Reclaimed Memories

he Sim and Claud Hall families were prominent leaders and financial supporters in the Freemansburg Church. The two families always seemed very close and congenial. Sim's children were all just about grown, but Claud still had two daughters at home. Sue had been born rather late in Nell's life and was about Howard's age. They had a huge, old brick, pre-Civil War, plantation house. I think it was so large that they did not use the back section, which had been built to accommodate the slaves. Howard remembers that one time when we were visiting there that he and Sue went to the third floor, which was a sort of trophy room, and there draped animal skins around themselves and pretended to be animals. He thinks that someone in the family, in generations past, was a big game hunter. There were different kinds of wild animal heads, mounted on the walls and skins on the floor. The ceilings in the house were about twelve feet tall and there were at least two big formal parlors.

Marion must have always been a workaholic, and always anxious to earn his own money. He worked for Claud Hall almost all one summer and lived with the family, on the large farm. Another summer he worked in Weston, delivering groceries with his bike. Even while we were on the Union Circuit he had saved half the money needed to buy his first, regulation sized bike. We gave him the other half.

Back to the Halls: I remember that one Sunday Sim's wife invited us to go home with them for dinner. Troy said, "Nell (who was Claud's wife) has already invited us." Sim spoke up and said, "Well, I'm sure you will get enough to eat but I'm not sure how clean it will be." Nell said, "Sim Hall I'll kill you." Everybody laughed. The two families seemed to be good friends as well as relatives.