Abram Percival Hallman^[1]

1905 - Yes, date unknown

• Photos		Hallman, Abraham Percival - as young man.jpg As a young man, Hallman dreamed of a bigger life than the farming his family did in Canada. Pictured here in his 20s, he attended Goshen College in Indiana and earned a degree in business and science.
  		Abe Hallman 12/06/05--Jonathan Dyer/The Island Packet-- Abe Hallman, who recently turned 100, reads some of his christmas cards at the Broad Creek Care Center Tuesday afternoon.

  
  

• Name	Abram Percival Hallman
  Born	8 Dec 1905	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Name	Abe Hallman  [2]
  Residence	1955	Akron, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA   [1]
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-25089
  Died	Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I25089	Generations
  Last Modified	11 Jun 2024

  
  

  Father	Rev. Eli S. Hallman,   b. 26 Feb 1866, Blenheim Twp., Oxford Co., Ontario, Canada ,   d. 25 Aug 1955, Akron, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA  (Age 89 years)
  Mother	Melinda Clemens,   b. 18 May 1873, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 12 Feb 1956, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 82 years)
  Married	9 Aug 1893	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  Family ID	F1908	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Esther Yoder,   b. Abt 1905, Of, Goshen, Elkhart, Indiana, USA ,   d. 1972  (Age ~ 67 years)
  Married	25 Dec 1936	, USA   [2]
  Children	1. Joanne Hallman   2. James Hallman,   b. Abt 1942,   d. Bef 2005  (Age ~ 62 years)
  Last Modified	11 Jun 2024
  Family ID	F6479	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Lois Yoder,   d. 1994, , USA
  Married	1973	, USA   [2]
  Last Modified	11 Jun 2024
  Family ID	F6480	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Island man looks back on 100 years lived to the fullest BY JACQUELYN LEWIS, The Island Packet (Beaufort, South Carolina) Published Monday, December 12, 2005 Abe Hallman recently pulled off a feat that has earned him countless congratulations, a mountain of greeting cards and a mention on the Today Show. He turned 100 years old on Thursday. "It's like a dream," Hallman said, his warm, gentle features lighting up as he recalled watching Willard Scott telling him "happy birthday" on television. "It doesn't seem real." But Hallman's daughter, Joanne Hallman Dahl, said the accolades aren't just because her father, who moved to Hilton Head Island in September, has become a centenarian. Instead, she said, the cards and congratulations are kudos for a lifetime of love and service to others. Hallman helped organize Mennonite Mutual Aid in the 1940s, an organization that helps Mennonite church members obtain affordable insurance. For about 20 years, he spent his spare time traveling the country to volunteer with the organization. Hallman also helped start a church organization that aids missionaries in their travels, and he founded a Mennonite church in Lancaster County, Pa. Dahl said Hallman, now a grandfather of seven and a great-grandfather of six, also approached fatherhood with the same dedication, becoming a "kindred spirit" to his children. "(My father) is basically kind of a shy person, but he is so well loved by everyone," Dahl said. "He loves serving and helping people." Hallman's commitment to helping others dates back to his upbringing in the Mennonite church, he said. Hallman was born in 1905 in the tiny farming town of Berlin, in Ontario, Canada, and his father, Eli Hallman, was a minister and wheat farmer. Hallman's mother, Melynda, ran the household. "Those were very happy years, as I remember," said Hallman, who grew up with a younger sister and three older brothers. "We did farm work; we milked cows and worked in the fields, and this was before you had machines for harvesting," Hallman reminisced from a cushy chair in his small, tidy room at Broad Creek Care Center. "I worked hard, but I was a very happy teenager." Still, Hallman said, most people in Berlin never went to high school, let alone college. And the farming life wasn't enough to satisfy a young man who dreamed of becoming a stockbroker. Hallman said his oldest brother, Clemens, was his inspiration to strive for excellence, because Clemens graduated from high school and worked for the government in Canada. Hallman found a Mennonite school in Indiana where he could earn his high school diploma, and after that, he enrolled at Goshen College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business and science. But upon graduation, Hallman said, the Great Depression dashed his hopes of becoming a stockbroker. "It was 1931," he said. "I would have really liked to sell stocks or futures, but there were no jobs in finance." He ended up working for a "huckster" -- a produce farmer who went door to door selling his wares -- for a year. "I rode beside him and carried the basket with some sweet cream butter, eggs and maybe a chicken," Hallman said. Job prospects weren't much better the next year, he said, and he spent 12 months loading trucks and filling out paperwork for a pork processing plant. "There wasn't a future in that," Hallman said. "But it was a job." He was about 30 when he fell in love with a college friend, Esther Yoder. Hallman and Yoder kindled a romance after they met again at a Goshen College reunion. "We were friends in college, but after the reunion, I saw her in a different light," Hallman said. The two were married on Christmas in 1936. They went on to have two children, Jim and Joanne. Shortly before he got married, Hallman took a job as a traveling shoe salesman at the now-defunct Miller, Hess and Company. "Selling was the last thing I ever thought I wanted to do," Hallman said. "But it was a job, so I took it." Hallman managed to parlay that job into a 51-year career, in which he traveled the country selling shoes and worked his way up to company president and chairman of the board of directors. And, despite his initial doubts, he said he ended up enjoying his career. He got to see the entire United States, and in between working and volunteering with his church, he took his family on vacations to places like New York City. "I've never in my whole life had an 8-hour a day job where I had to sit at a desk," he said. "That's unusual." Hallman also developed some unusual talents over the years. He picked up woodcarving when he was in his 70s. He learned to sculpt detailed figures such as cowboys and Santas from blocks of basswood after he saw a wood carving display in a Phoenix, Ariz. mall. "That was on a Wednesday," he said, the meticulous fruits of his more than 20 years of labor dotting the dresser and tables in his room. "I took a (wood carving) class on Friday, and I was hooked. It must have been working with my hands and the details that I liked. Apparently, I had an ability that very few people have." He also learned to make hook rugs after his second wife, Lois, got involved with the hobby. "At first I said, 'absolutely not,'" Hallman said with a laugh. "But then I was watching her, and I got hooked." Although Hallman said he has slowed down a bit since approaching 100, he brought both hobbies with him when he moved to Broad Creek Care Center from Goshen, Ind., to be closer to his daughter. He also walks, lifts weights and does crossword puzzles every day. "I've had a good life," he said. "But it hasn't all been a bed of roses." He said he had to face the death of his first wife, Esther, in 1972 -- he married a second time, to Esther's sister, Lois, in late 1973 -- and the death of his only son, Jim, when Jim was in his 40s. Then, Lois died in 1994. But Hallman said he's been able to get through the tough times by drawing on his faith and his ability to adapt to any situation. "You can always begin again," daughter Dahl said. "And he always has." Birth date: Dec. 8, 1905. Hails from: Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, Canada. Greatest life lesson: "I have a philosophy that I call 'go with the flow.' You can try to change something you dislike, so you fight it and try to keep everything going as it was. But when a river is dammed, it has no outlet and it tends to get stagnant."

  
  

• Sources

  [S8] News - Gospel Herald, Obituary of Eli S. Hallman - September 20, 1955. [S84] News - South Carolina, Bearfort - The Island Packet, Biography of Abraham Hallman - December 12, 2005. [S4] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration, 012262-93. Eli HALLMAN, 27, book store, Wilmot Twp, Berlin, s/o Abraham HALLMAN & Mary SCHMITT married Malinda CLEMENS, 20, Waterloo Twp, Waterloo Twp, d/o George H. CLEMENS & Salome SCHNEIDER, witn: Norman STAUFFER of Waterloo Twp & Lizzie SCHNEE, 9 August 189 (off page) in Waterloo Twp

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 8 Dec 1905 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 25 Dec 1936 - , USA Residence - 1955 - Akron, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA Married - 1973 - , USA  = Link to Google Earth