His father, who had become an adult in Pennsylvania, and had moved first to Michigan, then to Illinois, where he became a farmer and a merchant grain dealer, was a part-time Methodist minister.
His military career was cut short because his father called on Governor Yates to promptly discharge his under-age son.
[1] In 1871, he left Illinois, established a homestead in Sedgwick County, Kansas, where he taught school and studied law for three or four years, until he was admitted to the bar in 1880.
He practiced law until 1885, when President Grover Cleveland appointed him as Registrar of the Wichita Land Office.
In 1926, Dale admitted during a speech that he had been put in jail briefly during 1889 for failure to pay his fee.
[1] One of Dale's early clients in Guthrie was W. J. Gault, who was accused of "Soonerism" The charged accused of Gault of stationing relays of horses in the territory before the run began, so he could get to the site he wanted more quickly that other contestants who started at the legal hour.
To pay the lawyer's fee for defending him, Gault gave Dale half of the 160 acres he had claimed.
Democratic President Grover Cleveland appointed Dale as Associate Justice of the Oklahoma Territory Supreme Court on May 20, 1893.
[1] Dale knew that he needed to deal harshly with outlaw bands who roamed the territory, seemingly at will, and often struck at judges that tried these men.
One such person, Arkansas Tom Jones, a member of the Doolin Gang, was slated to be tried in for murder in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
After the trial was successfully concluded, Dale reportedly returned his own threat by telling one of his own men: