Deselm A. Hall
Deselm A. Hall, Huntington banker, began his career in that city a poor boy and has made himself a man of influence and substantial means. He is president of the Twentieth Street Bank of Huntington. He was born in Lawrence County in Southern Ohio, February 8, 1886, son of Samuel B. and Eliza E. (Neff) Hall both natives of Ohio, and now living at Huntington. His paternal grandfather, William D. Hall, was born in Ohio, where he followed farming. William D. Hall's father moved to Ohio from Virginia after freeing his slaves. The maternal grandfather, Henry Neff, was also born in Ohio. Samuel B. Hall was a farmer in Ohio, and after coming to Huntington took up general contracting, but is now retired. He served at one time as overseer of the poor and as building inspector. He is a Republican, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Fraternal Order of Moose, Junior Order United American Mechanics, and both he and his wife have been active members of the Methodist Church. They had six children, four now living: R. W. Hall, manager of the First National Bank Building at Huntington; Essa E., wife of R. E. Guimm; DeSelm A., and Vivian H., wife of Charles D. Lewis, a Ford dealer at Milton, West Virginia.
DeSelm A. Hall obtained his education in the public schools of Huntington and in Marshall College, and also attended West Virginia Wesleyan College. Most of his youthful working experience was on a farm. In 1903, at the age of seventeen, he went to work for the Union Rail Company, remaining one year. He left that to take up banking and for twenty years was in the service of the West Virginia National Bank, which institution consolidated with the First Nation Bank, in which he rose to the position of assistant cashier. This bank later consolidated with the First Huntington National Bank. In October, 1925, Mr. Hall went with the Twentieth Street Bank of Huntington, and is now the largest stockholder as well as the president of that institution. He is also interested in the Lewis-Hall Motor Company, and does considerable business in real estate.
He married, in 1910, Miss Lillian Carrie Moore, who was born at Buckhannon, West Virginia, and was educated there in West Virginia Wesleyan College. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have one daughter, Mildred Louise, born September 7, 1918. They are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church and he is a Republican in politics.
From West Virginia In History, Life, Literature and Industry, The Lewis Publishing Company 1928 - Volume 5