John Geary Hall

The older brother of James Knox and Harry Alvan Hall, John Geary Hall was born in Hublersburg, Centre County on April 3, 1839, the son of Benjamin McDowell and Susannah (Geary) Hall; educated in common schools, Bellefonte and Lewisburg Academies; read law under US Senator William A. Wallace in Clearfield, joined the bar in 1861; moved to to Ridgway Elk County, 1864; married Eliza Hyde, sister of state Senator William H. Hyde, 1865; member of the House of Representatives, 1870-1871; Wallace’s choice as 1873 Constitutional Convention delegate; state Senate, 1879-1886; attorney for the Union Oil Co; Pennsylvania Railroad; New York, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad; pursued banking, coal, oil, gas, and timber businesses; majority stockholder for the Ridgway Light and Heat Co.; died October 7, 1889, in Liverpool, England, while on  a business trip for the Union Oil Co.