Napoleon B. Hale, a rising young lawyer of Concord, was born in Sanbornton, N.H., April 4, 1863, son of Herman T. and Hannah G. (Sanborn) Hale. His father also was a native of Sanbornton, Jacob T. Dolloff, but changed it to Herman T. Hale. His paternal grandfather, John Dolloff, grandson of Samuel Dolloff, is said to have been of Russian descent. He was one of the first settlers of Sanbornton, where he passed the greater part of his life in farming. Mr. N. B. Hale’s grandmother, the wife of John Dolloff, was Nancy Thomas, whose father, Jacob Thomas, was at fifteen years of age a fifer in the Revolutionary War. He was a son of Jonathan, a noted hunter in the olden time, last heard from as a scout in Maine. He is reputed to have married an Indian squaw.
Through his mother the subject of this sketch is a descendant, in the tenth generation, of John Sanborn, who was born about 1600, in Derbyshire, England, and died there in young manhood. His widow, a daughter of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler, came to this country with her father and her sons in 1632, and in 1638 settled at Hampton, N.H. The eldest son, Lieutenant John, born about 1620, was for many years a Selectman of Hampton and a Representative to the General Court. His son Richard, the third in line, was the father of Ensign John, whose son Ebenezer, born in 1712, was a prominent citizen of Hampton, serving as Town Clerk and Selectman, also as Sheriff of the county, and was a commissioned officer in the old French war. Sergeant John, son of Ebenezer, born in 1736 at Hampton, served in the old French war and also in the Revolution. He was the first permanent settler of Sanbornton, N.H., where he built a house in 1765. Jeremiah, seventh in the ancestral line, born in November, 1764, at the age of fifteen enlisted as a nine months’ man in the Continental army, and was at West Point at the time of Arnold’s treason. Later in life he was for two terms a Representative from Hampton to the General Court; and in 1812 he was chosen messenger to carry the votes of this State for President to Washington, D.C. His son, Jesse Sanborn, born in 1794, a highly intelligent, capable man, an excellent school teacher, also a farmer and a Captain in the militia, was the father of Hannah G. Sanborn, who became Mrs. Hale.
Herman T. Hale, son of John and Nancy (Thomas) Dolloff, born July 15, 1820, spent the greater part of his life as a farmer in Sanbornton; but for some ten years he conducted a grist-mill at Hillsborough Bridge. He was a man prominent in local affairs, and was elected to the office of Selectman, though a Republican in the midst of a strong Democratic community. He died August 3, 1886, aged sixty-six years. He was twice married; and by his first wife, Elvira M., daughter of Jesse and Martha (March) Sanborn, of Sanbornton, he had four children, two of whom died young. The two still living are: Sarah Augusta, who married Aaron Eastman, and resides in Sanbornton; and Martha G., who married Frank J. Thomas, and is also a resident of Sanbornton. For his second wife Mr. Herman T. Hale married Hannah G. Sanborn, a sister of his first wife, and by her became the father of three children, namely: E. Lettie, who married Oscar P. Lane, and resides in Laconia; Napoleon B., whose name appears at the head of this sketch; and Charles F., who is unmarried and resides at home.
Napoleon B. Hale was educated in the district schools of Sanbornton and at the New Hampton Literary Institution. Poor health handicapped him for a time, but, gaining in strength, he devoted himself to farming; and after the death of his father he had charge of the home farm for about three years. In May, 1889, he engaged in the study of law with Daniel Barnard, then Attorney General of the State, at his office in Franklin, where he remained Mr. Barnard’s decease Mr. Hale came to Concord and completed his preparatory course of study with Leach & Stevens. He was admitted to the Merrimack County bar, March 17, 1893, and soon after opened an office in Concord. He has since been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. Politically, he affiliates with the Republicans; and he cast his first Presidential vote for James G. Blaine in 1884. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Concord. He is also a member of Kearsarge Lodge, No. 48, K. of P., and Capital Grange, No. 113, P. of H., of Concord.
