From that land of thrift and industry, patient plodding and large achievements, Germany, which has contributed so largely and so serviceably to the development of this country, came Augustus Hall, of Mesa county, living not far from the village of Whitewater and about twelve miles southwest of Grand Junction. He was born in the fatherland in 1843, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Ruland) Hall, also natives in that country. They came to the United States in 1846 and settled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but after a residence of a few years there moved to Missouri and afterward to Iowa, where the mother died in 1886, at the age of sixty-five. The father later took up his residence in Illinois where he died in 1894, aged eighty-four. Their son Augustus was reared and educated to a limited extent in Missouri, and there he learned his trade as a blacksmith. He wrought at the craft for two years at Canton, in that state, then moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where he passed four years in the same pursuit. In 1883 he came to Colorado and settled at Grand Junction. Here he found his trade in great demand and was employed at it for ten years. He was handy at other mechanical work also, and made the first brick ever molded in the place. From Grand Junction in 1893 he moved to Whitewater, where after following blacksmithing for some time he acquired a ranch on which he now resides near the village. Here he carries on a promising and expanding farming and stock industry, and has a very pleasant home. In 1866 he was married to Miss Nancy Nyemaster and they are the parents of seven children, Laura L., John A., William H. (deceased), Milton L., James E., Estella (deceased) and David S. Mr. Hall has been and is an industrious, enterprising man, with his eyes open for opportunities and his energies in training to use them to advantage. The first brick he made at Grand Junction were produced in the summer of 1883, and his product was so much esteemed that he was unable to supply the demand for it. It gave a new impulse to the growth of the town and changed the character of both business blocks and residences.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.