A bundle of dedicated enthusiasm is perhaps the briefest phrase by which Miss Margaret Hall can be described with any degree of accuracy. A gray-haired lady whose eyes sparkle and whose mouth breaks into a ready smile, it is she who has been the driving force behind the summer-long bicentennial historical exhibition which ends Monday at the Berkshire Museum, and now is foregoing a deserved rest to spearhead the movement for a county historical society.
Starting in late winter, her work gathered momentum through the planning stages, climaxing during the week in June when she brought her lunch daily to the museum so as to be on hand for every bit of the arranging — after which she went right on presiding with graciousness and undiminished interest.
To such an enterprise, Miss Hall brought considerable executive experience. During World War I she was executive secretary of the Navy League's Berkshire chapter, and throughout World War II she headed the local British War Relief Society. She resigned last year from a 10-year term as clerk of the First Congregational Church, and has been active in numerous other organizations — all in addition to serving Miss Hall's School for 27 years in a variety of capacities.
Service to the community has been part of her family tradition. Her great-great-grandfather, Theodore Hinsdale, settled in 1795 in Partridgefield, the early township out of which Peru, Dalton and Hinsdale, named for him, were later carved. A Connecticut minister and a Yale graduate, he came here rather late in life and worked arduously to establish the first church in Hinsdale, serving also as a justice of the peace. He died at the age of 80 and is described in early history of the county as one who "maintained a dignity of character and soundness of judgment which few possess" — traits which can be aptly attributed also to his great-great-granddaughter.
Theodore Hinsdale's sons and grandsons were prominent in Hinsdale as owners of the woolen mills there, and his eldest daughter, Nancy, founded the first girls' school in Pittsfield in 1806. Her determination and forcefulness of character are made plain by a rather grim portrait of her in the current exhibit, which makes it appear unlikely that Miss Hall's graciousness could have come from that side of her family. But her school grew and prospered through the years under several regimes, and was brought back into the family when purchased in 1898 by Miss Myra Hall, Miss Margaret's aunt, and one of the great headmistresses of the old type.
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September 02, 2022 at 11:01AM
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Eagle Archives, Sept. 2, 1961: Lively lady who likes and makes history - Berkshire Eagle
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