Congregational clergyman, Indian missionary, b. Weathersfield, Vt. He graduated from Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary. In 1831 he was assigned to do missionary work in the Lake Superior region by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He founded a mission at La Pointe, Wis., and from this outpost visited Indians west and south of Lake Superior, establishing mission stations, and heading one of the largest mission fields in North America. Aided by the government, Hall set up schools to instruct the Indians. He started the first organization of a Congregational church in Wisconsin at La Pointe in Aug., 1833, learned the Chippewa language, and between 1833 and 1856 translated or supervised the translation of portions of the Bible, hymns, and textbooks into that language. In 1853 he moved to the Chippewa Crow Wing Indian agency in Minnesota, where he hoped to establish a new mission and conduct a manual-labor school, but resigned in 1854 because of lack of support. He then moved to a farm near Sauk Rapids, Minn., where he became pastor of a small Congregational church and later served as judge of probate and superintendent of schools. Dict. Amer. Biog.; Colls. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 12 (1892), 13 (1895); Colls. Minn. Hist. Soc., 7 (1926); WPA field notes.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Unprofitable Life of Sherman Hall for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]