Willard Preble HALL, Congress, MO (1820-1882)

HALL, Willard Preble, (brother of William Augustus Hall and uncle of Uriel Sebree Hall), a Representative from Missouri; born at Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, Va. (now West Virginia), May 9, 1820; attended a private school in Baltimore, Md.; was graduated from Yale College in 1839; accompanied his father to Randolph County, Mo., in 1840; studied law; was admitted to the bar at Huntsville, Mo., in 1841 and commenced practice in Sparta, Mo., in 1842; appointed circuit attorney in 1843 and served several years; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844; during the Mexican War enlisted as a private in the First Missouri Cavalry and later promoted to lieutenant; was appointed by General Kearny, together with Col. Alexander Doniphan, to construct the code of civil laws known as the “Kearny Code” in English and Spanish for the territory taken from Mexico; elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-second Congresses (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1853); chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-first Congress), Committee on Public Lands (Thirty-second Congress); moved to St. Joseph, Mo., in 1854 and continued the practice of law; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1856; member of the constitutional convention of Missouri in 1861 that determined the relations of Missouri to the Union and the other States and decided in favor of the Union; provisional Lieutenant Governor of Missouri 1861-1864; as brigadier general, Missouri Militia, commanded the northwestern Missouri district until 1863; Governor of Missouri in 1864 and 1865; resumed the practice of law; died in St. Joseph, Mo., November 3, 1882; interment in Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present