William Ellery Hale

Hale was born on April 8, 1836, in Bradford, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Hartford High School. ==Career==

Hale first worked as a clerk in Hartford, Connecticut. He joined the Rock River Paper Company in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1857, and he was transferred to their Chicago store in 1862, where he worked until 1871. Hale founded W. E. Hale & Co., a Chicago-based company which pioneered the construction of hydraulic elevators in the West, in 1870. Hale sold it to the Otis Elevator Company in 1887. Hale was a real estate investor in Chicago, where he owned many buildings, including the Reliance Building. He also invested in the railroads. ==Civic activities==

Hale donated $70,000 to Beloit College in 1892. He made donations New West Educational Commission, which built schools in Utah, and he supported the American Board of Foreign Missions ==Personal life and death==

Hale married Mary Scranton Brown in 1862. Hale was a member of the South Congregational Church in Chicago. Hale died of Bright's disease on November 16, 1898, in Chicago. He was buried in the Oak Woods Cemetery. ==References==