Matilda Shell was born around 1842 in Ohio to Andrew and Eliza Shell. Her father was a farmer who owned $700 of real estate and $210 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Deerfield, Ohio, and the family moved to Viroqua, Wisconsin, in the mid-1850s. She married William Hall around 1869, and by 1870, they were living in Portland, Wisconsin. Hall worked as a farmer, and the couple owned $300 of personal property in 1870. They moved to Ura, Wyoming, sometime in the late 1800s, and by 1910, they were living in Melrose, Oregon. She died in Oregon on July 4, 1924.