Frank Heywood Hodder was born on November 6, 1860 in Aurora, Illinois. He received his A.B. and Ph.M. in 1883 from the University of Michigan.

Hodder served in the federal government at Washington, D.C. until 1885. From 1885-1889, Hodder served as professor of American history and economics at Cornell University under his former instructor, Charles Kendall Adams. He studied in Germany at the universities of Goettingen and Freiburg between 1890-1891. In 1891, Hodder became an associate professor of American history at the University of Kansas, and was promoted to full professor of in 1893. He became the History Department chairman in 1908.

Hodder was influenced by well-known historians who urged the profession to investigate the historical development of state and local institutions. His research fell within this genre, with several research pursuits on the historical development of Chicago.

Hodder was a member of the Organization of American Historians, Kansas State Historical Society, Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, and the Irving Literary Society. Frank Heywood Hodder died on December 27, 1935.