Franklin D. Hale

Franklin D. Hale (March 7, 1854 – April 21, 1940) was a Vermont politician who served as State Auditor and want on to a career as a diplomat.

Early life Franklin Darius Hale was born in Barnet, Vermont March 7, 1854, a son of Sprague T. Hale and Nancy May (Moulton) Hale. He was educated in Concord, Vermont and attended high school, first in Northfield, and then at St. Johnsbury Academy. He was raised on his family's farm, and after high school he received his teaching credentials and taught school in Colebrook, New Hampshire, Dalton, New Hampshire, Waitsfield, Vermont, and Lunenburg, Vermont.

In 1877, Hale graduated from the University of Michigan Law School with his LL.B. degree. He was subsequently admitted to the bar, and practiced law first in Lewiston, Maine, and then in Lunenburg. He served as Essex County State's Attorney from 1883 to 1885, 1888 to 1891, and 1901 to 1902. From 1899 to 1900 Hale was Chief Clerk to the Treasurer during the United States Military Government in Cuba that followed the end of the Spanish–American War. They were the parents of four children, Susan Belle (died young), Susan May, Charles Silsby, and Bernard Franklin. and in 1907, Hale married Jennie A. Silsby, the sister of his first wife.

Hale was also a poet, and authored 1929's Reveries of Vermont.

Hale died in Lyndon Center, Vermont, on April 21, 1940. His funeral took place at Lunenburg's Congregational church, and he was buried at the nearby Riverside Cemetery.