He was the son of John Hale and Mary (Jones) Hale. He was born in the Northern part of the District of Maine, then part of Massachusetts. In 1828, he married a daughter of J. Hall, of Portland, Maine.
He was a member of the New York State Senate (26th D.) in 1856 and 1857. He moved to Wyandotte County, Kansas in 1863 and formed a law partnership with Kansas attorney A. B. Bartlett. For several years they were the leading law firm in that city, having a large and lucrative practice,[1] including representation of the Kansas Pacific Railway.
His wife's sister Eleanor (1809–1877) was married to the controversial author John Neal (1793–1876). In his later years, Hale had a stroke of paralysis, from which he never fully recovered. He died at the home of his daughter in Cortland, New York.[1]