Biography

10/07/1861 - 12/01/1917

Judge Harry Alvan Hall (D38) Cameron, Clarion, Elk and Forest Counties 1891-1893

Early Life:

Judge Harry Alvan Hall, born October 7, 1861, Karthaus, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania; son of Benjamin McDowell and Susannah Geary Hall; Benedictine Monastery, Saint Mary’s, Pennsylvania; Dickinson Seminary; University at Lewisburg (now Bucknell); Saint Gregory College; Yale University, A.B., 1879, LL.B.,1881; admitted to the bar, 1881, general counsel, several railroads, specialized, railroad, corporation, international law, active law practice, Ridgway, Pennsylvania; chief burgess of Saint Marys, five consecutive terms; secretary, director, Saint Mary's Gas Company; general manager,  Clarion River railway; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1891-1893; appointed, United States attorney, Western District of Pennsylvania, 1893; reappointed, 1897, resigned the same year; captain, judge advocate-general, major, Company H, Sixteenth, Pennsylvania National Guard, United States Volunteers, United States Army, Spanish-American War, 1898; delegate, Democratic National Conventions, Chicago, Illinois, 1884, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1888; delegate-at-large, Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois, 1892; general counsel, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Italy in the United States; knighted, Emperor Francis Joseph, officers' cross of the Order of Francis Joseph, 1905; elected, president judge, twenty-fifth judicial district of Pennsylvania, Common Pleas Court No. 25, 1906; editor, Saint Mary’s Gazette (Elk County) three years; married, Currin McNairy, 1886; died, December 1, 1917, (aged 56), heart trouble, Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; interment, Thayer Cemetery, Ridgway, Elk County, Pennsylvania. 

Early Career:

As United States attorney, chosen by the Interstate Commerce Commission to try the test cases under that act.

Mustered, into the Spanish-American War, May 10, 1898, captain, Company H, Sixteenth, Pennsylvania National Guard, United States Volunteers; judge advocate-general, first corps, staff, General James H. Wilson; promoted major, distinguished gallantry on the field at the battle of Coamo, Puerto Rico, commissioned August 9, 1903, by general orders, Lieutenant-General Nelson Appleton Miles, sent to Washington, present the Spanish flags captured in that action to President William McKinley. 

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Fellow, American Geographical Society, member, Authors' Club of London, England, American Bar Association, president, Elk County Bar Association; member, Archeological Society of the Military Service Institute; commander-in-chief, Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American War; commander-in-chief, National Commandery; Vice-commander-in-chief, National Association of Spanish-American War Veterans.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Chief burgess of Saint Marys, five consecutive terms.

Delegate, Democratic National Conventions, Chicago, Illinois, 1884, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1888; delegate-at-large, Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois, 1892.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania State Senate, 38th district, Cameron, Clarion, Elk and Forest Counties, 1891-1893; committee assignments, Canals and Inland Navigation, Game and Fisheries, Judiciary (General), Judiciary (Special), Military Affairs; resigned, June 1893, William Hyde elected, November 7, 1893, to fill vacancy.

Appointed, United States attorney, Western District of Pennsylvania, 1893; reappointed, 1897, resigned the same year. 

Elected, president judge, twenty-fifth judicial district of Pennsylvania, Clinton, Cameron, Elk Counties, Common Pleas Court No. 25, 1906. 

Legacy:

Brother, John Geary Hall, Pennsylvania State Senate, 38th district, Cameron, Clarion, Elk, and Forest Counties, 1879-1886. 

John Geary Hall  - Pennsylvania Senate Library (pasen.gov)

Brother, James Knox Polk Hall, Pennsylvania State Senate, 38th district, Cameron, Clarion, Elk, Forest Counties, 1903-1906, Pennsylvania State Senate, 26th district Cameron, Clarion, Clinton, Elk and Forest Counties, 1907-1914. 

James Knox Polk Hall  - Pennsylvania Senate Library (pasen.gov) 

Brother-in-law, William H. Hyde, Pennsylvania State Senate, 38th district, Cameron, Clarion, Elk and Forest Counties, 1893-1893; replaced, Harry Alvan Hall. 

William H Hyde  - Pennsylvania Senate Library (pasen.gov)

Cited: 

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1893). Cochran, T.B., (Editor) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 810, 815-817, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 777.

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members H". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Men of 1914: Biographical Sketches; Mary Kalinowski, Executive Director, Elk County Historical Society.

The Clinton County Times (Lock Haven, Pennsylvania) Friday, December 7, 1917, page 1. 

Judge Harry Alvan Hall (1861-1917) - Find a Grave Memorial