Home of M. Anna Parker Hall

2214 Market Street was the home of Joseph and M. Anna Parker Hall during the time that M. Anna Hall was a leader in the West Virginia suffrage movement. M. Anna Hall was National President of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic 1902-1903, president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association 1904-1905, and president of the Wheeling Political Equality Club in 1905.

Margaret “Anna” Parker was born on February 2, 1849 to John and Margaret Parker. She lived in Wheeling, WV her entire life. She earned her education in Wheeling schools and graduated from the Wheeling Female Seminary. The Civil War began when Parker was 12 years old and as a young teenager she worked in the military hospital at Grafton and at the Sprigg House Hotel in Wheeling. M. Anne Parker married Joseph Hall on September 21, 1869 and they had four children.

M. Anna Hall served as the national president of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic for 1902-1903. Her husband Joseph was a veteran of the 29^th Ohio Infantry and her older brother, William H. H. Parker, served in the 7^th West Virginia Cavalry and was killed in the Battle of White Sulphur Springs. The Grand Army of the Republic was a national veteran’s organization for Union veterans of the Civil War and in 1881 the Loyal Ladies League was established as an auxiliary to the G.A.R. to assist aging veterans. Five years later, the League nationalized and changed their name to the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. The Ladies largely volunteered and fundraised to help Union veterans and helped erect monuments and memorials as well.

Joseph Hall was a prominent Mason and he and Anna organized the first Eastern Star lodge in West Virginia, Marian Lodge No. 1, Eastern Star. Anna Parker Hall was active in both the temperance movement and women’s suffrage movement. Like many female reformers in the state she was active in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Hall was a charter member of the Wheeling Political Equality League which organized in November 1895 in the home of Dr. Harriet Jones and she was active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA). She was elected president of the WVESA in 1904 and served one year. In 1905 Hall was the president of the Wheeling Political Equality Club and led a campaign to get women’s suffrage included in the revised city charter of Wheeling. The Wheeling women succeeded in getting the vote question on a ballot during the charter process, but it was placed on a separate ballot than the city charter and was defeated at the polls. In 1906, Anna Hall and Fannie Wheat spoke to the annual convention of the West Virginia State Federation of Labor, and the convention adopted a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. This was an important early step to gain support from other West Virginia organizations in the fight to gain suffrage in the state.

Joseph and M. Anna Hall lived at 2214 Market Street until around 1911 when their address changes to 2140 Market Street. Joseph’s printing business was at 2212 Market Street. Joseph Hall died on January 25, 1913 at the age of 70. Anna Parker Hall died in Wheeling on May 17, 1928 at the age of 81. Joseph and Anna Hall are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Wheeling. 

1900; Census Place: Center, Ohio, West Virginia; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0111; FHL microfilm: 1241768. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Accessed February 21, 2022.

1910; Census Place: Wheeling Ward 5, Ohio, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1692; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0099; FHL microfilm: 1375705. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

1920; Census Place: Wheeling Ward 5, Ohio, West Virginia; Roll: T625_1966; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 87. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed February 21, 2022.

Bonar, Lacey N. “Biography of M. Anna Parker Hall, 1847-1928.” Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1847-1928. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1010596388.

“Chapter Two: [H]ike Back Home and Look After the Children.” Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 21, 2022. http://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffrage2.html.

Effland, Anne Wallace. “The Woman Suffrage Movement in West Virginia, 1867-1920.” M. A. Thesis, West Virginia University, 1983.

“History.” Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://suvcw.org/LGAR/History.html.

Hoge, Florence. “Miss Florence Hoge Tells of the Forming of Suffrage Organizations in Ohio County: Their Contest for Recognition has Been Most Spirited.” Wheeling Intelligencer, May 1, 1916. Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 21, 2022. http://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffragewheelinggroup.html.

“Joseph Hall.” Find A Grave. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120290868/joseph-hall.

“M. Anna Parker Hall.” WVGenWeb. Accessed February 21, 2022. http://www.wvgenweb.org/ohio/nurses/cw-parkerhall.htm.

“Margaret Anna Parker Hall.” Find A Grave. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116390407/margaret-anna-hall.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. Sanborn Map Company, 1902. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn09470_003/. Accessed February 21, 2022.

Wheeling, West Virginia, City Directory, 1904. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed February 21, 2022.

The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume], September 21, 1918, Page 12, Image 12. Chronicling America. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1918-09-21/ed-1/seq-12/#date1=1900&index=13&rows=20&words=Anna+Hall&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1928&proxtext=anna+hall&y=7&x=16&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

“Women in the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Movement.” Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 21, 2022. http://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffragewomen.html.