From: We are Baha'is
Albert Hall will ever be remembered for his services in the
early development of the Bahai Temple Unity, the body entrusted with the
building of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar in America.
From 1910 to 1914, Albert H. Hall was selected each year as
chairman of the Annual Convention; he was elected a member of the Baha’i Temple
Unity during the same period, and was chosen as its president in 1911, which position
he held up to and during the year 1914.
At the Convention of 1910, when Mr. Hall was unanimously
chosen Chairman, he said: "God chooses the weak things to confound the
mighty. You have made the choice of a weak instrument. I feel very weak and
lowly, as nothing, and I would not bear the responsibility of this place were I
not possessed with the sense of my own emptiness, seeking only the in pouring
of His Spirit, strength and wisdom. This Convention but now called to order,
has been in conscious, silent session for several hours. There is no need of
any introduction. The opening of this Convention was sung in the heart of every
one of you who turned his face to the East this morning, and if you did not
then catch the message of love and unity in all its fullness, it has
beautifully sounded in your ears as the inspiring Tablet has been read [refers
to Tablet regarding Mashriqu’l-Adhkar received in March, 1910] There is no
other word to be uttered. It is for us now to address ourselves directly to the
work in hand. We are here representing the Baha’i Assemblies throughout America
and Canada, to bring home the substantial offerings of our sacrifice, to
encourage each other with the report of our work not to boast or overstate it.
We must face His Truth just as it is. Do not let us delude ourselves. They are
the worst deluded in the world who are self deluded. We are not afraid nor
ashamed of the situation, but of ourselves that is all. Let us seek knowledge
with the light of Truth and the Truth shall make us free."
……..
Albert Heath Hall was born on July 11th, 1858, in
Alexandria, Licking County, Ohio, son of Rev. Levi and Lucinda Mitchell Hall;
he came to Minnesota in 1873 and received his early education at Austin; he
entered the University of Minnesota in 1875, remaining in school there until
the end of his junior year; he was a member of the Chi Psi and Phi Delta Phi
Fraternities. While attending the University of Minnesota he earned his
livelihood by working in a sawmill, and later, worked for the first telephone
company organized in the Twin Cities, stringing the first line of wire in the
city of Minneapolis; he afterwards was night telephone operator while attending
his classes at college.
After leaving the University of Minnesota, Mr. Hall entered
the law office of Judge Frederick Hooker as a law student, and a short time
later, accepted a position in the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C. and
while there studied law at Columbian University, which later became the George
Washington University; he graduated from Columbian in 1884. From 1884 to 1920,
he was actively engaged in the practice of law at Minneapolis, and tried some
thirty five hundred contested cases; he died May 25th, 1920, after an illness
which was critical for only a few weeks, having been in poor health, however,
for almost a year. He was survived by his wife and one daughter, Mrs. William
L. Appleby, both of this city…
"Bert" Hall, as he was familiarly known throughout
Hennepin County, was primarily and essentially the poor man's lawyer; no client
was too mean, nor was his cause too small, but that Bert Hall gave him his
untiring and unstinted effort; it made no difference whether the client had
funds, or even prospects of receiving them, and it seemed as though the less
the prospect of getting a fee, the more generously he gave of his brilliant
mind and indefatigable energy; if he believed that his client's cause was just,
that cause became the paramount matter with him and it took precedence over his
self interest, his family and his friends.
Bert Hall lived and died practicing what he had always
preached -- The Brotherhood of Man. (Star of the West, vol. 11)
