Henry Hitchcock

As printed in 1899

Hitchcock, Henry, lawyer, was born July 3, 1829, at Spring Hill, six miles from Mobile, Alabama. He is the son of Judge Henry and Anne Erwin Hitchcock, and be-

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Я His father, $ Hitchcock, was born in Brimfield, Маза.

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; with lege, where he again graduated es A Nar high honors. He then study не Willis

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2 hus m School at Worcester, Massac then return ember, 1849 nashville, where Villiam that time a member of the Yi afterward a judge of the Supr ing there until Nove ing to his home ın N op, 1861, ME, Tennessee. In September: үн admitted to cock came to St. Louis, I ae ation ing an fin the bar, after passing ambte, chill JU i G ducted by Hamilton R. mare of the Sincere Court of Misso ey after he began the practice of his profession he became assistant editor of the “St. Louis Intelligencer,” a Whig newspaper published in this city, which he represented at the Whig National Convention, held in Baltimore in 1852, and which nominated General Scott for the presidency. Retiring from editorial work at the end of a year, he applied himself assiduously to his profession, and in 1854 made his first appearance before the Supreme Court of Missouri. On March 5, 1857, he married Mary, eldest daughter of the late George Collier, a prominent merchant of St. Louis. Declining criminal practice, he has devoted himself especially to equity and commercial law, and long since took a place among the most eminent of Western civil practitioners. Absorbed in his professional labors, he has had no fondness for either the honors or emoluments of public office, but he has, nevertheless, had at all times pronounced convictions concerning matters political, and has never hesitated to give forcible expression to these convictions, When the Republican party was organized he became a member of that party, and his first political speech was made in advocacy of Lincoln's election to the presidency, in 1860. In 1861 he was one of the fifteen delegates from the city and County of St. Louis elected on the “Unconditional Union Ticket” to the Missouri State Convention, called “to consider the relation of Missouri to the Union.” On the 13th of March, 1861, while sitting in that convention, Mr. Hitchcock made a speech, in answer to Judge Redd, of Marion County, who had argued that Missouri should neither make war against the general government or aid in coercing a seceding State, which is said to have been one of the most masterly speeches made before that convention, He was one of the four delegates who voted against a resolution declaring that slavery should be permitted south of the Missouri compromise line, while all the territory north of that line should be forever free, his conscience permitting him to make no compromise with slavery, He was also one of SIX members of the convention who voted Е resolution, declaring it to be the should er that the Federal government A u draw its troops from the forts of E ns ing States. In July, 1861, he sat in ee ү of the convention which declared eve he offices of Governor, Lieutenant- пог and Secretary of State of Missouri, and members of the General Assembly, repealed certain laws enacted by the General Assembly in May, 1861, in the interests of secession, and established a provisional government, of which Hamilton R. Gamble was the head, which supported the Union cause and controlled the affairs of the State for more than two years. At a still later session of the convention he was a member of the committee of five, charged with the responsibility of formulating legislation providing for the organization of the militia of the State. At the session of the convention held in Jefferson City in June, 1862, he served on the select committee on elections and elective franchise, and aided in the preparation of the ordinance which prescribed a test oath of loyalty for those who should hold office or engage in the practice of certain professions in Missouri. He was also an active participant in the final session of the convention, held at Jefferson City in June, 1863, at which the question of emancipation was considered, and an ordinance passed providing for the final abolition of slavery in Missouri, July 4, 1870.

In October, 1864, he was appointed assistant adjutant general of volunteers in the Union Army, with the rank of major, and assigned to duty as judge advocate on the staff of General W. Т. Sherman, at the latter's request. From that time until the close of the war he was in active service. In that capacity he was with General Sherman on the “March to the Sea,” at Savannah, and through the subsequent campaigns in the Carolinas, which ended in the surrender of General Joe Johnston, in April, 1865. He was present at the conference between Generals Sherman and Johnston at Dunham's Station, in North Carolina, in April, 1865, and bore to Washington the dispatches announcing the famous agreement between them. On June 23, 1865, he was honorably mustered out of service. Immediately afterward he spent several months traveling in Europe, and then returning to St. Louis, resumed his law practice. In 1869 he was urged to accept the appointment of United States circuit judge for the Eighth Circuit, but declined, owing to the wide extent of the circuit and the frequent and protracted absence from home required. His health failing in 1870, he rested for a time from professional labors, and in 1871 spent some months in traveling in China and Japan. Since his return from this trip to the Orient he has been in active practice, and no member of the St. Louis bar has occupied a more commanding position or wielded greater influence. From 1884 to 1890 he was the senior of the law firm of Hitchcock, Madill & Finkelnburg, eminent alike for the ability of all its members and its exceptionally large and important practice. That partnership expiring in 1890 by limitation, Mr, Hitchcock has continued to practice alone, principally in the State and Federal appellate courts and as counsel to large corporations. Besides these strictly professional labors, he has during the period above mentioned fulfilled many important private trusts, including the successful management of several large states and their improvement by the erection of some of the largest and handsomest buildings in the city for business purposes.

He has also devoted much time and labor to various important trusts of a public nature. As a member of the board of directors of Washington University since 1859, and its vice-president since 1885, he has taken an active part in the affairs of that institution. Perhaps his most important service in that connection has been the building up of the law department of the University, known as the St. Louis Law School, which he assisted to organize in 1867, being appointed dean of the law faculty, and continuing to act as such, except when absent as above stated; also lecturing on various important branches of the law until 1881, when he resigned that position, though continuing as professor and lecturer until 1884. For these services he declined to accept any compensation, also contributing liberally to the endowment of the school. In 1875 he received from his alma water, Yale University, the honorary degree of LL. D.

Mr. Hitchcock is a member of the board of trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden, created by the munificent bequest of Henry Shaw, being one of the original trustees named in Mr. Shaw’s will, Ever since the board was organized, in September, 1889, he has been, and still is, its vice-president and chairman of the garden committee, having immediate charge of the garden, and has devoted much time and thought to those duties.

Always actively co-operating with his brethren of the bar in upholding the honor and dignity of the profession, he was elected president of the St. Louis Bar Association in 1880, and in December of that year took part in organizing the Misso tion, of which he w. 1882. He was

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‚ William Allen Butler,

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For many years Mr, Hitchcock has been an earnest advocate of civil service reform. In May, 1881, he organized the Missouri Civil Service Reform Association, and served for several years as its president, always maintaining an active interest in its work. In August, 1881, he was associated with George William Curtis, Carl Schurz, and others in establishing the National Civil Service Reform League, of which he is a vice-president and member of the general committee. At the annual meeting of the League in December, 1897, at the request of its executive committee, he read a paper on “The Republican Party and Civil Service Reform.” which attracted unusual attention.

Mr. Hitchcock is a member of the Missouri Commandery of the Loyal Legion and of Ransom Post, No. 131, Grand Army of the Republic; also of the University, Commercial and St. Louis Clubs, of St. Louis, and of the Union League, University and Lawyers’ Clubs, of New York, * `

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (v. 2) (1899). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.