Draft:Frederick B. Hall

Frederick Bryon Hall (February 20, 1843 – January 15, 1913) was a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1897 to 1913.

Biography

Frederic Byron Hall, described by Connecticut Reports as "of an early New England ancestry", was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, on February 20, 1843.

He married Jennie A. Lewis on January 1, 1872; they had three children.

He was the second son and child of Jonathan Hall, 4th, and his wife Livonia Hayward Hall... She was ambitious that Frederic should become a lawyer, and it was in large measure due to her that he entered upon its study, to which he personally was not inclined.

Frederic was not yet seven years old when his father went to California. The following years saw him helping in the support of the family by industriously turning his hand to such means of earning money as were open to him. He sold newspapers, did odd jobs, and later became the “boy” on the estate of a prominent resident. Upon his father’s removal to Bridgeport Frederic, then only fifteen years of age, found employment as a molder in the shop where his father worked. His mind, however, was bent upon the acquisition of an education. His parents sympathized with his desire, so that in 1861 they determined to make the sacrifice, which the family fortunes could ill afford, of sending him to the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1862.

August 11th of that year he enlisted for the Civil War in Company D of the 17th Connecticut Regiment. He had not been long at the front when he was taken severely ill with typhoid fever. His death in a Washington hospital was reported home. His convalescence left him in such physical condition that he was discharged for disability December 24th, 1862. The following fall he matriculated at Brown University and was graduated from that institution in 1867. He studied law in the office of the late Henry S. Sanford of Bridgeport, and was admitted to the bar in Fairfield County April 18th, 1871. During the entire period of his preparatory and collegiate study he helped to support himself by working during his vacations at his trade, and even while he was studying law, he devoted his afternoons to the same employment.

Immediately upon his admission he associated himself for the practice of his profession with the late Goodwin Stoddard under the firm name of Stoddard and Hall. This partnership continued until he became judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County July 1st, 1877. In 1889, while serving his third term as judge of the Court of Common Pleas, he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, taking office April 1st. September 20th, 1897, he was made a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the late Judge Fenn. Upon the retirement of Chief Justice Baldwin, by reason of age limitation, February 5th, 1910, Judge Hall became, by promotion, chief justice. That position he continued to fill until the day of his death, January 15th, 1913. He died suddenly in Hartford whither he had gone to attend a term of court. The morning of the day of his death he was engaged in consultation with his associates upon the business of the court. Had he lived, he would have reached retiring age the following month.

For many years Judge Hall was a trustee of the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank of Bridgeport, and from 1900 on its vice president.

In 1890 both his alma mater and Yale University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Laws, and in 1909 Brown University made him a Doctor of Laws.

During the late Chief Justice’s long service upon the bench he won for himself in an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of both the profession and the public. His personal bearing toward all who came into contact with him was ever considerate and courteous. In the court room he bore himself a judge. So patient was he in his listening, so direct and straightforward in his methods, and so manifestly impartial in his dealings, that all who came before him felt that they had had their day in court and been fairly heard. His striking characteristics as a, judge were his industry, his sincerity of purpose, his fairness and, openness of-mind, his high sense, of justice, his clear thinking, his sound common sense and his moral courage. His habits of industry, acquired as a boy, remained with him to the end. With him justice was something very real, and his most earnest endeavor was to mete it out to the best of his ability. In the ordering of his judicial conduct considerations foreign to the merits of the cause did not enter into his thoughts; he was no respecter of persons; popular applause he did not court. In the determination of questions of law he held a mind always open to conviction. He was singularly clear in his thinking, and possessed a rare degree of sound judgment which kept him from being led far astray. His courage was the highest. What he believed to be right he did, and did it instinctively and unhesitatingly; what he believed to be wrong or mean or petty he scorned.

Hall died on January 15, 1913, weeks before his Supreme Court mandate was constitutionally set to expire.

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References

Category:1843 births Category:1913 deaths Category:Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court

This open draft remains in progress as of July 5, 2023.