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JOHN A. HALE, M. D. As practicing physician of Alto Pass and founder and editor of its principal newspaper the Enterprise, Dr. John A. Hale is one of the busiest and most prominent men in that thriving little city. A resident of Alto Pass since 1896, he has in the intervening years built up a wide general practice and become well and favorably known among those people who go to make up his clientele, and his further labors as editor of the Weekly Enterprise have brought him a prominence in Union county that renders him a leading figure in his community.
Born December 16, 1866, in Anna, Illinois, John A. Hale is the son of Dr. J. I. Hale, a native of Union county, who is proprietor of the Hale Sanatorium of Anna, details of his life and work being given mention elsewhere in this history of Southern Ilhnois.
John. A. Hale was educated in the Anna schools, and following his public school years he attended and was graduated from the Union Academy of Anna in 1886. Later he was graduated from the Beaumont Hospital Medical College, now comprising the medical department of St. Louis University, in March, 1888. He practiced medicine for six months at Dongola, then in December of that year he located in Olmstead, where he remained for a period of six years in the active practice of his profession. From June, 1894, to 1896 he was occupied as assistant to the Professor of Obstetrics in Beaumont Hospital Medical College in St. Louis, and in June of 1896 he located in Alto Pass, where he has built up an excellent practice. Previous to studying medicine, Dr. Hale had served some little time as a newspaper reporter, and from time to time throughout his college cateer he supplemented his income by his earnings in that manner, on a number of occasions acting as court reporter. These various experiences were of assistance to him when he decided in 1904 to establish a newspaper in Alto Pass. He went about the work, and in that year he succeeded in successfully launching the Enterprise, and it has been since its inception a well patronized and satisfactory newspaper. It is a six column eight page, newsy sheet, deyoted to the best interests of Alto Pass and its people. The plant is thoroughly modern, having a power equipment of approved order, with modern presses and other appliances suited to the requirements of such a plant. On the whole Dr. Hale is quite as successful in his newspaper venture as with his professional career.
Dr. Hale is an inveterate student, and has masfered fully the French, German and Spanish languages, in addition to which he is widely read on all topics touching upon the interests of his professional and business life. He is a well known contributor to a number of the best medical journals, and is local surgeon for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. Fraternally the Doctor is affiliated with the A. F. & A. M., Odd Fellows the Modern Woodmen of Alto Pass. He is also a charter member of the Illinois State Academy of Science, the Union County Medical Society, The American Medical Association and the Illinois State Medical Association.
In 1891 Dr. Hale was married to Jessie Lewis, of Olmstead, the
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daughter of Jesse Lewis, a native of Grayson county, Kentucky. They are members of the Congregational church of Alto Pass.