San Francisco County
Biographies
MARSHAL HALE
Marshal Hale, vice president of Hale Brothers Stores, Inc., is thus officially identified with a leading mercantile establishment of California and has long enjoyed high standing as one of the most prominent business men, successful financiers and public-spirited citizens of San Francisco. He was born in Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo county, Michigan, February 14, 1866, a son of Marshal and Prudence T. (Dyckman) Hale. Thomas Hale, the American progenitor of the family, left England in 1636 to settle in the Bay State colony. Several of his descendants participated in the Revolutionary war. The earliest representatives of the Dyckman family in this country emigrated from Holland in 1664 and settled in Harlem. Several of the name fought in the struggle for American independence. Mrs. Prudence T. (Dyckman) Hale, daughter of Evert Dyckman, was born in the state of New York and accompanied her parents on their removal to Michigan in the ‘40s. In November, 1873, she came with her husband and children to California, the family home being established in San Jose, where Marshal Hale, Sr., engaged successfully in the dry goods business, thus laying the foundation for the present great Hale mercantile houses. Marshal Hale, Sr., died June 15, 1891, when eighty-two years of age, being long survived by his wife, whose death occurred January 19, 1907, when she was seventy-eight years of age. They were the parents of six children, four of whom survive, as follows: Prentis Hale, chairman of Hale Brothers, Inc.; Mrs. Jennie (Hale) Fisher, of Palo Alto, California; Marshal, of this review; and R. R. Hale.
Marshal Hale acquired his early education in the grade and high schools of San Jose, California, and continued his studies at the University of the Pacific, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1886. The same year he became associated with his father and brothers in the dry goods business in Sacramento, where he and his brothers now conduct the leading department store. In 1887, Marshal Hale became a member of the firm of Hale Brothers & Company, which was incorporated under the name of Hale Brothers in 1896. He was placed in charge of the firm's New York office in 1887, remaining in the eastern metropolis during the succeeding decade. The San Francisco store was established in 1891 and since that time he has continued active in the operation of one of the largest department stores of this city in the official capacity of vice president and general manager. He served as president of the San Francisco Retail Dry Goods Association in 1914 and as president of the California Retail Dry Goods Association in 1915, was a director of the Merchant’s Association of San Francisco for five years and for two terms has been vice president of the National Dry Goods Association, which has its headquarters in New York. Aside from his activities as a merchant, Mr. Hale has been prominently identified with banking and real estate interests of his adopted city. He is ex-president of the Liberty Bank of San Francisco, ex-director of the Bank of America, formerly the Bank of Italy, director of the California National Bank of Sacramento, president and director of the Down Town Association of San Francisco and a director of the Hale Real Estate Company, the Residential Development Company, the Victory Highway and the treasurer of the Panama Realty Company.
On the 19th of January, 1898, in San Francisco, Mr. Hale was united in marriage to Miss Mae Miller, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and a daughter of the late Randolph C. and Ophelia (Goddard) Miller, members of an old and well known Memphis family who came to San Francisco in the early ‘70’s. Mr. and Mrs. Hale are the parents of two sons, Marshal (III) and Randolph M.
Mr. Hale is a stanch supporter of the republican party and an active worker in its ranks, being now chairman of the republican state central committee. He served as president of the state board of harbor commissioners in 1911, during Governor Johnson’s administration, and was playground commissioner of San Francisco for six years. For a period of ten years he filled the presidency of Hahnemann Medical College and Hahnemann Hospital. He was chairman of San Francisco Chapter of the American Red Cross, was appointed a deputy commissioner of the American Red Cross to France at the time of the World war and during the last seven months of the conflict served in France as manager of the South Intermediate Zone, with headquarters at Lyons, holding the military rank of major. Mr. Hale is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and fraternally is affiliated with the Masonic order, which he joined in 1887. He belongs to Sacramento Lodge, No. 40, F. & A. M.; Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M.; Sacramento Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. His name is also on the membership rolls of the Bohemian Club, the Commonwealth Club, the Presidio Golf Club of San Francisco and the Sutter Club of Sacramento.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 17-20.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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