El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-21
ARANCHMAN pHILANTROpISr
William Hall, of West Texas, Scholar
And Political Exile, Acquires a
Vast Estate, Lives Peculiarly
And Dies With The Blessing Of
His Army OF Cowboys


In San Antonio there died on the
night of March 30 remarkable cha
racter In the person of Colonel Will
lam Hall. scholar, ranchman sp6
philauthrOpist, cay S the Philadelphia
Press
The poor and destitute of the
ranches and the small pr ovincisl tOwns
Of west Texas in his death have lost
q keen sympathizer and q liberal giver
Of aims.
Much was promised to art in Texas
by this strange man, whose hobby was
architecture. Under bis supervision
old Anglo Ssxoo TO ~ers were begin
ming to stud the plains of west Texas,
ornam enting the asylums that he gave
TO the poor. and tie chapels he gave
TO she church. AS his last great
work In this direction he had mapped
out the restoration of the medieval
Spanish towers of the old missions Of
San Antonio. In tn mids of the arrange
ments of the details for the actual
commencement of this undertaking
death removed him. but handsome
bequest Is left behind for the execution
of the project with which he was
busted up to his last N Oments.
Stranger than all of his life in Texas
WAS his life in his native England. It
IL the story Of thu polished scholar and
barrister breaking into parliament,
participating in an intrigue. held up to
his constituents as q political fOrger,
defeated, ruined and finally self-exiled
to what he believed to be socially the
farthermost end Of the earth.
Colonel William Hall was born in
Essex, England, in 1853. His education
came to him from Oxford and his attain
ments were those of scholar and q
lover of art. His professional training
WAS that of q barrister, in which he
rose to eminence among the brightest
men of his time. Under Gladstone's
second administration he served both
Lord Justice James and Lord Justice
Jessel as parliamentary counsel. He
WAS not only successful as an attorney
at law, but he was an ardent and prac-
tioal politician as we'll.
His record in office is not fully known
to his associates In Texas; only this
much has he told from time to time.
There was q villainous poltt in
trigue and he knew all of it's secrets.
The forgery of letters that were to
blast q great reputation was born of the
intrigue. When he contested Wood
stock with Lord Randolph Churchill
the secret leaked out and Colonel Hall
was charged with the forgery. He pro-
tested his innocence, but he went down
in ignominious defeat.
Those were dark days in the Hall
estate in Essex. The wife of the barris-
ter and politician did not survive
the stigma of the exposure. When she
died, which was sixteen years-ago,
Colonel Hall began to close up, as far as
practicable, his estate. His seven chill.
dren scattered to all parts OF the world
each with cum of money calculated to
start him or her in an honorable busi-
ness career. Three settled in various
parts of England, one went to Australia
and three came to America.
After few years Colonel Hall left
the scenes OF his triumphs and his final
undoing, and came to Texas. That
was eleven years ago. His available
bank account approached 5000. 600, with
landed estates in Essex, London and
the West Indies. Southern Texas
appealed TO his fancy, and in the vsrie
gated country of hills. dsles and rolling
prairies in Kimball county he settled
down for new life.
A tract of land 80. ZOO acres in extent
was acquired by him. This he stocked
of sixty cowboys and ranch hands.
Then began the construction of his
country house, mammoth brown
stone building covering one acre uf
ground. To 1t he gave the name of
Bran bletye, and an architecture In
which the ancient Saxon towers of
Bran bletye and Sompting are strange
ly blended with Norman castles of later
ieudal days.
Bramblesye, however. appealed to
the benighted denizens of the west
Texas ranches, not in an artistic sense,
but In a philanthropio light. The
COW boy, the farmer, the beRgar from |
The little out-of-the-way country places |
barely observed the moat or the draw
bridge, nor did the cold old towers !
mean more to them than q momentsry |
subject for surprise. They knew only |
that the brown stone walls Enclosed a |
hundred rooms, in almost any of which |
they could find shelter when they need |
ed it, and food and medicine from the |
hands of the ''queer old Englishman."
All that was required In exchange |
was little light work on the ranch, |
In times of drought and In the mid |
winter months, Brambletye was . !
yerisable pauper settlement, under the |
mild but eccentric rule of this strange |
man.
The lord OF this brown stone mansion
lived like the poorest In his charge.
Not a bedstead was permitted in his
house, but each room had a mattress
and clean bedding, and cowboy,
master aud pauper went from vesDers
Ia the chapel to his respective room,
whiled away an hour or so by q dim
oil light and then retired to the couch
on the floor.
Colonel Hall was now getting we'll
along in yesrs. He was q con 6rned
invalid, though. he made frequent trips
TO San Antonio. He feared his end was
drawing near and he sent for his at
forney, TO whom he dictated the terms
Of his last will aud testament.
His first bequest WAS to his sixty
faithful cowboys. To each he gave
double the entire amount of money
that zach man bad racaivad "a Wa4as