representative from Iowa's 1st congressional district, and chief justice of the Nebraska Territory, before his early death.
Biography
Born in Batavia, New York, Hall attended the common schools and Middleburg (New York) Academy, and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and commenced practice in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Hall served as assistant United States marshal in 1839, and prosecuting attorney of Union County from 1840 to 1842. In 1844 he moved to Keosauqua, a settlement in the southeast corner of what was then Iowa Territory, and later the state of Iowa when Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846. In 1852 he was chosen by the Democrats one of the presidential electors and cast his vote for Franklin Pierce.[1]
In 1854, Hall was elected as a Democrat to represent Iowa's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House, defeating Whig candidate R. L. B. Clark.[1] He served in the Thirty-fourth Congress, from March 4, 1855 to March 3, 1857. The 1854 election was the last before the establishment of the Iowa Republican Party, which for decades thereafter dominated most congressional elections in Iowa. In 1856 Hall won the Democratic nomination,[2] but was defeated in the general election by Republican Samuel Curtis.
Soon after the end of his term, Hall moved to the Nebraska Territory, which then encompassed a vast area east of the Missouri River (to the western edge of the Louisiana Purchase) and north of Kansas Territory (to the Canadian border).[1]President Buchanan appointed Hall as chief justice of the Nebraska Territory in 1858, where he served until his death in Bellevue on February 1, 1861. He was interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery in North Omaha.
See also
References
- ^ a b c Benjamin F. Gue, "History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century," Vol. 4 (Augustus Hall, pp. 114-15(1902).
- ^ Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye and Telegraph, 1856-06-23 at p. 2.
- United States Congress. "Augustus Hall (id: H000043)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress