The Corum & Hall Homesteads
In 1921, Charles R. Corum purchased 55 acres of the former Zero Wells tract, where he lived and worked for over 35 years. The family practiced subsistence farming, using the rugged hillside to their advantage by building a root cellar directly into the slope for natural refrigeration. A concrete cistern nearby, inscribed with Corum’s name, was built in the 1930s to capture spring water for the house. Evidence of their life remains in the woods today, including the rusted frame of a Ford Model A, located south of the homesite.
Just north of the Corum land lay the homestead of the Hall family, headed by Spencer Hall and Elizabeth Thomas, who were farming in the Thoroughfare area as free Blacks before the Civil War. During the 1860s, the Union army seized some of the Hall’s cows, hogs, corn, hay, and a horse. Following the war, Spencer Hall filed a claim but received only partial compensation for the seizure. Elizabeth and Spencer had seven children. Eli Hall, born in 1852, was the third child. He went on to acquire extensive land holdings along Catletts Branch, including the 100-acre homeplace that his mother, Elizabeth, acquired in 1871 and conveyed to Eli in 1893 and 15 acres adjacent from Zero Wells in 1900.
The Hall Family
Spencer Hall’s Petition for War Deposition Claims
