Nathan Hale (journalist)

[1] Born in Westhampton, Massachusetts, Hale graduated from Williams College in 1804, and then was a tutor for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy.

[2] He began to co-edit The Weekly Messenger in 1813 and founded the Boston Daily Advertiser that same year, serving as editor and publisher until his death in 1863.

In 1842, he was asked by the firm of Bradbury, Soden and Company to suggest an editor for a new monthly magazine they were planning to publish, The Boston Miscellany; Hale named his 21-year-old son, Nathan Hale, Jr., as its founding editor.

[3] Hale was active in promoting industrial improvement, especially the Boston and Albany Railroad and diverting the Lake Cochituate for potable water in the Back Bay, the Neck and the South Cove.

He also published Journal of Debates and Proceedings in the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention (Boston, 1821), and numerous pamphlets on the practicability of railroads, on canals, and other topics.