Dr. William Ellison Hall

https://south-carolina-plantations.com/fairfield/home-place.html

• 1846 – Laban Hall sold the plantation to his brother Dr. William Ellison Hall.
• 1860 – Dr. Hall was the third largest land owner in Fairfield County owning approximately 12,000 acres. In addition to Home Place Plantation, Hall had also acquired Lewis Place Plantation and Pea Ridge Plantation.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42423679/william-ellison-hall

https://bossier.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Hall%2C+Will...

"Photocopy of a sketch of Dr. Elisha Jones Hall. This copy appears to have been made from a book. There are also a few facts about the education of Dr. E. J. Hall, as well as a note about his parents, Dr. William E. and Dorcas Jones Hall of Fairfield, South Carolina."

Memories of Dr. William Ellison Hall found in Fairfield Archives. The excerpts were apparently from a compilation of planters and slave owners in Fairfield County, SC.

From "S. C. Women in the Confederacy" (Columbia, 1903), I, 258 – account written by Mrs. C. P. Poppenheim refugeeing from Low-country – "from Liberty Hill they start to Blackstocks, then start back again . . . on way back. Stop at large brick house – Dr. [W. E.] Hall’s – and there we find two lunaticks from the lunatic asylum in Columbia, placed there to preserve the house from the destruction by the Yankees. It was a night of horrors . . . we left the place bright and early. A long, tiresome day’s ride, recross Peay’s ferry . . ."

Apparently Dr. William E. Hall owned three homes in Fairfield County. According to Russell Hall, Dr. Hall brought the “lunaticks” from Columbia in order to fool the Yankees into thinking his house was a home for the mentally ill. He thought the Yankees would not burn a house where these people were living. Russ also said that prior to his death, Dr. Hall instructed his wife to display “Old Glory” at one of their homes to make the Yankees think they were Union sympathizers.

William E. Hall owned 20,000 acres of land in SC, Georgia, Florida, & Bossier Parish, Louisiana, and he owned around 400 slaves, making him one of the largest slave owners in the South. His brother, Daniel, wasn’t far behind in number of slaves owned.

From L. M. Ford (d. 1911) "Memories, Traditions and History of Rocky Mount and Vicinity'" Typescript, Chester Library: P. 20: “Dr. Wm. E. Hall was the wealthiest man of this community. He was his own manager and attended to the slaves on his five plantations in South Carolina. He also owned two places in Georgia, which he frequently visited. His crops were paying ones. He was the best of neighbors and a very benevolent man. No one ever went to him for a favor and came away empty handed. His slaves loved him devotedly and some of them even after emancipation could not speak of him without tears coursing down their cheeks. He was a strong pillow in Bethesda Church. This was broken up by his death and his place has not since been filled."

The Fairfield County, SC 1860 Census lists Dr. Hall’s real estate value as $138,860, and his personal estate was valued at $149,450.

Dr. William E. Hall died in 1864. According to a Hall family history, written by his nephew, Dr. Nathaniel B. Hall, William died of “heart failure.”