C. H. Hall’s Store (Charles H. Hall), Main Street, West Stewartstown 1899:
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C. H. Hall’s Store (Charles H. Hall), Main Street, West Stewartstown 1899.
The name Hall is very familiar West Stewartstown; the first owners of the House, Hubbard Chandler Hall (b.1824, Maine - d.1894, Maine) and Jane Goodwin (b. 1831 - d. 1906, Maine - m. 1851) are the parents of Charles H. Hall. They moved from Maine with 4 of their 6 children to settle in West Stewartstown around 1875. The family history is available on the following page, part of the Blog about the House: The Halls (https://theoldconnectedfarmstead.blogspot.com/p/the-harveys-john-lovell-harvey-appears.html).
Charles H. Hall was the youngest of the family, only 11 years old in 1880 (b. 1870, Maine - d. after 1930, Canaan, VT) . Since the Census of 1890 was destroyed in a fire, his whereabouts can only be traced back using the Censuses of 1900 to 1930 and various birth and marriage certificates. He marries Lizzie (Elizabeth) Jane Clark (b. 1868, Mass. - d. 1936) in 1894, shortly after selling the family House, subject of this blog, to Thomas Pipper. They will have two daughters, Helena, born in 1805 (d. 1981) and Vivian born in 1900.
From the Census of 1900, we find that Charles (30 y.o.) lives with his wife Lizzie (32 y.o.) and two daughters Helena 6, and Vivian, newly born, and his mother Jane (69) and a border. They live on Main Street next to Thomas Mayo. He is listed as “Butcher”.
This extraordinary picture of the C. H. Hall Grocery Store Complex and House, courtesy of Dennis Fuller (chairman of the board of the Canaan Historical Society) is an incredible credit to the accomplishment of this young family. We see the store, two obvious regular employees on the right, a butcher on center, a young lady with 2 children (one a few months old in a stroller and the other, standing beside, not more than 3 years old). To the right, well dressed with a nice suit is likely Charles (he is built like a lumberman, probably taking from his father who was one) with an elegant lady, likely Lizzie, his wife, with their first daughter Helena (looking around 5 years old) on a very interesting carriage pulled by what looks like a calm 70 pound Great Pyrenees dog (Patou). This information allows us to conclude that the picture date from around 1899, before the birth of their second child.
In the center of the picture, the lady with two young girls was an enigma. Research, so far, reveals, that the only potential neighbor with two daughters of that age would be Tinnie Morrison (22 y.o. in 1899). She is married to John H. Morrison, owner of Morrison’s clothing store on Main Street, who immigrated from Russia in 1883 and settled to West Stewartstown after 1896. In 1899, their daughters Lillian would have been 3 years old and Ethel would have been a few months old which would correlate with the other findings about the picture.
Based on the Census 1910, Charlesand Lizzie still lwork iand live n the same location on Main Street, with Helena and Vivian. Charles is still listed as a ‘’Retail Merchant, Meats Groceries’. The Censuses of 1920 and 1930 reveal that Charles lives only with his wife Lizzie and is now listed as ‘’laborer Cabinet Maker - Assembler Furniture Factory). We may conclude that they operated the grocery store for 15 to 20 years.
