University of North Carolina at Asheville
D.H. Ramsey Library
Special Collections/University Archives

William L. Hall
(1873 – 1960)

Hall then went on to work for the Division of Forestry in the US Department of Agriculture and was later put in charge of the Branch of Forest Products in the USFS service from 1905-1911. After the enactment of the Weeks Law, he was assigned to determine suitability of land in the east for the establishing of national forests (this would have included the Ozark lands). In connection with this work he was appointed as the first district forester of the eastern US. After WWI he organized Hall, Kellogg and Company, a consultancy company as well as Shevlin-Hixon Company which was a reforestation company. As a consulting forester he became known as a loyal adherent to private enterprising and forestry as a profitable commercial enterprise while maintaining a strong ethical bases for business and professional conduct. He is remembered as a great pioneer  and forester and as one of the seven founding members of the of the Society of American Foresters which was organized by Pinchot in 1900.  

His home was near Hot Springs, Arkansas and his large forest holdings near Malvern, Arkansas.  He is fondly remembered by his students and those who worked with him and is considered, with Pinchot, one of the founding "fathers" of the profession of Forestry in the United States.

Bibliography

The Editors. Officers and Committees for 1905. Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, 1905.                       
{Mr. Hall was a founding member of SAF in November, 1900}  {Mr. Hall was Treasurer of SAF from 1903 to 1907, and he was president of SAF in 1913}

Hall, William L. The Waning Hardwood Supply and the Appalachian Forests. USDA – Government Printing Office Circular # 116, September 1907.

Hall, William L. and Maxwell, Hu. The Relation of Surface Conditions to Stream Flow. Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, 1909.  (4:133-150)  
{presented to SAF March 26, 1909}

Hall, William L. Progress in Saving Forest Waste. USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1911.
{Hall participated in the founding of the Wood Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin – photo included}

Hall, William L. and Maxwell, Hu. Uses of Commercial Woods of the United States: (I) Cedars, Cypresses, and Sequoias. USDA Government Printing Office (Bulletin # 95), June 1911.

Hall, William L. and Maxwell, Hu. Uses of Commercial Woods of the United States: (II) Pines. USDA Government Printing Office (Bulletin # 99), October 1911.

Hall, William L. Numerous Entries in Record Group 95 (USFS) at the National Archive II College Park, Maryland.                
{Entry 75, boxes 6, 7, 13 etc. contain much correspondence concerning Hall and his work with southern Appalachian national forest land acquisitions (1911 - 1914 etc.)  {obtained in 1998 and 2002}

Hall, William L. The White Mountain Forest and How It Is To Be Made Useful. Transcript of an Address from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests at Sunapee, NH, 1913. 
{Uncut forests were purchased on Mt. Sunapee by the above-mentioned group in 1911}  
{Mr. Hall was working on eastern NF land acquisitions at 
the time}

Hall, William L. Improving White Mountain Forests. American Forestry (AFA), February 1915.  (pages 117-126)
{this article may have been reprinted}

Laxton, Josephine. Pisgah – A Forest Treasureland. American Forests (AFA), June 1931.   {pg 340 has a May 1913 photo of the NFRC at Buck Spring Lodge – with W.L. Hall}

Hall, William L. Symposium on William Willard Ashe. US Forest Service, June 1932. {a tribute to Ashe by Hall}

Clapp, Earl H. Major Proposals of the Copeland Report. Journal of Forestry (SAF), February 1934.  
{pgs 190 - 191}

Maughan, William. A Guide to Forestry Activities in NC, SC, and TN. Society of American Foresters, 1939. [bibliography]  {ten W. L. Hall publications are listed}  {at Pack Library – Asheville, NC}

The Editors. The Society of American Foresters: An Historical Summary. (SAF), 1940.  {includes W. L. Hall}

Appalachian Section of SAF Second Cumulated Index for the Journal of Forestry (Jan. 1930 [vol. 28] – Dec. 1939 [vol. 37]), SAF, 1940.  {at Duke University Biological Sciences Library. Four articles by W. L. Hall are listed}

Munns, E. N. A Selected Bibliography of North American Forestry (Volume I). USDA - Government Printing Office (Miscellaneous Publication # 364), 1940.  {twenty-four publications by W. L. Hall are listed in the 
Authors Index}

Butler, Ovid. American Conservation. American Forestry Association, 1941.  {pg 108 has a May 1913 photo of the NFRC at Buck Spring Lodge - with W. L. Hall}

Editors of the Journal of Forestry. Gifford Pinchot – Eighty Years Young. Journal of Forestry (SAF), August 1945.  {Contains articles by numerous men who worked with Gifford Pinchot, including W. L. Hall}

Winters, Robert K. Fifty Years of Forestry in the USA. Society of American Foresters, 1950.  
{mentions Mr. Hall}

Greenwood, Ramon. Apostle of the Forest Congress. American Forests (AFA), June 1955.  {Biography and photo of Mr. Hall}

Hosmer, Ralph L. The Society of American Foresters: An Historical Summary. Journal of Forestry (SAF), October 1960.

The Editors. William L. Hall (1873 – 1960). Journal of Forestry (SAF), November 1960.  (page 904)  {obituary}

Clepper, Henry and Meyer, Arthur B. American Forestry: Six Decades of Growth. Society of American Foresters, 1960.

Ogden, Gerald. US Forest Service Historical Bibliography. USDA, 1976.  {lists 25 publications by W. L. Hall}
{at Duke University Biological Sciences Library}

Maunder, Elwood R. Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters. Forest History Society, 1977.                 
{extensive 1959 interview with Damtoft includes comments about William L. Hall}

Note: The National Agricultural Library lists 12 William L. Hall publications.  These including his work before, during, and after national forest land acquisitions in the east (spanning 1900 – 1921).