Frederic Thomas Greenhalgh was born on July 19, 1842 in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, the only son among the seven children of William and Jane (Slater) Greenhalgh. His father, who was a cloth printer, emigrated to Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1855, to take charge of the printing department in the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. Shortly after his arrival, he changed the spelling of his name to Greenhalge.
Frederic, after making a good record in the Lowell public schools, entered Harvard College in 1859. Because of financial difficulties and the illness of his father, he was obliged to withdraw at the close of his junior year; but he was awarded his degree by Harvard in 1870, “as of the class of 1862. ” After some experience as a tutor and as a teacher in a small school in Chelmsford (near Lowell), he was accepted in March 1862 as a law student in the office of Brown & Alger. His studies were interrupted by a few months of service with the Commissary Department in the Union army, but ill health prevented his being given a commission, and he returned home, convalescing from malaria, in April 1864.
In 1865, he was admitted to the Middlesex bar and soon afterwards formed the law firm of Howe & Greenhalge. His political career began with his election in 1868 to the Lowell Common Council. In 1872-73 he was a member of the school board; he was justice of the police court from 1874 to 1884; and served two terms, 1880-81, as mayor of Lowell. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the state Senate in 1872, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884.
In 1885 he served in the Massachusetts legislature but was defeated for réélection. In the autumn of 1888, he was chosen as representative from the 8th district to the Fifty-first Congress, in which he was a member of the committee on the civil service, the committee on elections, and the committee on revision of the laws. Although he showed much ability as a debater and was renominated by his party, he was defeated for a second term.
At the state Republican convention, October 8, 1893, Greenhalge was nominated for governor by acclamation, and in the election was victorious by a majority of more than 35, 000 over his Democratic opponent, John E. Russell.
He was subsequently elected by large majorities for two additional terms, in 1894 and 1895. In the gubernatorial chair he showed himself fearless and independent, gaining the respect of the people by his intelligent vetoes.
On Feburary 20, 1894, when a mob of more than five thousand unemployed marched from a mass meeting on Boston Common to the State House, he made an effective speech in which he promised to aid them, and afterwards, when threatened by Morrison I. Swift, their leader, showed such firmness and courage that Swift became “noticeably less belligerent”. He wore himself out by over-conscientiousness in attending to his official duties, and died of a disease of the kidneys while still in office.
Greenhalge was a trustee of the Rogers Hall School, Westford Academy, and the Lowell General Hospital, as well as trustee and president of the Lowell Savings Bank.
He was an alert and active man, fond of outdoor life, especially walking, and he greatly enjoyed his summer home at Kennebunkport, Maine. That he had no small literary gift is evidenced by some of the poems printed after his death in his biography. Socially he was very attractive, although he never failed to maintain his dignity. Politically, he matured rather slowly, but he grew steadily in prestige and influence, and he was never more highly regarded by men of both parties than at the time of his death.
He was married in 1872 to Isabel Nesmith, daughter of John Nesmith, former lieutenant - governor of Massachusetts; they had four children.
