Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/87

 JAMES HALL. James Hall was bom at Philadelphia, August nineteen, 1793. He relinquished law studies to join the army of 1812, and distinguished himself at the battle of Lundy's Lane, and the Siege of Fort Erie. At the close of the war, having been appointed an ofBcer in the bomb vessel, which accompanied Decatur's squadron against the Algerines, he enjoyed a cruise in the Mediterranean. His vessel returned to the United States in 1815, and Mr. Hall was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island. He soon after resigned, and resumed the study of law at Pittsburgh. In 1820 Mr. Hall began the practice of law at Shawneetown, Illinois. He then commenced a series of "Letters from the West," which were published in the Port- folio, at Philadelphia — edited by his brother, Harrison Hall — and were collected with- out his knowledge and published in a volume in England. Soon after he removed to Shawneetown, Mr. Hall edited the Illinois Gazette. He was appointed Circuit Attor- ney for a district comprising ten counties, and served four years, after which he was chosen Judge for the same circuit. When he had occupied it four years his office was abolished by a change in the judiciary system of the State, He was afterward for four years Treasurer of Illinois. Meantime he continued literaiy labors, editing the Illinois Intelligencer, writing letters for the Portfolio, and poems and sketches for Flint's Western Review at Cincinnati, signing himself Orlando. In 1829 Mr. Hall compiled '•'■The Western Souvenir, a Christmas and New Year's Gift." It was the first annual of the West. N. and G. Guilford, at Cincinnati, were the publishers. The Souvenir was a neatly printed 18mo. volume, containing 324 pages. It had an engraved title-page, and was embellished with steel engravings of the Peasant Girl, views of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Frankfort, of a Shawanoe War- rior, and of an Island Scene of the Ohio. Its poetical contributors were James Hall, Otway Curry, Nathan Guilford, Nathaniel Wright, S. S. Boyd, Moses Brooks, John M. Harney, Harvey D. Little, Caleb Stark, Ephraim Robins, John B. Dillon, and Micah P. Flint. The writers of its prose were James Hall, Nathan Guilford, Mor- gan Neville, Timothy Flint, Louis R. Noble, John P. Foote and Benjamin Drake. It is now a rare book, and is valuable as a creditable illustration of early art and Htera- ture in the West. In December, 1830, Mr. Hall started the Illinois Magaziiie, at Vandalia. It was a monthly octavo, of forty-eight pages, and was published two years. The editor was the chief writer for its pages. James H. Perkins, Salmon P. Chase, Anna Peyre Dinnies (Moina), and Otway Curry wrote occasionally. Mr. Hall having removed to Cincin- nati, the Illinois Magazine was discontinued, and The Western Monthly there estab- lished. It was the same size of its predecessor, but had the assistance of a number of new writers, and was for several years prosperous. Mr. Hall conducted it till 1837, when he was succeeded by James Reese Fry, who Avas its editor until it was discon-