Early Life
Hawley was born on a farm in the old Belknap settlement near Monroe in Benton County, Oregon, on May 5, 1864. After he attended country schools, he entered college. In 1884, he graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Hawley was the principal of the Umpqua Academy from 1884-86. In 1888, he received a bachelor of arts degree from the school along with a Bachelor of Laws from the law department.
Next, he served as president of the Oregon State Normal School at Drain south of Eugene from 1888-1891. During this time he earned a masters degree from Willamette in 1890 and the following year joined the faculty at his Alma mater. Hawley became the president of Willamette, serving in that position from 1893 to 1902 while he was professor of history and economics for sixteen years at the school.
After wards, he had a variety of business and educational ventures before entering politics. Hawley then was a member of the National Forest Reservation Commission and a member of the Special Committee on Rural Credits created by Congress in 1915. Additionally, he served as a member of the Commission for the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of president and general George Washington.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)