Representative Fletcher Hale

Fletcher Hale (January 22, 1883 – October 22, 1931) was an American politician and a United States Representative from New Hampshire. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1925 to 1933, contributing to the legislative process during four terms in office and representing the interests of his New Hampshire constituents during a significant period in American history.

Hale was born in Portland, Maine, on January 22, 1883, the son of Frederick Fletcher Hale and Adelaide L. (MacLellan) Hale. During his childhood the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the public schools and graduated from The English High School in 1901. He then enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and received his degree in 1905. Pursuing a legal career, he studied law at Harvard Law School and further read law under attorney Albert S. Batchellor. He was admitted to the bar in 1908.

After his admission to the bar, Hale began the practice of law in Littleton, New Hampshire. In 1912 he moved to Laconia, New Hampshire, where he continued his legal practice and soon became active in local public affairs. On March 29, 1913, he married Alice N. Armstrong. The couple had two sons: Fletcher Hale (1915–1998), who later became a captain in the United States Navy, and Robert Armstrong Hale (1918–1945), who served as a captain and B-26 Marauder pilot in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and was killed in action when his plane was shot down near Frankfurt.

Hale’s early public career was closely tied to municipal and state service in New Hampshire. He served as city solicitor of Laconia in 1915 and, concurrently, as solicitor for Belknap County from 1915 to 1920. Deeply involved in local education, he was a member of the Laconia Board of Education from 1916 to 1925 and served as its chairman from 1918 to 1925. In 1918 he was a delegate to the New Hampshire constitutional convention, reflecting his growing prominence in state affairs. From 1920 to 1925 he was a member and secretary of the New Hampshire Tax Commission, where he participated in the oversight and administration of the state’s tax policies.

Building on this record of public service, Hale was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth Congress and was reelected to the three succeeding Congresses. He served as a Representative from New Hampshire in the United States Congress from March 4, 1925, until his death in 1931. His tenure thus spanned four terms in office, during which he participated in the democratic process at the national level and contributed to the legislative work of the House of Representatives in the years following World War I and into the early stages of the Great Depression.

Hale’s congressional service ended abruptly when he died in office. In 1931 he traveled abroad as part of his duties and attended an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Bucharest. While returning to the United States from London aboard the SS President Harding, he became ill. When the ship arrived in New York on October 22, 1931, he was removed and taken to the Brooklyn Naval Hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He died a few hours later of a cerebral embolism on October 22, 1931. Fletcher Hale was interred at Union Cemetery in Laconia, New Hampshire, and is remembered among the members of the United States Congress who died in office between 1900 and 1949.