William D. Hall. Among the prosperous business men of Brinkman may be mentioned William D. Hall, who has been engaged in the merchandise business here since early in 1913. He has carried on the same enterprise in other Oklahoma towns for some years, but two years ago established himself here, enjoying a generous measure of success in the time that has passed.

Mr. Hall is a native of Florida. He was born in Escambia County, that state, near Pensacola, on October 31, 1857, and is a son of G. C. Hall, also a native son of that state, born there in 1826, and dying in Mobile County, Alabama, in 1902. The Hall family is long established in America, having emigrated from Scotland in early Colonial days, settling first in Georgia, and continuing for the most part to be identified with the south from then down to present days. From Florida G. C. Hall came to Grimes, Texas, in 1866, and his next move took the family to Mobile County, Alabama. He was a pioneer to Texas in the truest sense of the word, but he liked better the more truly Southern states, and did not long continue in Texas. The principal business of his life was farming and cattle raising, in which he was quite successful. He was a lifelong democrat, and Methodist, serving for years as a steward in the church. He enlisted for service in the Confederacy, serving in a Florida regiment, and served two years without injury or illness. In 1855 he married Miss Melissa Brown, who was born in Alabama in 1835, and who died near Mobile, Alabama, in 1883. They were the parents of seven children. The first born was William D. of this review. The next was J. C., living in Los Angeles, California, where he is employed as a railway conductor. W. G. is a merchant at Rossville, Oklahoma. John T. died at the age of twenty-two years. H. C. was killed in a railroad accident at the age of nineteen, and the two youngest children died very young.

Mr. Hall attended the public schools of Alabama and Texas and finished his public school training in the schools of Mobile, Alabama, leaving his books at the early age of fourteen. Up to the age of fifteen he lived at home on his parent’s farm, and when he first left home to try his luck in the world he took a position as clerk in a store in Flomaton, Alabama, continuing there for a year. He then entered the sawmill business as a workman, and he followed the mills through Florida, Lousiana, and Alabama, and at one time owned and operated a sawmill in Mt. "Vernon, Alabama. He was engaged in this work off and on up to 1889, when he came to Oklahoma and at McLeod engaged in the merchandise business in company with his brother, W. O. Hall, now of Rossville. After eight months they sold out and built and stocked a store in Rossville. Four years later William D. Hall sold out to his brother, and in 1904 he went to Covington, Oklahoma, where he was engaged in the merchandise business for about two years. In 1906 he ventured in the same business in Hitchcock, Oklahoma, adding a cotton gin to his other interests, and three years later sold out and went in business again in Rossville. He continued there for four years, and on May 1, 1913, came to Brinkman and established a general merchandise store on Main Street. To do this he was obliged to buy two buildings opening into each other, Bo that he has a floor space of 75x75 feet. He carries a general stock, well adapted to the trade of the county, from which he draws much patronage, as well as enjoying a liberal trade among his townspeople.

Mr. Hall was elected to the office of mayor of the village in 1914, and while in Covington served on the school board of that place. He is a public spirited citizen, and whatever community has claimed him has benefited from his up-and-doing spirit. He is a member of the Church of Christ, and at one time was a member of the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Hall was married in Covington, Oklahoma, in 1904, to Miss Ida Walker, a daughter of Thomas Walker, now living retired in Clinton, Oklahoma. No children have been born to them.