Born at Westfield, Orleans county, Vermont, October 21, 1811. At the age of twenty his time was given him and $100.00 with which he began his business career. In 1831, he immigrated to Ohio and settled near Mount Vernon, where he and a brother-in-law built a saw mill. After two years, he sold out and returned to Vermont. On November 16, 1834, he was married to Mathilda O. Brown and soon returned to Mt. Vernon. After two years of pioneering, he again returned to his old home. When with a younger brother, he engaged in the hardware business at St. Johns, Canada, but in 1856 again sold and emigrated to Mitchell county, Iowa, arriving early in the spring and settling on a farm southeast of Osage. A new house was built the same year, and the family moved in December 1st. After a few years, he rented the farm and moved to Osage, where he engaged in business. Having a general store, a shoe shop and a blacksmith shop, he succeeded Dr. Moore as County Judge in 1857. During his term of two years, the present Court House was built. He was greatly interested in the growth of the town, helped to organize the Osage National Bank, and was elected its first president. In 1875, he was elected State Senator without opposition. He died at Des Moines, March 16, 1876, while attending the sixteenth session of the General Assembly. The seventeenth session Senate journal’s memorial resolution noted that Hitchcock died the last day of the sixteenth session, and at the hour of final adjournment.