Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1906-08-31

~ ally educated, whose life from
the task Of taking quick advantage of
every opportunity that the great river
traffic of the fiftieS had offered to men
of enterprise and sound judgment.
Beginning as barefoot boy about
1850 or earlier-he never mentioned
the date-he had run the river" in all
sorts of capacities until when the war
came, temporarily paralyZing the river
trade, he had a comfortable little sum
Of money to the good.
Unable to fOresee what the course
and outcome Of the war might be, he
determined as measure of prudence
In a period Of safe waiting. He con-
verted all his possessions into gold and
deposited the whole Of 1t in Cana.
dian bank, where, while it earned no
interest, it was at any rate perfectly
safe.
Then he sought and secured clerk
ship in the cOmmissary department Of
the army, living upon the scant salary
that the clerkship afforded and mean
while acQuainting himself in minute
detail with the food resources Of every
quarter of the country, the means and
methods of transportation and ham
ding and everything else that could in
any wise aid him in making himself
master in commerce.
Then one day in 1868, when he had
satisfied himself that the fortunes Of
war were definitely turning and that
In the end the Union cause was destin-
ed to triumph, he made change.
He resigned his clerkship. He re-
called his money from Canada and
increased ut least its NOM
inal amount by converting the gold in
to greatly deprecated greenbacks.
With this capital he opened a COM
mission and forwarding house at Cairo,
together with coal yard, bank, five
wharf boats, half dozen tugs, an in
surance office, a -four mill and Other
things. He sent for his brothers to act
as his clerks, and presently to become
his partners.
From the beginning he made money
rapidly, and from the beginning he
was eagerly on the lookout for oppOr-
tunities which in that time of rapid
N N oh "a w
secured control of nearly all the CON-
mission and forwarding business that |
rentered at Cairo. By undertaking |
the government itself he presently had |
contracts for all the vast government |
business Of that character.
He was always ready to take up
collateral enterprise that promised re-
suits. When the Mississippi river was
to commerce by the fall Of
and Port Hudson, Captain
VIII Hallam was the first to see and
seize the opportunity. He bought ev-
,rythlng he could lay his hands on in
he way of steamboats, and barges and
sent them all upon trading voyages
Zach under charge Of captain, but
zach directed by his own masterful
nin1-up and down the Mississippi,
md up and down the Ohio, and up and
Iown every navigable tributary Of
hose great rivers.
1t was Captain Will Hallam's prac-
Ice to make partners Of all men who
light render him service. Thus when
e saw how great business there
lust be at Cairo In supplying Pitts
urg steam coal to the government
eets OIL the Mississippi and to the
of other steamboats, traf-
cking in those waters he went at
nee to Pittsburg, and two days later
3 had made q certain Captain Red his
artner in the control Of that vastly
Oh trade.
Captain Red was the largest owner
: the Pittsburg mines and the pioneer
the business Of carrying coal laden
argos in acres and scores Of acres
own the river, pulling them with
ern wheel steamers of large power,
ut still of a power insufficient for the
of the best results.
Captain Reds feet was unable to
)ntrOl the trade. Captain Hallam
)inted out to him the desrability Of
aking 1t adequate and dominant. .
vithin two days the two had formed