Main Street at St. George Steet, 1920. Notice the streetcar on the right of the photo. Some of the buildings are still standing, such as the Farmers Exchange Bank on the right behind the streetcar.
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Elmer S. Hall
(1866 - 1952)
Mayor Elmer S. Hall 1916 - 1920
Elmer Hall was born in New London, WI, on September 12, 1866. He was brought up by his grandparents in Green Bay. His formal education ended when he was eleven years old and completed the fourth grade. When he was sixteen, he was employed in the Fort Howard Post Office as Assistant Postmaster. Later he served as a railway car checker, a postal clerk, and a letter carrier. He married Emma Taylor of Fond du Lac on January 20, 1890.
His remarkable political career began in his thirty-eighth year when he sought and won the office of County Clerk of Brown County in 1904. He served as County Clerk for twelve years, as Mayor of Green Bay five years, as Secretary of State two years, as Conservation Commissioner six years, and as State Senator four years.
When Green Bay changed from the aldermanic form of government to the commission form, Mr. Hall was the first mayor under the new plan. He served as mayor through WWI until January 1921, when he became Secretary of State. In 1923, he was appointed Conservation Commissioner of Wisconsin by Governor John J. Blaine and served in this post until 1928. He was the first and last one-man head of the Conservation Commission.
His six years in this office were tempestuous ones. As he explained it, "Some of those most active in the organization of the conservation department proved to be some of the biggest violators, and when the wardens placed them under arrest the clamor was heard throughout the state." Nevertheless, he stuck to his post until the law was changed placing the department under a six-man commission in 1928. That fall he was a candidate for State Senator and was elected. He served four years but was defeated in the Democratic landslide of 1932.
He was a member of the committee for the consolidation of Fort Howard and Green Bay in 1895, he was the Secretary of the Commercial Club which was the forerunner of the Association of Commerce, he was a member of the Green Bay Choral Society, he served on the Draft Board in WW I and was
on the welcoming committee for soldiers returning after WW I, and he traveled to the camps to greet the local men.
Self taught, he became a student of astronomy and had two publications on this subject. In 1935, he published "Solution of Lunar Mothion by Diagram", and in 1944, he published "Gyro-static Mechanics of Earth's Moons System."
Elmer Hall died May 22, 1952, of old age and is buried in Fort Howard Cemetery.
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Streetcars were a predessor to the modern day transit system. Wisconsin Public Service operated the streetcars until 1937. |
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