Elsie Lansing Hall

Source: Abraham Oakey Hall, My sister's well-rounded life: a memorial epistle addressed to a family friend

Obituary: St. Paul Daily Globe., April 27, 1884, Page 9

On April 2, there quietly passed away from earth, at her home in the city of New York, Mrs. Elsie Lansing Oakey Hall, a lady of great age and marked abilities, born in 1799, and who had known many of the foremost men and women of the century. She was ever an earnest worker in the field of good, and though sadly crippled by rheumatic gout for years, her great infirmity of body never impaired her usefulness in this world, or prevented her from the exercise of a wide Christian influence beyond her chair. She was familiar with the religious press of the country, and took an active interest in foreign politics and home affairs up to the last few days of her life. Her home was with her son, Mr. Oakey Hall, and his family, and her summers were passed for twenty years in a beautiful region of English quiet and of peace, on one of the Orange mountains, She was conscious up to two hours before her death, and passes away as if asleep. She was the daughter of Abraham Oakey, of Albany, third of the name, aud Deputy treasurer of the state, who was descended in the fifth generation from Colonel John Oakey one of the regicides of Charles the First, and her mother was a Huguenot who was expatriated for her religion. She married Mr. James Morgan Hall, who died shortly after this marriage in the south. Mrs. Hall established the first Sunday school in Albany and never ceased from that time her association with charitable and religious societies. In 1858 she organized the Ladies Christian association of which the Young women's Christian association in Fifteenth street is an outgrowth, and she assisted to open the first lodging house for homeless girls and women in New York. With these and similar institutions she was connected until her death. She was a much beloved lady, and one of those whose place in the world it will be hard to fill.