Finley B. Hallam and Rosa Alba Teagarden

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Husband Finley B. Hallam ^{1 2}

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           Born: 25 Nov 1856 - Monongahela, Washington Co, PA 1
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         Father: Lewis Hallam (1814-1876) 1 3
         Mother: Rosanna Teagarden (      -1891) 1

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       Marriage: Dec 1890 4

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Wife Rosa Alba Teagarden ⁴

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           Born: 
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         Father: Dr. Charles Teagarden (      -      ) 4
         Mother: Florence Johnson (      -      ) 4

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Finley B. Hallam

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He was born at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, where his parents were living at the time. He was educated at the common schools up to eleven years of age, and then became a clerk at the old news depot for his brother-in-law, J. S. Stocking. He carried a news route and learned telegraphy, the old Pacific & Atlantic Telegraph office being in the same room. J. S. Stocking was the manager, but Finley B. in reality managed the business. After a time he gave up telegraphing, and took the position of line-man, repairing lines half way from Washington to Pittsburgh and Wheeling and Brownsville. He continued in this until the absorbing of the business by the Western Union. He had made up several studies while working, and after ceasing lineman's work he entered (1873) Washington and Jefferson College. Here he remained a short time, and then was with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, as telegraph operator, at Sandpatch, Connellsville, Broadford and Pittsburgh, in a few months reaching the management of the last office, the most important on the road. Two years later he returned and entered the class of 1879 as freshman, he having made up studies, and at the completion of the year, his funds being gone, he resumed telegraphy. Going to the upper oil country, he took a position in the office of the superintendent of the Columbia Conduit Pipe Line Company, at Petrolia, filling also a temporary charge of the Pittsburgh and Parker office, of same line. In the winter of 1876-77 he left the Columbia Conduit and entered the service of the United Pipe Line (Standard), taking charge of a large pump station at North Washington, Butler County, there he remained a short time, and then went, in the spring of 1877, to the Argyle Pump station, at Petrolia. As the result of the absorption by the "United" of Antwerp, Atlantic and others, in Clarion County, he went to St. Petersburg, same county, headquarters for that district, first as telegraph operator, and then as bookkeeper for the same company. A few months later he was made chief bookkeeper, of eight or ten men. In the summer of 1878, in consequence of the exceptional growth of the Bradford field, the work became too heavy for one office, and so the Bradford field was cut in two, and the headquarters of the second division were made at Olean, New York, near the Pennsylvania line. Mr. Hallam was then called by the general manager of the line to take control of the Olean headquarters, having exclusive charge of all accounts, with a large force of assistants. While his promotion was exceptional, he was the youngest bookkeeper in the business. Having saved sufficient money to see himself through college, and having kept up his reading and study, he resigned his position in the autumn of 1878, returned to college, entering the sophomore class, and finished with the class of 1881. He led his class, but from some cause, first honor was not awarded him, though second honor was offered him, which he declined to accept, feeling that he deserved first. He was given the salutatory address, but declined to make it, and was consequently suspended for insubordination, his diploma and degree being withheld. A man high in college affairs said to Mr. Hallam: "While first honor had by accident been nominally awarded to another man, yet your classmates, the faculty and everybody connected with the college will ever regard you as first-honor man of the class of 1881."
His funds again gone, and the Mutual Union Telegraph Company having extended a new enterprise in competition with the Western Union, Mr. Hallam was offered by the officials the position of electrician and circuit manager with control as superintendent from Cumberland, Maryland, to Cincinnati, Ohio, with electrical headquarters at Washington, Pennsylvania. Here he remained fifteen months, when he was called to Washington, D. C., and placed in charge of the company's affairs there, and all points from Philadelphia to Cincinnati. He remained during the celebrated strike of commercial telegraphers, at the termination of which he resigned his position, gave up the telegraph business, and resumed the study of law at Washington, Pennsylvania, which he had incidentally pursued while in college. He was admitted to the bar of Washington county, November term, 1884, and began practice, his office being in the Murdoch Building. In January, 1885, oil developed, and he engaged in the oil business, leasing many fields, and drilling many wells. He was one of the plaintiffs in the equity suit against the Union Company et al., for the oil rights of the Davis property in South Strabane township, which produced $1,000,000 worth of oil. In the oil business of Washington county, he was in a company composed of leading and wealthy business men.
Politically Mr. Hallam was a worker in the Republican ranks from the time he was a boy, working for his party earnestly. He was secretary of the county committee in 1891, and contributed much in time and money to the success of his party nominees. In 1892 he was candidate for the office of district attorney in Washington County, but the nomination was given to Mr. W. S. Parker, who had served one term. By the House of Representatives of Harrisburg (of 1891 to 1893) Mr. Hallam was elected transcribing clerk of the House, which position he held to the close of the session.

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 384.

2 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 1104.

3 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 770, 818, 1104.

4 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 385.