Obed Hale

Obed Pease Hale (1809–1892) was an American farmer from Paris, Wisconsin who spent a single one-year term as a Free Soil Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, having been elected to represent the newly created Kenosha County. He was succeeded by Christopher Latham Sholes, also a Free Soiler.

Background

Obed P. Hale, son of Obed and Mindwell Hale, was born in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1809. At the age of seventeen he moved to Ohio, and became a farmer. He married Laura B. King, daughter of Jabez and Hannah King, and the first white child born in Chardon, Ohio. They had two sons and two daughters. In 1842, the Hales came to Wisconsin, and settled on a farm in the town of Paris in Kenosha County.

Civic life

Hale was active in local politics, serving as a justice of the peace for about twenty-five years and holding other minor offices. When Kenosha County was separated from Racine County in April 1850, he was elected to the State Assembly running as a (Free Soil) Democrat.

Later life

In 1870, he left Paris for Kenosha, where he resided for the rest of his life. He died in 1892.