Dr. Silas Hall 1849-1914

Dr Silas Hall was born July 29, 1849, in Wood County Virginia to Bushrod and Mary Ross Hall.  He is shown living with his parents in the 1850 and 1860 census. By 1870 the family had moved to Athens Ohio.

He moved to Lawrence County Illinois about 1875 where he began practicing medicine having studied at the Physic Medical College of Cincinnati Ohio.  For eighteen years his name was found in the local newspapers providing medical attention to paupers, becoming the county and town physician (1886) and receiving the contract to provide medical service to the poor farm of Lawrence County at $70 a month for weekly visits and all the medicine required by the residents (1888).

He married Ella J Flanders, daughter of Jacob Flanders and Mary E Whittaker, on March 13, 1878, when she was 18 and he was 28.  In 1886 the newspapers reported he was building a two-story frame house at the corner of State and Eleventh street. (This was later torn down and a service station built there.)

About 1893 he moved to Columbus Ohio where he spent two years in post graduate work and afterwards returned to relocate in Vincennes, Indiana. His name then began to appear regularly in the Vincennes newspapers reporting medical cases that he attended. Over the years he frequently relocated his office.  On September 2nd, 1898, he moved his office from Second street near Main in Vincennes to Fourth street opposite the engine house. In October 1906 he moved his office to the Maloney building at the corner of Seventh and Hickman Street and in 1909 he moved again to 112 South Fourth Street. In October 1910 he moved his office for the last time to 1039 North 8th Street.

In the fall of 1901 Dr Silas Hall and Ella J Hall divorced. Eight years later on October  20 1909, Dr Silas Hall applied for a marriage license in Pittsburg but was refused because he did not have a certified copy of his divorce decree. He and his prospective bride, Mrs. Anna A Gantz from Carnegie Pennsylvania whom he had known for some time, journeyed back to Vincennes and promptly secured a marriage license.   He was 50 and she was 32.

Dr Hall started practicing medicine with a horse and buggy but in 1907 when he was called to Chicago to see his new grandson, he purchased a Holtzman automobile and drove the machine back to Vincennes.  https://holsmanautomobiles.com/models/ Dr Hall was accompanied by a man from the factory where the machine was purchased.  The two left Chicago Wednesday morning at 10:30 and arrived in Vincennes at noon on Friday.  Quite a good deal of time was lost by the party, they reported, because several times they had taken the wrong road.  The auto was not like the rest of those seen in the city.  It was a regular buggy with electric attachments and was not built for speed but good service. 

Dr Silas Hall may have traded that one in or purchased a roadster because the newspaper reported in October 1810 that he narrowly escaped serious injury when his auto “turned turtle” on Eight St near the railroad depot as he was running along the right of way of the Evansville & Terre Haute RR tracks. He started to turn around at his home and lost control of the automobile and it started up a guide wire to a telephone pole.  It turned completely over, and Dr Hall was caught beneath it.  People who saw the affair ran to his assistance and got the doctor out without even a scratch. The assistants turned the auto over and it was found that it was not damaged in the least and ran just as smoothly as before.

Sadly, on January 6, 1913, Dr Silas Hall, 63, was adjudged insane by an insanity commission. Arrangements were made by his brother, Atty J M Hall, to have him taken to Evansville Indiana where it was hoped special treatment and possibly an operation would give him some relief.  According to the statement from his doctor, Dr Hall suffered a fall December 26, 1912, which was followed by partial paralysis of his right side. He remained in a comatose condition for thirty hours and from that time on showed signs of insanity.  He suffered a loss of memory and tried to disown his own children.  He talked a lot about speculation in lands in Texas. It was thought his condition was due to a blood clot on the brain that was produced by the injury sustained in the fall.

Dr. Silas Hall died on October 29, 1914, in Evansville Indiana.   He was survived by his widow, two daughters and one son. Burial was in the family plot at Fountain Cemetery, Fostoria, Hancock County, Ohio.