MEMORIAL OF ('. 11. IIITC'IICOCK 65 



years to observations, studies, aiul wriiiiigs lor the advancement of this 

 branch of science. Like tlie descent of the mantle of the translated 

 Hebrew prophet to liis favorite disciple and successor, it may be truly 

 said that the geolo<iic devotion and rare tliscernment of the father, 

 p]dward llitclicock. State Geologist of Massachusetts and Vermont, were 

 inherited by tlic son and increased during liis very long service in the 

 States of nortliern New EngUind and in tlie distant islands of the central 

 Pacific Ocean. ^ 



Charles Henry Hitchcock was born in Andierst, Massachusetts, August 

 23, 1S3G, and died in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, November 5, 1919. 

 The founders of the family in America were two brothers from England, 

 the ancestor of this line being Luke Hitchcock, who came in 1695 and 

 settled at AVethersfield, in Connecticut. From him the subject of this 

 sketch was in the seventh generation, and he was equally distant from his 

 maternal ancestor, John White, who similarly was an English immigrant 

 settler of Canton, in Massachusetts. He was the sixth child of Edward 

 Hitchcock, Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in Amherst Col- 

 lege, 1825-45, later its president, from 1845 to 1854, and his wife, Orra 

 White. This mother had such classical learning and scientific and artistic 

 talent that "she could read the Greek Testament and calculate eclipses. 

 . . . She prepared with her own hands many of the numerous illus- 

 trations in her husband's reports and also diagrams for the lecture-room. 

 She took indefatigable pains with the education of her children, placing 

 rtieir moral and religious welfare first.'' 



The father, in addition to the duties of his professorship at Amherst, 

 conducted the geological survey of Massachusetts in 1830 to 1841, its 

 final report being a massive (|uarto volume. From 1835 he was largely 

 occupied during many years with collection and description of the fossil 

 footmarks of the sandstone beds in the valley of the Connecticut Eiver. 

 He was greatly interested in the proper interpretation of the early chap- 

 ters of Genesis and led the way to the general belief that geology is not 

 at variance with the Bible. 



In childhood and early youth, under home influences of these studies 

 and discussions, the boy Charles acquired keen powers of observation, 

 with eagerness to explain and theorize, Avhich caused him to be called 

 "the young philosopher.'' A biographic sketch published in 1898 noted 

 his training in the home, scliool, and college: 



•'Hf sccnx'd to l»(' fonder of liis fjitlicr tlian tlic othci- cliildicn. and was 

 never so hjii)i».v as witli him, Tliroujrh this constant intercourse Charles he- 

 came ahsorhpd in his fatlier's jmrsuits. and jrrcw up into a knowledjre of 

 geolc>j?y from nature and from verbal explanations, a more satisfactory method 

 V — Reix. Okol, Soe. A.m., Vol .'n. IftUi 



