Baxter Hall

Baxter Hall (1757 – 1842) was an American military officer in the Continental Army, and a militia captain, of significance to the American Revolution.

Family

Baxter Hall was one of nine children born to Lieutenant Nehemiah Hall and Sarah (Hayward), daughter of John Hayward and Hannah Baxter, in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, on October 10, 1757. Nehemiah Hall and his wife, Sarah, had nine children (all born in Uxbridge): John (3 Oct 1751 – 30 May 1755); Nathan (29 Aug 1753 – 13 Mar 1835); John (30 Jun 1755 – date ?); Baxter (10 Oct 1757 – 4 Jul 1842); Hannah (10 Oct 1759 – before 1768); David (2 Oct 1762 – 25 Jul 1798); Nehemiah (7 Dec 1764 – 29 Dec 1842); Hannah (19 Mar 1768 - ?); and Jonathan (18 Sep 1770 – 27 Jul 1848).

Later life

He moved to Whitingham, Vermont before 1800, where he was a farmer. He was married at Whittingham, Vermont, and had seven children with his first wife Lydia. His second marriage was in Sutton, Massachusetts, the next town to Uxbridge, where he married Martha Patty Putnam. He had one son with his second wife. In 1830, after the death of his second wife, he returned to Uxbridge to live with his daughter Maranda. He died in 1842, aged 84 or 85, and is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in Uxbridge. Two early US Congressman are buried in the same cemetery, along with other Revolutionary soldiers. Benedict Arnold's widow, known locally as "Sarah Arnold", may have died at Uxbridge in 1836, while Baxter Hall resided here. The photograph depicts the Prospect Hill Cemetery (foreground) where Baxter Hall is interred. The mill in the background manufactured US military uniforms for over 140 years, starting in 1820 while Baxter Hall lived nearby.

Significance in history Baxter Hall drummed for the first "muster" of the American Revolution.