HALE, HAZARD PERRY (1814–1882). Hazard Perry Hale, merchant, legislator, and Confederate officer, was born on March 13, 1814, in Georgia. Hale was a public official in Milam County. He was elected county commissioner of Milam County in 1854. In 1855 he was elected to the Sixth Texas Legislature as a representative from Milam County. He owned three slaves in 1860. Hale served in the Texas State Troops District Twenty-seven during the Civil War. He succeeded Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson as brigadier general of the district in 1862 and served as its commander until 1864.
Hale was a popular businessman in Bryant Station, then in the 1870s in Rockdale. By all accounts his mercantile was extremely successful. When he died on May 28, 1882, all of the businesses in town closed, and the town was "draped in mourning." He is buried in the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: History Web site (http://jamesewilliams.tripod.com/index-2.htm), accessed August 28, 2006. Milam County, Texas-Public Officials, "Members of the Legislature of the State of Texas for Milam County, Texas, 1846-1949" (http://www.geocities.com/milamco/), accessed August 28, 2006. Milam County, Texas-Public Officials, "County Commissioners" (http://www.geocities.com/milamco/), accessed August 28, 2006. Milam County, Newspapers, Cameron Herald 1882 (http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/milam/), accessed August 28, 2006. James A. Mundie, Jr., with Bruce S. Allardice, Dean E. Letzring, and John H. Luckey, Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables: A Biographical and Pictorial Field Guide (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill College Press, 2002). Rockdale History (http://www.forttumbleweed.com/rockdale.html), accessed August 28, 2006.
