23 Facts About Horatio Hale

Horatio Emmons Hale was an American-Canadian ethnologist, philologist and businessman.

Horatio Hale is known for his study of languages as a key for classifying ancient peoples and being able to trace their migrations.

Horatio Hale determined that the Cherokee language spoken by a tribe associated with the Appalachian Mountains and upland areas of the interior American Southeast was one of the Iroquoian family of languages.

Horatio Hale was born on May 3,1817, at Newport, New Hampshire, in the United States, the son of Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer and prominent magazine editor, and David Hale, a lawyer who died when Hale was five.

Three years later, when the United States Exploring Expedition was organized under Charles Wilkes, Horatio Hale was recommended, while yet an undergraduate, for the post of ethnologist and philologist.

From 1838 to 1842, Horatio Hale worked with the expedition, visiting South America, Australasia, Polynesia, and north-western America, then known as Oregon Country.

Horatio Hale began to get involved in local real estate development and other business and educational endeavours.

Horatio Hale continued to reside in Clinton until his death, devoting much attention to the development of the Ontario school system.

In Canada Horatio Hale returned to his study of First Nations and Native Americans.

Horatio Hale was mentored by the Iroquois chiefs George Henry Martin Johnson and John Fraser, whom he met while visiting the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Ontario.

Horatio Hale documented the oral history and rituals of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Horatio Hale was assisted in interpreting the group's wampum belts, which recounted their history.

Horatio Hale studied the Iroquois languages, determining that Mohawk was the oldest.

Horatio Hale made many valuable contributions to the science of ethnology, attracting attention particularly by his theory of the origin of the diversities of human languages and dialects.

Horatio Hale emphasized the importance of languages as tests of mental capacity, and demonstrated that Native American languages were complex and had a high capacity for classification.

Horatio Hale used language as a criterion for the classification of human groups.

Horatio Hale was the first to discover that the Tutelo language of Virginia belonged to the Siouan family, which was more commonly associated with the Dakota and Hidatsa languages and tribes located to the west of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

Horatio Hale was the first to identify the Cherokee language as a member of the Iroquoian family of languages.

Horatio Hale never received a doctorate but his research was recognized through his roles in a number of academic societies.

In 1872, Horatio Hale was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Horatio Hale had already performed a like service for the American Association.

Horatio Hale was a member of the American Folklore Society, serving as its president in 1893.

Horatio Hale was an honorary fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, to which he contributed a number of papers.