Amanuensis Monday, The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 53

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

The Hall Family...

Uncle Ab [Albert B.] Hall and his wife [Ammie Mattox] lived over behind where the post office is now.  I believe they came from over around Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Two of their children were John Phil and Ammie Delle.  

Former site of the Ab Hall house behind the Post Office

A lot of people living here on Sicily Island don’t know that Uncle Ab Hall was Uncle Jim McLelland’s uncle.  Uncle Jim’s mother was Ab's sister.  I didn’t know this until a few years ago.

Uncle Jim McLelland was from out in Limestone County, Texas.  I’d have to guess that Uncle Ab’s sister married a McLelland and they moved from Mississippi to Texas or she moved to Texas then met and married a McLelland.  

Uncle Jim married Aunt Lena Steele who was a sister to my grandfather, I. A. Steele.  I believe Uncle Jim and Aunt Lena had moved to Sicily Island before Uncle Ab arrived here.  It could have been a coincidence that Uncle Jim and Uncle Ab ended up in Sicily Island but I bet there was some kind of communication between them. 

After I learned about the connection I could see the resemblance.  Uncle Jim was a much bigger man than Uncle Ab Hall but they did look alike.

I saw Ammie Delle Hall off and on through the years.  The last I heard of her she was living up around Shreveport.

John Phil Hall left Mississippi and moved off to Chicago.  He moved to Sicily Island in about 1936.  He bought the old Dr. Usher house.  He also put up a café and a tourist court on the corner at the triangle.  

Former site of John Phil Hall's Cafe

John Phil died in 1967 up in Illinois so he must have moved back north but I don’t remember.  I used to see John Phil up town in his later years.  We’d sit and visit.  He’d sold his café business by then.  

He had once been a casket salesman and covered several states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois. 

He told me one time that he knew Al Capone, the gangster from Chicago.  He said he knew Capone well and that Al Capone knew him well, too. 

One of the stories he told me about Capone was about the day he was standing in the lobby of a hotel in Chicago and Al Capone and three or four of his bodyguards walked in.  Al Capone said, “How are you Hall?"  Then he followed his greeting up with, "You ought to get out of here, there might be some trouble.”

Notes:

Albert B. "Ab" Hall and his wife Ammie Mattox Hall are both buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

John Phil Hall and his wife, Ruth Condit Hall, are buried in the Kingman-Cline Long Point Cemetery in Neoga, Cumberland County, Illinois.  Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Terry Hartley.

Ammie Delle Hall first married Isaiah Stewart then later married Guy Dorman.  She died in 1981 and is buried alongside her second husband in Oakman Cemetery in Waco, McLennan County, Texas. Tombstone photograph was taken by FindAGrave member, Cat.

According to a 1900 U. S. census record, Ab and Ammie Hall had two other children, both girls.  As of this date, I have been unable to find additional documentation on them.  Their names were listed as Holland and Mabel.

Note:  Parts 1-52 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of this blog.