James Tracy Hale was a lawyer and state judge born in Towanda, Pennsylvania and practicing in Bellefonte in Centre County. He had served in the United States Congress as a Republican throughout the Civil War, in the the 36th, 37th, and 38th Congress. He had just recently returned to Bellefonte from Washington after not seeking re-election when he died of typhoid fever at his home after a short illness. Buried in the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, he was fifty-four years old. (By John Osborne)