Willard Preble HALL, Congress, MO (1820-1882)

HALL Willard Preble , a Representative from Missouri; born at Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, Va. (now West Virginia), May 9, 1820; attended a private school in Baltimore, Md.; was graduated from Yale College in 1839; accompanied his father to Randolph County, Mo., in 1840; studied law; was admitted to the bar at Huntsville, Mo., in 1841 and commenced practice in Sparta, Mo., in 1842; appointed circuit attorney in 1843 and served several years; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844; during the Mexican War enlisted as a private in the First Missouri Cavalry and later promoted to lieutenant; was appointed by General Kearny, together with Col. Alexander Doniphan, to construct the code of civil laws known as the ``Kearny Code'' in English and Spanish for the territory taken from Mexico; elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-second Congresses (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1853); chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Thirty-first Congress), Committee on Public Lands (Thirty-second Congress); moved to St. Joseph, Mo., in 1854 and continued the practice of law; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1856; member of the constitutional convention of Missouri in 1861 that determined the relations of Missouri to the Union and the other States and decided in favor of the Union; provisional Lieutenant Governor of Missouri 1861-1864; as brigadier general, Missouri Militia, commanded the northwestern Missouri district until 1863; Governor of Missouri in 1864 and 1865; resumed the practice of law; died in St. Joseph, Mo., November 3, 1882; interment in Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present