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Joshua H. Hatch
Polk County
Born in Williamstown, Orange County, on the 18th of November, 1816. He was descended from one of the New England Puritan families through a line of ancestors who without exception were virtuous men. He is a son of Asa Hatch, a native of Tolland, Conn. The first of the Hatch family to leave Vermont for the West was Joshua. He first went to Rock Island, III., in his early manhood, and during the prevalence of the gold fever in California crossed the plains to the Pacific Coast, where he remained for about three years employed in various occupations. He was elected judge of a court in California during his sojourn in that State, and was ever afterward known as Judge Hatch. In the meantime his brother Hiram had left the East for Rock Island, and shortly after the return of the Judge to that city the two brothers, in 1851, came to Des Moines. Judge Hatch became a prominent business man and representative citizen of the capital city. He dealt quite extensively in real estate, and for a time was a boot and shoe merchant. As Representative from this district he served in the State Senate for a term, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with other official positions. He possessed far more than average ability, and his life of uprightness won him the high esteem of all with whom he had business or social relations.
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