Representative Herschel Harrison Hatch

Herschel Harrison Hatch (February 17, 1837 – November 30, 1920) was a lawyer, jurist, and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan. He was born in Morrisville, Madison County, New York, where he attended the common schools. He was a descendant of John Lothropp (also spelled Lothrop or Lathrop), an English Anglican clergyman born in Etton, Yorkshire, in 1584, who became a Congregationalist minister, emigrated to New England, and was a founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts. This New England lineage placed Hatch within a long-established American family with deep colonial roots.

Hatch pursued legal studies in upstate New York and graduated from the Hamilton College Law School in Clinton, New York, in 1857. Shortly thereafter, he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in his native Morrisville. He practiced there from 1858 to 1863, building his early career as an attorney in a period marked by the growing sectional tensions that culminated in the Civil War. His years in New York established his professional credentials and prepared him for the public roles he would later assume in Michigan.

In 1863, Hatch moved west to Bay City, Michigan, a growing community on the Saginaw Bay that was emerging as a regional center of commerce and industry. He quickly became active in local affairs and, at the first organization of the municipal government of Bay City in 1865, he was elected an alderman. His service as an alderman reflected both his legal expertise and his engagement in the civic development of the city during its formative years. Through this role, he participated in shaping the basic framework of local governance in a rapidly expanding community.

Hatch’s municipal service led to broader responsibilities at the county and state levels. He was elected judge of probate of Bay County and served from 1868 to 1872, overseeing matters related to estates, guardianships, and other probate jurisdiction during a time of significant population growth and economic change in the region. In 1873, he was appointed a member of the constitutional commission of Michigan, contributing to the examination and revision of the state’s fundamental law. Later, in 1881, he served as a member of the Michigan tax commission, participating in the oversight and reform of the state’s taxation system. These positions underscored his reputation as a capable lawyer and public servant with expertise in both statutory and constitutional issues.

Hatch’s state and local prominence culminated in his election to the United States House of Representatives. Running as a Republican, he was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress as the first representative of Michigan’s newly created 10th congressional district. He served a single term in the U.S. House from March 4, 1883, to March 4, 1885. During his tenure in Congress, he represented a district encompassing parts of Michigan’s growing lumber and industrial regions, bringing to national office the perspective of a lawyer and jurist familiar with the legal and economic concerns of his constituents. In 1884, he declined to be a candidate for renomination, choosing instead to return to private life.

After leaving Congress, Hatch resumed the practice of law. In 1895, he relocated to Detroit, Michigan, which by then had become the state’s leading urban and commercial center. He continued to practice law in Detroit until 1910, maintaining an active professional life well into his seventies. His long legal career, spanning both New York and Michigan, included service at every level from local government to the national legislature.

Herschel H. Hatch retired from active practice around 1910 and spent the final decade of his life in Detroit. He died there on November 30, 1920, at the age of eighty-seven. He was interred in Elm Lawn Cemetery in Bay City, Michigan, reflecting his long association with the community where he had first established his Michigan career and from which he rose to state and national prominence.