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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



J. LESLIE HALL - J. Leslie Hall is one of the active and successful business men of Mechanicsburg, where he is engaged in dealing in farm implements, wagons, carriages, buggies and harness. He is also conducting a wagon and repair shop and he has made for himself an honorable name in business circles, having never been known to take advantage of his fellow men in any trade transaction. A native son of Illinois, he was born on the old homestead farm near Dawson, November 16, 1863. He is one of four brothers, all of whom are mentioned in this volume, and an account of his parents is given in connection with the sketch of L. B. Hall, on another page of this work.

J. L. Hall was reared on the old home farm and obtained his primary education in the common schools, after which he pursued a course of study in the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. When he had completed his education he returned home and operated his father's farm through several years. After his marriage he located in Mechanicsburg, but continued to carry on agricultural pursuits. Subsequently he formed a partnership with J. T. Fullenwider as a dealer in farm implements. This firm has since built up a large trade and has erected a good brick business block, adjoining the bank building. They carry on extensive line of buggies, wagons, carriages, harness and farm implements and their patronage has constantly increased because their business methods will bear the closes investigation and scrutiny. They sell at reasonable prices and at the same time realize a fair profit on their business transactions, which is the legitimate province of the business world. Mr. Hall also owns and conducts a wagon and repair shop and has a good patronage in that line. He likewise has a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty-eight acres near the town and good residence property in Mechanicsburg. Mr. Hall was united in marriage in Rochester, Illinois, December 13, 1893, to Miss Mary A. Highmore, who was a native of Sangamon county and was reared here, but as educated in Jacksonville, Illinois. Her father, J. S. Highmore, was one of the early settlers and a well known business man. He engaged in breeding and dealing in fine stock in Sangamon county. Mr. Hall lost his wife in 1901, her death occurring on the 10th of October of that year, at which time she was laid to rest in the Mechanicsburg cemetery. He was again married on the 5th of January, 1904, his second union being with Miss Honoretta B. Colby, the eldest daughter of W. H. Colby, judge of the probate court. In his political affiliations Mr. Hall was a Democrat, but since casting his first ballot has upheld the men and measures of the Prohibition party, being a warm friend of the cause of temperance. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, is serving as treasurer and identified with the Knights of Pythias fraternity, a past chancellor. He is connected with the Mechanicsburg Cemetery Association, of which he is treasurer, and in all matters of citizenship he is wide-awake and progressive and a patriotic devotion to the general welfare is one of his marked characteristics. Prompt and energetic in business he never incurs an obligation that he does not meet and his tried integrity and worth have made him respected by all.



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