HARRY   WEBSTER   HITCHCOCK

Harry W. Hitchcock is a wholesale coal dealer of New Haven who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 11, 1872. While born in the south, he is a representative of one of the old Connecticut families which was founded in America by Robert Hitchcock, who came to the new world at an early period in its development. Henry W. Hitchcock, father of our subject, was a native of Fairhaven, Connecticut, and was engaged in the oyster and fruit packing business. About 1867 he located in Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent the greater part of his life, but his death occurred in New Haven in 1911, when he was sixty-seven years of age. His wife bore the maiden name of Katherine Candee and was a native of Oxford, Connecticut, her father being Enos Candee, while her mother was Elizabeth (Perkins) Candee, both being representative old Connecticut families. The ancestral line is traced back to Job Candee, who was born in West Haven, Connecticut, in 1759 and died in Oxford, December 2, 1845. He was married in Southbury. Connecticut, October 3, 1784. He had eight brothers: Caleb, who was born in 1743 and died at the age of eighty-six years; David, who was born in 1747 and passed away at the age of ninety-four; Gideon, who was born in 1749 and died at the age of seventy; Timothy, who was born in 1751, removed to Pompey and died at the age of eighty-three; Samuel, born about 1754, who died at the age of eighty-seven; Justus, born February 17, 1756, who died when eighty-five years of age; Nehemiah, born March 14, 1758, who reached the age of seventy-six years, and Daniel, born February 19, 1762. who was sixty-nine years of age when called to his final rest. It is said that all nine sons fought in the Revolutionary war. There was one other child of the family who died in early life. Job Candee was only seventeen years of age when in July, 1776, he enlisted as a musician under Colonel Jabez Thompson. The next year he joined the ranks as a private and served under different enlistments until the close of the war. He enlisted February 9, 1779, in Captain Phineas Bradley's company of Matrosses Artillery. This company was raised for the defense of New Haven and was stationed partly in the town and partly at East Haven and West Haven at the time of Tryon's invasion. On the 3d of April, 1780, Job Candee enlisted in Canfield's Militia Regiment at West Point. He is mentioned in the Connecticut Men of the Revolution as a pensioner in 1840, when eighty years of age. That he continued his military service is indicated in the fact that lie was a lieutenant in 1792 and a captain in 1802. He was also prominent in other ways, serving as a member of the Connecticut legislature. He was married in Southbury, Connecticut, October 3, 1784, and his children were: Laura, who was baptized December 24, 1783, and who became the wife of Daniel Tucker; Horace, who was baptized December 24, 1788, and married Caroline Judson; Esther, who was baptized August 16, 1789, and became the wife of Charles Tomlinson; Enos, who was born April 9, 1793, and married Elizabeth Perkins; Leverett, who was born in June, 1795, and married Jane Tomlinson and was the founder of the L. Candee Rubber Company, of New Haven; Roxa, who was baptized May 9, 1802, and married Charles Booth; Sarah, who was born June 15, 1807, and married Ebenezer Fairchild. The Candee family is of French origin and the first of whom we have record was Caleb Candee, the father of Captain Job Candee. The latter was the father of Enos Candee, who in turn was the father of Mrs. Henry W. Hitchcock. By her marriage Mrs. Hitchcock had two children; Harry W., whose name introduces this review; and Bessie, the wife of Charles H. Kinney, of Waterbury.

In the public schools Harry W. Hitchcock pursued his education, attending school in New Haven and also becoming a student in the Baltimore City College, from which he was graduated in 1888. His first position after leaving college was that of bookkeeper in the employ of Samuel R. Boyd & Company of Baltimore, who were wholesale lumber merchants of that city. After a short time, however, he returned to New Haven and secured a position with Williams, Wells & Company, wholesale coal dealers, continuing with that firm for about twenty years. He was next sales agent with C. H. Sprague & Son of Boston, with headquarters at No. 938 Chapel street in New Haven, where he continued for about six years. He was next with the New England Coal & Coke Company of Boston, with headquarters in the Chamber of Commerce building, and in January, 1914, he established business on his own account as a wholesale coal dealer in New Haven. Here he has since remained and has built up a business of large and gratifying proportions, having an extensive trade which brings to him a gratifying annual income. He confines his attention to the wholesale business and the methods which he employs are those which bring the most desired results.

On the 3d of March, 1897, Mr. Hitchcock was married in Dwight Place church of New Haven by the Rev. Dr. J. E. Twitchell, to Miss Elizabeth Klock, a native of New Haven and a graduate of the Hillhouse high school. Her parents were Irving Berkman and Juliette (Mosher) Klock, both deceased. They were representatives of old New England families prominent in the history of this section. Mr. Klock was for many years actively engaged in the drug business. To Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock have been born three children: Wooster K., who was born in New Haven, August 4, 1809; Elizabeth Alden, born in New Haven, June 1, 1903; and Harry Brainard, born September 17, 1910.

In his political views Mr. Hitchcock is a republican. He has served on the board of finance and on the building lines commission for the past live years. He is also a member of the commission on the revision of the building code and he is alderman of the tenth ward, having been reelected at the last election. He has always taken an active part in political and civil matters and stands for progress and improvement long all those lines which lead to public benefit. He was appointed on the building lines commission by Mayor Rice and was reappointed by Mayor Campner, his present term expiring on the 1st of February. 1922. Fraternally Mr. Hitchcock is connected with Trumbull Lodge, No. 22, A. F. 4 A. M. He belongs also to the Union League Club, to the Young Men's Republican Club, to the Congregational Club, to the Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Federation—associations which indicate much of the nature of his interests and the rules that govern his conduct. His military experience has covered service with the Governor's Foot Guard. His religious faith is indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Dwight Place Congregational church and was superintendent of its Sunday school for a long period. He is also a member of the societies committee of that church and he has done everything in his power to promote its growth and extend its influence. He deserves much credit for what he has accomplished in life, for he started out in the business world as an office boy, working at a salary of three dollars per week, and his success is due to his own efforts. He is indeed a self-made man and deserves all the praise which that term implies.