EDWARD BROOKS HALL, D.D., named for his maternal grandfather Rev. Edward Brooks of North Yarmouth ME

Spouse(s)-2:
1-1801-1838 Harriet Ware, dau of Dr. Henry Ware, of Cambridge
Children-6 (only 1 survivor):
1831-1912 Rev. Edward H. Hall of Worcester MA (the one survivor)
1834-1864 William Ware Hall, army Civil War
+2 brothers buried pre-1864 also at Pastors Rest

2-1802-1892 Louisa Jane Park, dau of Dr. John Park, of Boston, who with her dau survived her husband
Children-1:
1841-1889 Harriet Ware Hall

• MA-Cambridge Harvard College 1820 grad class under tuition of Dr. Convers Francis;
• MD-Baltimore and MA-Beverly a year teaching;
• MA-Cambridge Divinity School 1824 grad class;
• MA-Northampton 1826 Aug 16 ordained as pastor of Unitarian Church there, remained some 3 yrs when failing health obliged him to resign;
• Cuba 1829-30 winter;
• US 1830 spring;
• OH-Cincinnati a year preaching;
• MA-Grafton established Unitarian Society;
• RI-Providence First Congregational Society pastor 1832 Nov 14, cont’d to perform duties of his office 5 yrs, when his overtasked system again called for rest and recuperation;
• to the South‘s milder climate;
• RI-Providence having returned with new strength, took up the work he so much loved and was able to prosecute it for 13 yrs more, when he was reduced in health and strength;
• Europe voyage deemed desirable summer 1850, the change of scene and in recreation found in foreign travel;
• RI-Providence having returned with his strength restored, to the pleasant labors and cares of his ministerial life; during many years of his residence in his adopted home Dr. Hall took a deep interest in various educational and philanthropic institutions of Providence,
- a wise counselor in matters affecting prosperity of public schools
- connection with Athenaeum was “of most friendly character”
- Shelter Home, by his death lost a "personal friend and efficient member for many years of its Advisory Board"
- from first organization of Children's Friend Society, he was on the Board of Advisers, and for 30 yrs was “in word and deed its constant friend and judicious counselor”
- Providence Employment Society, expressed the sense of bereavement which they felt in the death of one who for 29 yrs “ever gave to it his warm sympathy and support”
- in like manner the trustees of Benefit Street Ministry at large, “gave utterance to their sentiments of sorrow in the loss of one who for many years presided over its work with a thorough fidelity and an unwearied spirit of well-doing, who was ever known throughout the entire community as friend of the wretched and the destitute, and in whose example of Christian charity members of the Board gratefully recognize an encouragement and stimulus to their obedience to the great laws of Christian duty and love”
- resolutions of a like character were passed by Providence RI Seamen's Friend Society, Home for Aged Women, and Washington Temperance Society
- for several years Dr. Hall was President of American Unitarian Association
- a Professorship founded in Ohio, Antioch College, by donations from persons in Providence, called "Hall Professorship" in his honor
- an opponent of the system of slavery, and an advocate of peace principles
- when abroad in 1850 attended World's Peace Convention at Frankfort as a delegate from American Peace Society
- in 1848 received honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard College
- elected member of Board of Trustees of Brown University in 1841 and held that office until his death.
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1. The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island 1881
2. Personal Narratives of Events in the War of the Rebellion: Being Papers Read ... By Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society