The Press., 1912-12-04

lively easy for one to thank the many, but more difficult sometimes for the many to express their feelings to the one. The day now belongs to history, and the memory of it will ever be pleasant to those who, in the present or in after years, will recall it.
 At 2 o'clock, when the members of the anniversary party, sev enty five in number, sat down to the tables in the beautiful Memorial church erected at cost of $75, 900 by MT. and Mrs. Gardiner Hall, Jr., in memory of their daughter, Adeline, who died thirteen years ago, in over 100 homes in the village, at the same hour, there was feasting, with a large turkey on every table, the gift of the prosperous manufacturer and his wife, who de- sired that their own joy should be shared with them by the POO en- ployes of the famous Hall thread mills.
 And again at 73O in the evening there was a grand concert in the Me morial church, to which the towns people were invited. Arthur Priest of Hartford was the organist and Samuel Leveanthal of Hartford the violinist, and program was rendered by the Tempo quartet, also of the Capital city.
 At the anniversary dinner in the Memorial church Mr. and Mrs. Hall, Jr., were attended by the best man and bridesmaid who were with the when the nuptial ceremony was per formed a half century ago on Monday by the Rev. MT. Jennings, pastor of the Baptist church in Coventry. The best man was Charles Webb Lee of Coventry, and the bridemaid the sis ter of Mrs. Hall, Mrs. John Taylor of Pawtucket, R. I They shared in the congratulations for MT. and Mrs. Hall, Jr.
 The marriage of Gardiner Hall, Jr., to Miss Fanny Parker, who came from England at the age of six years with her parents, MT. and Mrs. Will liam Parker, took place ill Coventry, November 25, 1862. Of their chil- dren and grandchildren, all were pres ent at the anniversary dinner save Clara Adeline, wife of George Storrs Elliott of Willimantic, deceased. The children present were Col. William Henry Hall, prominent as a manu- facturer associated with his father and as legislator, and his five children, one boy and four girls, who constitute all the grandchildren; Rosa Orline; Ida May, who is Mrs. R. T. Jones of Willi mantle, and Elizabeth D., who is Mrs. R. H. Paige of Springfield, Mass. Clara Adeline died Novem Der 4, 1899. Mrs. John R. Champlin of Norwich, sister of Gardiner Hall, was present, but his brother, Albert Hall, of Idaho Springs, Col, was un- able to be in attendance at the fes- tivities.
 The Hall ancestry dates back to 1880, when John Hall came from Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng, to Charlestown, Mass, in Governor Winthrop's band. Since 1880 the Halls have been prominent in the his tory of manufacturing in this state, and in 184O Origen Hall started the old Wilmington Thread company, only a decade after Coats first manufactured thread in Europe. Gardiner Hall, ST., father of the present Gardiner Hall, Jr., was a thread manufacturer being identified with the old Willi- mantle Thread company. His wife, the mother of Gardiner Hall, Jr. was Zeviah Emeline Essex of Colchester. Their son, Gardiner Hall, Jr., was born in Newport, R. l., on July IA, 1887.
 The parents of Gardiner Hall, Jr., removed to Willimantic when he was an infant and remained there until he was five years old. Then they re- moved to Stafford, where they lived five years, or until 1S47, when they removed to Rockville, where MT. Hall, ST., had charge of a mill. In 1848, the family settled in South Wilmington, which has been the home of the Halls since that year. Gardi- ner, Jr., was eleven years of age when his folks settled in South Will lington, but he had already begun to famil liarize himself with the work of the thread mill, working in the plant outside school hou1s. He received what education the district schools could afford, but his education in the thread industry was complete and was grounded upon the principle of thor ough personal experience.
 In 1860, being then 23 years of age, MT. Hall decided to go into the thread business for himself. He started the Hall & Manning company of South Wilmington. The war. broke out and his partner went to the front and the mill shut down. MT. Hall went to Willimantic and worked for the Willimantic Linen company, of which his father was superintend- ent. He remained there eight months, this being the only period of his business life spent outside of South Wilmington, to which he re- turned in June, 1862, and started a new thread company which became the foundation of the present exten- slve plant. He was entirely alone in the business for two years, and attend ed to nearly every detail of the busi- ness himself. At the end of that period he took in his two brothers in-law, Marcus M. Johnson and John R. Champlin. In 1868 MT. Hall in- vited his father to come into busi-