Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr.

Hitchcock in 1913

Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr. (November 9, 1891 – January 22, 1958) was on the 1913 College Football All-America Team. From an influential missionary family in the Hawaiian Islands, he went insane during World War I.

Biography

Hitchcock was born November 9, 1891 on Molokaʻi island in the Kingdom of Hawaii. His father was Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Sr. (1864–1931). His paternal grandparents were Edward Griffin Hitchcock (1837–1898), son of Reverend Harvey Rexford Hitchcock (1800–1855), and Mary Tenney Castle (1838–1926), daughter of Castle & Cooke founder Samuel Northrup Castle (1808–1894). His mother was Hannah Julia Meyer (1866–1912)[1] who was daughter of Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer. His father's first cousin was painter David Howard Hitchcock (1861–1943). He also had a great-uncle named Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr. who lived 1835–1891 and published a dictionary of the Hawaiian language while principal of Lahainaluna School.[2]

Hitchcock graduated from Punahou School in 1910 winning the Roll of Honor award.[3] He then attended Harvard University, as did his father.[4] While at Harvard he was the vice-president of the Student Union.[5] He played as a tackle on the Harvard Crimson football team and was on the 1913 College Football All-America Team.[6] He also played as pitcher on the baseball team.[7] He married Eliza Hennessey on June 10, 1913.[8] He graduated in 1914.

In September 1914, Hitchcock entered Harvard Law School. He volunteered to work for the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in World War I, but became ill waiting for a passport. He resigned from the law school and took a job with Firestone Tire and Rubber Company on April 19, 1915. He served in the National Guard in Ohio and Texas. In 1917 he attended the final illness of his brother. By March 1917 he returned to Firestone, but resigned in April to apply for an officer's commission, and was recalled into the National Guard. By August he became 2nd Lieutennant, and 1st Lieutennant October 23, 1917. On January 16, 1918 was sent to France for artillery school. He served as an instructor and in combat that summer. In September he was admitted to a field hospital, and sent back to Washington, DC. He was discharged in April 1919, and on January 1, 1920 admitted to McLean Hospital for the insane.[9]

Hitchcock died January 22, 1958.[10] and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery

References

  1. ↑ Jonathan Tenney (1904) [1891]. The Tenney family, or, the descendants of Thomas Tenney, of Rowley, Massachusetts, 1638-1890. Rumford Press. p. 592.
  2. ↑ Harvey Rexford Hitchcock 1835–1891 (1887). An English-Hawaiian dictionary; with various useful tables: prepared for the use of Hawaiian-English schools. Bancroft Company.
  3. ↑ Punahou School (1911). Catalogue. The School. p. 58.
  4. ↑ Annual report. Volume 61. Hawaiian Mission Children's Society. 1913. p. 46.
  5. ↑ "Hitchcock Resigned Office". The Harvard Crimson. December 13, 1913. Retrieved May 8, 2010. Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr., '14, of Pukoo, Molokal, Rawaii, has resigned as vice-president of the Union, and the governing board has appointed Sydney Proctor Clark '14 of Chestnut Hill, Pa., to fill the vacancy.
  6. ↑ "Harvard University Honorees". The Ivy League. Princeton, NJ, USA: Council of Ivy League Presidents. Archived from the original on 2010-05-09. Retrieved 2013-02-09.
  7. ↑ W. O. Fenn (1914). William Richards Castle, Jr., ed. "Athletics: Baseball". The Harvard graduates' magazine (Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association). p. 640.
  8. ↑ "Molokai (1911-1929) marriage records". state archives digital collections. state of Hawaii. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr.". Harvard Class of 1914—sexennial report (The Class). 1921. p. 131.
  10. ↑ Harvard Alumni Association (1960). Harvard alumni directory. Harvard University. p. 656.

Capt Harvey Rexford Hitchcock, Jr at Find a Grave