Family Reunion: Hale(s)

Going four generations back to find another line

This surname can be found among my Sixteen great-great-grandparents. We have to go that far back to find the first Hale:

Alice A Hale (16 Apr 1865 - 24 May 1942) was the maternal grandmother of my grandpa Bob Callin.

4 Generations: Alice Cramer holding her granddaughter, Yvonne Callin (born 9 May 1907), seated next to her father, Thomas B Hale, and her daughter, Bertha Callin - in Fostoria, Ohio.

Alice’s first husband, Allen Greenlee, was my great-grandmother Bertha’s father. He died of typhoid fever in 1887 when Bertha was only two years old. Alice remarried George Cramer, who adopted Bertha and raised her as his own.

Alice’s father was Thomas B (for “Baker”?) Hale - the missing “s” on his headstone suggests he spelled his name without it, though records indicate that his ancestors used “Hales.” Thomas was born on 1 Apr 1836 in Washington Township, Hancock County, Ohio. His records are easily confused with Thomas Jefferson Hale, who was born 25 Sep 1836-died 24 Mar 1919 and was buried in Arcadia Cemetery, Hancock County, Ohio.

Thomas and his first wife, Mary Bowman (1835-1862), had two daughters and a son. Alice was the oldest daughter of Thomas and his second wife, Elmira Spitler (1843-1904) - they had three daughters and three sons.

Thomas was the son of Baker Hales (1803–1880) and Ann Bailey (1813–1902), the oldest of their six children. Baker Hales came to Hancock County from Brooke County, Virginia, (present-day West Virginia) with his elderly father, William, and a sister. I’m pretty sure his mother’s name was Elizabeth Baker, thus his given name. Baker was named as executor of the will of Grafton Baker - who might be his uncle - in 1849.

I have a lot of work to do to sort out all of the conflicting evidence before I can say which Hales and Bakers are related to Baker Hales, but both sets of families appear to have lived in Baltimore and Harford counties in Maryland before moving west. If you think you’re related to either family, please let me know!

(Boy, I sure hope there’s a reliable book out there that will do the heavy lifting for me.)