ment at the same time--was
born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 22d of August, 1744. When he
was about eight years old his parents, who were Scotch-Irish, removed
to North Carolina and settled in the upper part of Rowan county, (now
Iredell), in the bounds of the congregation to which he afterward gave
thirty-eight years of his ministerial life.

Secluded in the forests of Rowan, and removed to a great extent from
the follies of the great world, James Hall grew up under the watchful
care of pious parents, receiving such early instruction as the country
schools then afforded.

In his twenty-sixth year he commenced the study of the classics, and
made rapid progress, as his mind was matured and his application close
and unremitting. When duly prepared he entered Princeton College,
under the direction of President Witherspoon, one of the signers of
the National Declaration of Independence. He graduated in 1774, in his
thirty-first year. The Theological reading of Mr. Hall was pursued
under the direction of Dr. Witherspoon, that eminent minister and
patriot, whose views in religion and politics were thoroughly imbibed
by his student. In the spring of 1776 he was licensed by the
Presbytery of Orange to preach the Gospel of everlasting Peace. During
the exciting scenes of the Revolution, in which he had been licensed
and ordained, Mr. Hall held the office of pastor over the three
congregations of Fourth Creek, Concord and Bethany, which extended
from the South Yadkin river to the Catawba. After the Revolution he
served these three congregations until 1790, when, wishing to devote
more time to the cause of domestic missions, he was released from his
connection, with Fourth Creek and Concord. His connection with Bethany
continued until his death, in July, 1826.

A full account of Mr. Hall's patriotic services during the Revolution
would far transcend the prescribed limits of this sketch. The
principles of civil and religious freedom which he received in his
parental, as well as in his collegiate training, would not allow him
to remain neuter or indifferent, when a cruel, invading foe was
trampling on the just and dearest rights of his country.

Accordingly, in response to the warm, patriotic impulses of his
nature, when General Rutherford called out an army of over two
thousand men from the surrounding counties to subdue the Cherokee
Indians, who were committing numerous murders and depredations on the
frontier settlement