Frederick Hale

Who was Frederick Hale?

Frederick Hale was a politician from the U.S. state of Maine, representing the state in the United States Senate from 1917 to 1941. He was the son of Eugene Hale, the grandson of Zachariah Chandler, both also U.S. Senators, brother of diplomat Chandler Hale, and the cousin of U.S. Representative Robert Hale.

Hale was born in Detroit, Michigan and attended preparatory schools in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and Groton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1896 and attended Columbia Law School, New York City, in 1896 and 1897. He was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Portland, Maine, in 1899.

Hale was a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives, 1905–1906; and a member of the Republican National Committee, 1912-1918. In 1916, he was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, defeating incumbent Democrat Charles Fletcher Johnson to reclaim the Senate seat that had been held by his father Eugene Hale.

He was reelected in 1922, 1928, and again in 1934, serving from March 4, 1917 to January 3, 1941. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1940.