Gideon Stephen Hall, treasurer of the Cunningham-Hall Company, Incorporated, of Little Falls, wholesale grocers, is a native of the Empire state, which has been his home during the greater part of his life. Born at Wurtsboro, Sullivan county, on January 22, 1872, he is the son of Charles R. and Maria (Myers) Hall. The father, a native of Whitehall, New York, was a contractor engaged on public works during most of his active life. He passed away in Little Falls on the 3d of July, 1890.
Gideon Stephen Hall obtained his education in the public schools of Oneida and Little Falls, New York. His first position was that of a clerk for D. F. Cunningham of Little Falls, with whom he remained for three years before entering the employ of H. Rankin & Son, grocers of Little Falls. A year later he went to E. M. Walrath & Company, where he worked for three years. His next situation was with Leigh & Company as bookkeeper for a period of four years, following which he served for about a year as manager for N. E. Ransom. In 1900 he bought out the business of Leigh & Company, which he ran for twenty years under the name of the Clinton Cash Store, dealing in general merchandise. He disposed of this highly successful establishment in 1920 to his brother, Frank R. Hall, in order to take up his residence on the north Pacific coast at Seattle, where his two sons were students in the University of Washington. At the end of some sixteen months of life in the far west, Mr. Hall determined to return to the city that had been his home for so many years and engage again in the mercantile business. In October, 1921, he took up his duties as a salesman for the Cunningham Wholesale Company. When this concern was incorporated in 1923, under the new name of the Cunningham-Hall Company, Incorporated, Mr. Hall became the treasurer, his present position. The new firm took over the wholesale grocery business of the Cunningham Wholesale Company and is now doing a large volume of business in Herkimer county and throughout central New York.
During the war period Mr. Hall was very active in his support of the various Liberty and Victory Loan drives and in raising the funds for the great War Chest. During the administration of former Mayor Zoller he sat in the city council for one term as alderman for the fourth ward. He votes with the republican party. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the First Methodist Episcopal church of Little Falls, in which he holds the office of steward.
Mrs. Hall is likewise active in the work of the Methodist church. She belongs to the Women's Christian Association of Little Falls and is an officer in Rock Chapter No. 272 of the Order of the Eastern Star of Little Falls. Before her marriage, which took place in Little Falls on December 28, 1899, Mrs. Hall was Miss Kathryn Eleanor Yourdon, daughter of George W. and Irene (Kingsbury) Yourdon. She was born at West Leyden, Lewis county, New York, on June 9, 1872. Her paternal grandfather, James Yourdon, fought in the War of 1812. Her father, who was born in Ava, Oneida county, on the 17th of September, 1836, and died in Little Falls in April, 1917, was a retired farmer. Her mother was born at Boonville, Oneida county, on the 13th of February, 1841, the daughter of Orville and Laney (Devoe) Kingsbury, who lived and died at Alder Creek, in Oneida county. Mrs. Yourdon spent the latter part of her life in Little Falls, where she passed away on the 7th of April, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have two sons: Russell Gideon and Ralph Daniel. The elder was born in Little Falls on February 19, 1902, and attended the public and high schools of the city, graduating from the latter in the class of 1919. In his last year of high school, on February 8, 1919, he was made cadet captain in the Corps of Cadets, state of New York. In October, 1920, the young man entered the University of Washington, in Seattle, where he was a student for three years. Since returning to Little Falls he has been connected with the Cunningham-Hall Company as a salesman. Ralph D. Hall was born July 24, 1904, in Little Falls, where he was a student in the grade schools and took part of his high school course. After moving to Seattle with the family he completed his high school work in the Broadway high school of that city, graduating in June, 1921. He is now a junior in the University of Washington. In the summer of 1923 the two brothers worked their way from Seattle to the Atlantic seaboard on board the California, making a seven-thousand-mile voyage down the western coast, through the Panama Canal and up to the port of New York.