Autobiography of B.F. Hall
Collection
Identifier: MS 199
Content Description
The collection contains an handwritten autobiographical manuscript by B. F. Hall. The work is titled The Proud Preacher. The manuscript is approximately 150 pages, undated and unpublished. A typewritten transcript by Newell Williams is included in the collection.
Dates
- c1869
Creator
Conditions Governing Use
The collection is open for research.
Biographical / Historical
HALL, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1803–1873). Benjamin Franklin Hall, minister and soldier, was born in Christian County, Kentucky, on June 13, 1803, the son of a Revolutionary War soldier and early settler of Limestone, Kentucky, and Martha (Foster). Hall was ordained by Barton Warren Stone, Sr., and preached with Alexander Campbell. He wrote numerous articles for Campbell's Millenial Harbinger (which was published from 1830 to 1870) and before coming to Texas was coeditor with J. T. Johnson of the Gospel Advocate, begun in 1835 in Georgetown, Kentucky… Known as the "strolling dentist," Hall often took preaching journeys, principally in the South, where he established and nourished young frontier congregations. He also worked briefly for a New Orleans firm locating land on the Texas frontier and may have also studied law at this time. On his first trip in Texas in the winter of 1848–49 he traveled from Aransas Bay to San Antonio and visited Goliad and the Alamo.
He preached for churches in Kentucky and Tennessee before 1856, when he moved to Texas. His subsequent ministry was chiefly in Grayson, Collin, and Dallas counties. With Nathan H. O. Polly he started congregations in many North Texas locations. During the Civil War he was chaplain in the Sixth Texas Cavalry, organized by Col. Barton W. Stone, Jr., of Dallas. Chaplain Hall served for nine months and was in the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, near Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Dallas Herald (see DALLAS TIMES HERALD) stated about Hall: "As a scholar and pulpit orator he has but few equals. Deeply versed in the Sacred Scriptures, he proclaims their truths with telling effect." He died at his home in Kentucky Town, a Grayson County community, on May 1, 1873.
Handbook of Texas Online, R. L. Roberts, "Hall, Benjamin Franklin," accessed August 22, 2017, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhaeq.
Handbook of Texas Online, R. L. Roberts, "Hall, Benjamin Franklin," accessed August 22, 2017, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhaeq.
See also: http://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/texas/hall,bf.htm
Extent
0.50 Linear feet
Language of Materials
English
Physical Location
Vault DC4
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Manuscript was discovered in a safe at Brite Divinity School and transferred to the Mary Couts Burnett Library before the establishment of a Special Collections department.
Creator
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Mary Couts Burnett Library Repository
Contact:
TCU Box 298400
2800 S. University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76129-0001
Fort Worth Texas 76129
(817) 257-4566
(817) 257-7282 (Fax)
LibSpecialCollections@tcu.edu
TCU Box 298400
2800 S. University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76129-0001
Fort Worth Texas 76129
(817) 257-4566
(817) 257-7282 (Fax)
LibSpecialCollections@tcu.edu