Vol. VIII] IN MEMORIAM: THEODORE HENRY HITTELL 3 



season by a few oases of green. "On the whole coast of Cali- 

 fornia, there was not a light house, a beacon, or a buoy, and the 

 charts were made up from old and disconnected surveys by 

 British, Russian and Mexican voyagers." At that time, Cali- 

 fornia, except for a short season, was substantially a vast, for- 

 bidding, unlovely waste. Its possibilities were not suspected. 

 It awaited the magic touch of Anglo Saxon civilization. 



It was on April 5, in this year of 1830, that Theodore H. 

 Hittell was born, in Marietta, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 

 As would naturally be expected of one of his strong and versa- 

 tile character, his ancestors were sturdy, thrifty and solid 

 people. His paternal great grandfather, Peter Hittel, was a 

 Protestant, brought up in Rhenish Bavaria, and driven into 

 exile by religious persecution. He, with a brother, escaped 

 into Holland, thence coming to America in 1720, and settled 

 down in Upper Milford Township, in Lehigh County, Penn- 

 sylvania, w^here he passed the remainder of his life as a farmer. 

 He was successful, progressive and energetic, and was a force- 

 ful, and useful member of the community. 



Peter's son, Nicholas Hittel, the grandfather of Theodore, 

 remained on the farm in Upper Milford Township. He was a 

 man of prodigious physical strength, and was an industrious 

 and successful farmer, and, it is said, came to be regarded by 

 his neighbors as a sage. He married Susanna de Vesqueau, 

 or Wesco, as the family name was later called. Her father, 

 Francis de Vesqueau, was a French Huguenot, and was driven 

 by religious persecution from his home in Alsace, and came by 

 way of Holland to Pennsylvania. He and his two sons served 

 in the American Revolution, Francis being in the Second 

 Battalion, Second Company of Northampton County, Penn- 

 sylvania. Nicholas Hittel also served in the American Revo- 

 lution in the Northampton County Militia, from 1778 to 1782. 

 The family of Nicholas and Susanna consisted of eleven 

 children. 



Jacob Hittel was the eighth son and the last child of Nicho- 

 las. He was the father of Theodore and was as remarkable a 

 man as his son. He was brought up as a farmer's boy, and at 

 fifteen years of age, he could speak only in Pennsylvania Ger- 

 man. He hungered for an education and began attendance at 

 an English school. This was three miles and a half from his 

 home, and he walked to school and back every day, whatever 



