The Hale Family

By Briarmont Township Archives

The Hale family is the quietest of Briarmont's three founding bloodlines. Three lines — Ashton, Hale, and Briggs — settled Briarmont's earliest homesteads, and of the three the Hales left the thinnest record: a founding homestead, two generations of names, and then silence. The Hale name has been gone from the town's rolls since 1872, but Hale blood runs on through the Ashton and Sweely lines.

Family Tree

Jonas Hale1785–1837married toCharlotte Hale1786–1863née Webster
- Alan Hale1809–1871married toGertrude Hale1814–1887née Rudolph
  - Anderson Hale1838–1872last to carry the name
  - Eliza Mae Ashton1847–1918married toHenry Ashton1843–1918see the Ashton family tree
  - Catherine Sweely1849–1922married into the Sweely family
- Rebecca Hale Ashton1807–1892married toSamuel Ashton1802–1885see the Ashton family tree

A Brief History

Jonas Hale, of the founding Hale homestead, and his wife Charlotte head the line in the record. Their household belongs to Briarmont's earliest settler years, when the town survived on fishing, timber use, small gardens, and coastal trade.

What the Hales are remembered for is not what they built but where their daughters went. Rebecca Hale Ashton — where the Hale and Ashton lines meet — married Samuel Ashton and became grandmother to the Ashtons of the Residence. A generation later Eliza Mae married Henry Ashton, and Catherine married into the Sweely family. With Anderson Hale's death in 1872, no one of the Hale name appears in the record again.

Family Timeline

1830s
The founding Hale homestead

The Hales settle one of Briarmont's earliest homesteads in the town's refuge-settlement years, alongside the Ashton and Briggs lines. Jonas Hale heads the household of the record.
Mid-1800s
The Hale daughters join the Ashton line

Rebecca Hale marries Samuel Ashton — where the Hale and Ashton lines meet — and a generation later Eliza Mae marries Henry Ashton. Hale blood becomes part of both branches of the Ashton family.
1872
The Hale name goes quiet

Anderson Hale dies, and no one of the Hale name appears in Briarmont's record after him. The line continues through its daughters — Ashton and Sweely by marriage.
1922
The last of Gertrude's daughters

Catherine Sweely, née Hale, dies. Of the Hale-born, only Dorothea Ashton — whose exact place in the Hale line is unrecorded — outlives her, until 1962.

Family records

Charlotte Hale

Charlotte Hale, née Webster, was the matriarch of the founding Hale homestead and the wife of Jonas Hale. Hers was a settler household of Briarmont's first years, and like most women of that generation…

Jonas Hale

Jonas Hale (1785–1837) headed the founding Hale homestead, one of the earliest settler households on the Briarmont coast. He and his wife Charlotte belonged to the town’s first, hardest years — when survival meant…

Catherine Sweely

Catherine Sweely, born Catherine Hale, was a daughter of Alan and Gertrude Hale and one of the two sisters through whom the Hale line survived its own name. Born in 1849, she grew up…

Anderson Hale

Anderson Hale (1838–1872), son of Alan and Gertrude, was the last person to carry the Hale name in Briarmont’s record. He died at thirty-four, and with him the name passed out of the town’s…

Alan Hale

Alan Hale (1809–1871) was the son of Jonas and Charlotte and the second-generation head of the founding Hale homestead — the last Hale to keep it under the family name. With his wife Gertrude…

Gertrude Hale

Gertrude Hale (née Rudolph, 1814–1887) married Alan Hale of the founding homestead and became mother to the last Hale generation — her son Anderson and her daughters Eliza Mae and Catherine, who married into…