Hatch was born on November 27, 1889, in Kirwin, Phillips County, Kansas, the son of Esther Shannon (Ryan) and Harley Atwood Hatch.[1] Hatch attended the public schools of Kansas and Oklahoma and then received a Bachelor of Laws in 1912 from the Cumberland School of Law (then part of Cumberland University, now part of Samford University) and was admitted to the bar the same year. He entered private practice in El Dorado, Oklahoma from 1912 to 1916. He was in private practice in Clovis, New Mexico in 1916 and from 1929 to 1933. He was an assistant attorney general for the State of New Mexico from 1917 to 1918. He was the Collector of Internal Revenue for the State of New Mexico from 1919 to 1922. He was a Judge of the New Mexico District Court for the Ninth Judicial District from 1923 to 1929. He served on the state board of bar examiners from 1930 to 1933. He was United States Senator from New Mexico from 1933 to 1949.[2][3]