Philip Wells Hall

1936 - courtesy of Thomas Wells Hall, II

A while ago I wrote about Thomas Wells Hall & Ellen Graves - this post is about their son Philip Wells Hall.

Philip was born in 1876 at Brooklyn, NY, despite attending the Old Kings Preparatory School, in Stamford, CT, Philip did not attend Yale. Instead he went to work and became as successful as his father in his own right.

In 1897 at Brooklyn, he married Adeline Dean the daughter of Mathew Dean & Pauline Headley and they had 5 children - Marvin, Philip Jr, Winthrop, Mathew & Pauline. Then in 1932 at Plainfield, NJ, he married Lenna Mae Jackson, the daughter of George A Jackson & Ada L Smith and they had one son, Thomas Wells Hall II.

New York Times, 18 Feb 1952

Philip Hall Dead; Press Inventor, 75

Designed and Manufactured Rapid Rotary, Multi-Color and Portable Lithograph Units

Special to The New York Times

PLAINFIELD, NJ, Feb 17 - Philip Wells Hall, retired printing press manufacture, died tonight at a nursing home in New Brunswick after a long illness. His age was 75. He resided here at 312 East Seventh Street. Mr Hall began his career with the Aluminum Plate and Press Company of Plainfield, which in 1903 became the Hall Printing Press Company of Dunellen. As president, he retired in 1924, when the concern was absorbed by R Hoe & Co of New York. After the sale of his company, Mr Hall was executive in charge of sales with the Hoe Printing Press concern until his retirement in 1926. From 1942 to 1944 he served as superintendent of printing machinery in the publication department at the Raritan Arsenal.

Pioneer in Field

A designer and inventor, Mr Hall was a pioneer in the manufacture of rapid rotary lithograph presses. He was the manufacturer of the first rotary lithograph press to printing from metal plates, and subsequently, the first builder of multi-color lithograph presses. The first Hall four-color lithograph press was installed in the United States Geological Survey office in Washington. In World War I, Mr Hall designed and built for the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington the first portable unit of rotary lithograph presses for printing maps at the battlefront. A battery of twelve portable Hall presses, mounted on five-ton trucks, became a topographic printing unit attached to the Twenty-ninth Engineers. Assigned to this unit was Mr Hall's then 19-year-old son, Pfc Marvin D Hall. Mr Hall also designed and built for the United States and British Governments twelve-inch shell-boring lathes, and, for the Watervliet (NY) Arsenal, some two and three-spindle special lathes for boring the recoil cylinder of the large guns at the arsenal. For his services with the Ordnance Department during World War I, Mr Hall was commissioned a major in the branch.

Born in Brooklyn

A native of Brooklyn, and a descendant on his maternal side of the Rosencrans [sic], Grave and Huntington families, founders of Middletown, Conn, he was a son of Thomas Wells Hall and the former Ellen Josephine Graves of New Canaan, Conn. Mr Hall was a charter member of the old Executives Committee, which later became the Plainfield Engineering Society. He also had served as a director of the First National Bank of Plainfield, and was a member of the Central Atlantic Area Council of the Young Men's Christian Association advisory board at the founding of a boys' summer camp in northern New Jersey. Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Lenna Mae Jackson; their son, Thomas Wells Hall 2d, a sophomore at Yale, and, by a former marriage, four sons, Dr Winthrop Huntington Hall, Marvin D Hall, Philip Wells Hall Jr and Matthew D Hall, and a daughter, Mrs Richard Dickison. Two brothers, two sisters and several grandchildren also survive.

Philip was buried with in the family plot at the Lake View Cemetery in NY while Adeline was buried with her 2nd husband at the Rosedale Cemetery in NJ

courtesy of Tara Cornelius - Ancestry

His first wife went on to marry Henry Chapin and she died in 1957.

Special to The New York Times, Jul 1957
Mrs Henry J Chapin
Cranford, NJ, July 26 - Mrs Adeline Dean Chapin of 104 Hampton Street, reportedly the first woman to drive a car here, died yesterday at her home.  She was 80 years old, the widow of Henry J Chapin. Mrs Chapin was a founder of the Woman's Association of the First Presbyterian Church and a former president of the Garden Club of Cranford. Surviving are four sons, Marvin and Dr Winthrop H Hall of Westfield; Philip Jr and Mathew D Hall of Cranford; a daughter, Mrs Frank H Dickison Jr of this place; two sisters, thirteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

courtesy of Thomas Wells Hall, II

His 2nd wife, Lenna died in 1964 in Michigan and was buried in NY with her husband.