Household #138: Hall, William

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In the 1900 Barney census, William Hall headed an 8-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

William Hall headed an 8-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 6 children.

William Hall's listed occupation was Farmer.

All listed household members were reported as born in Georgia.

1900 Census Household

Children and Later Trails

This section is reserved for later-life child evidence. No later spouse, death, burial, obituary, probate, separate household, or descendant-line identification has been added here yet from direct records.

Family Narrative

• The 1900 Barney household contains William Hall, wife Serena Hall, and children Ida, Lillie, Laura, John, Walter, and May.
• A longer census chain places William Hall in Lowndes County as a child in 1850 and 1860, in Brooks County as a young adult in 1870, with Serena in Brooks County in 1880 and 1900, and later in Hahira, Lowndes County, in 1910 and 1920.
• Serena Hall is well identified as Serena Hires or Hiers through her 4 January 1870 Brooks County marriage to William Hall, her pre-marriage placement in the David Hires household, and her 1921 Lowndes County death record naming her father as David Hires and her mother as Yates.
• The complete three-image 1907 pension packet verifies William's claimed service, Lowndes residence, farming occupation, poverty, and disabilities. It does not name his parents or biological mother.

William Hall appears in the 1900 census as a fifty-four-year-old farmer in Barney, Brooks County, with wife Serena and six children still at home. The household was marked white. William reported that he was born in October 1845, had been married thirty years, and owned his farm free of mortgage. Serena reported that she was born in October 1849, had borne nine children, and that seven were then living.

The broader record set now gives this household a workable life-course structure. In 1850, William Hall, age four, appears in Lowndes County in John Hall Jr.'s household. In 1860, a thirteen-year-old William appears again in the continuing family. This makes John Jr. William's strong-probable father, although no parent-naming record has been found. Elizabeth was nineteen in 1850 and was not the woman in John's 1840 household. Francis Pearson Hall's death certificate identifies her as Elizabeth Easter and verifies her as Francis's mother. She was John's later wife and William's probable stepmother; William's biological mother remains unresolved.

By 1870, William Hall, age twenty-one, was in Brooks County. The original Brooks County marriage return records his marriage to Serena Hires on January 4, 1870. Serena was enumerated twice that year: once with William in dwelling 779 and once under Hiers in her parents' dwelling 777. The two entries place the newly married Hall household beside David and Rebecca Hiers.

Serena can now be placed with more confidence than before. In 1860, Serena Hires appears in Brooks County in the household of David Hires. In 1870, Serena Hiers, age eighteen, appears again in Brooks County in the household of David Hiers and Rebecca Hiers. Her Lowndes County death record dated 12 June 1921 identifies her as Serena Hall, wife of W. M. Hall, and names her father as David Hires; the mother line is given as Yates in the death record and appears as Rebecca Yates in memorial material. Taken together, those records support identifying the 1900 wife Serena Hall as Serena Hires or Hiers, daughter of David Hires and a mother from the Yates family.

The 1880 census provides the first full family snapshot after the marriage. William Hall, age thirty-four, and Serena Hall, age twenty-nine, were in Brooks County with children John David, Jinnie L., Ida, Tommie A., and Laura C. By 1900, the household composition had shifted to Ida, Lillie, Laura, John, Walter, and May. Ida remained with her parents in both 1910 and 1920 at Hahira in Lowndes County. The overlap between the 1880 and 1900 households shows clear continuity, though not every child name in the two records should be silently merged without later corroboration.

William's later records are also stronger now. In 1910, William M. Hall, sixty-four, and Serena Hall, sixty, were in Hahira with daughter Ida, and the farm was again marked owned free of mortgage. In 1920, William, seventy-four, Serena, sixty-eight, and Ida, forty-nine, were still together in Hahira, and the home was again shown as owned. Those two censuses support the later Lowndes County phase of the family and show that the move out of Barney was not temporary.

The military evidence is handled separately below so the family narrative can stay focused on household movement, marriage, children, and later residence.

The household can therefore be described more securely than before, but it is not finished in every respect. The census chain from 1850 through 1920 is substantial. Serena's identity rests on her Hires household placements, original marriage return, and death certificate. William's complete pension packet supports his Confederate service claim and gives a self-reported birth date and service history, but no page names his parents or siblings. William's death, burial, biological mother, and a parent-naming record for John Hall Jr. remain unresolved.

Connections to Other Barney Families

• Serena Hall is well supported as Serena Hires or Hiers, daughter of David Hires and a mother from the Yates family.
• Serena's pre-marriage placement in the David Hires household ties this household into the wider Hires family cluster in Brooks County.
• Ida Hall remained with William and Serena in both the 1910 and 1920 Lowndes County households, giving the family a clear later-life continuity point.
• The 1900 Barney district also includes other Hall households, but no direct relationship to those households should be asserted here without stronger evidence.

Military Service

William Hall's complete three-image 1907 Georgia Confederate indigent pension packet provides the military anchor for this household. His application reports that he enlisted in April 1862 in Lowndes County in Captain H. Morgan's company of the 18th Georgia Regiment and surrendered near Petersburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1865. A witness affidavit and physicians' affidavit support the application. The packet documents his residence, farming occupation, poverty, and disabilities but names no parent, sibling, or biological mother. Its October 20, 1843 birth date conflicts with the census pattern and remains qualified.

Open Research Questions

• John Hall Jr. is William's strong-probable father through the 1850 and 1860 census chain. William's biological mother remains unidentified.
• Elizabeth Easter was John Jr.'s later wife and Francis Pearson Hall's verified mother. She was William's probable stepmother, not his established mother.
• William's 1907 pension application gives a birth date of 20 October 1843, while the census trail points more toward 1845 or 1846; both should be retained until the discrepancy is resolved.
• William's death has not yet been documented with a direct death certificate or equivalent probate-style record.
• Burial at Old Orange Grove Church Cemetery is supported by memorial material, but the burial claim should still be treated as supporting rather than primary evidence.
• The 1880 and 1900 child lists show continuity, but names such as John David and John, or possible spelling shifts such as Lilla and Lillie, should not be merged too aggressively without later corroboration.
• The 1872 tax digest supports taxable presence in Brooks County, not broad claims about property scale or prosperity.

Research Status

Well-researched. The household now rests on a census chain from 1850 through 1920, the original 1870 marriage return, Serena's Hires household placements, Serena's 1921 death certificate, William's complete 1907 pension packet, and Brooks County tax material. John Hall Jr. is William's strong-probable father. Elizabeth Easter was John's later wife and William's probable stepmother. The main remaining gaps are William's biological mother, a parent-naming record for John Jr., William's death record, and stronger burial documentation.

Sources

• 1900 U.S. census, Barney Precinct, Brooks County, Georgia, William Hall household.
• 1850 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, John Hall household including William Hall, age four.
• 1860 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, John Hall household including William Hall, age thirteen.
• 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, William Hall, age twenty-one.
• Brooks County, Georgia, marriage index entry for William Hall and Serena Hires, 4 January 1870.
• 1872 Brooks County, Georgia, tax-digest entry for William Hall in Morven District 660.
• 1860 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, David Hires household including Serena Hires.
• 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, David Hiers and Rebecca Hiers household including Serena Hiers.
• 1880 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, William and Serena Hall household including children John David, Jinnie L., Ida, Tommie A., and Laura C.
• 1910 U.S. census, Hahira district, Lowndes County, Georgia, William M. Hall household including Serena and Ida Hall.
• 1920 U.S. census, Hahira district, Lowndes County, Georgia, William and Serena Hall household including Ida Hall.
• Lowndes County, Georgia, death record for Serena Hall, died 12 June 1921, naming husband W. M. Hall and father David Hires.
• Georgia Confederate indigent pension application for William or W. M. Hall of Lowndes County, filed in 1907, reporting service in Captain H. Morgan's company, 18th Georgia Regiment.
• Georgia death certificate for Francis Pearson Hall, 1938, naming John Hall and Elizabeth Easter as parents.
• Memorial material for William M. Hall at Old Orange Grove Church Cemetery, Lowndes County, Georgia.
• Memorial material for Serena Hiers Hall at Old Orange Grove Church Cemetery, Lowndes County, Georgia, identifying her as daughter of David Hires and Rebecca Yates.

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