Investigation into the history of New England shows that one of the first names to appear on its pages is that of Hotchkiss. Captain John Hotchkiss having settled at Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1638. From that time on down through the intervening years to the present time the family has taken an important part in affairs of city and state and has always stood for loyalty, for progressiveness and for patriotism. Various representatives of the name have rendered military service to their country in the Revolutionary war, in the Civil war and in other periods of conflict. Herbert F. Hotchkiss of this review is a direct descendant of Captain John Hotchkiss and was born in Cheshire, May 11, 1881, his parents being William A. and Juliet A. (Fenton) Hotchkiss. The father was born in Cheshire, June 25, 1854, and in 1874 came to New Haven, securing a position with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway as a factor in the freight department. He was advanced from time to time through various positions to that of general foreman and continued with the company for twenty-eight years. He then decided to engage in business on his own account and fought the S. A. Lewis Transfer Company, doing an expressing and hauling business. This was in 1908 and he has since been at the head of the concern now conducted under the name of W. A. Hotchkiss & Company, the partners being William A. and Herbert F. Hotchkiss, engaged in the trucking and piano moving business. William A. Hotchkiss was united in marriage to Juliet A. Fenton, who was born in Cheshire, May 30, 1855, and both are now living in New Haven.
    Their only child, Herbert F. Hotchkiss, began his education in the New Haven public schools and passed through consecutive grades to the Hillhouse high school, afterward becoming a student in the Sheffield Scientific School. He was graduated from Yale with the class of 1901, but prior to this had entered upon business activities, being numbered among the employes of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company from 1893 until 1909. save that he spent three years of that time in Yale. In the latter year he resigned his railroad position to become the partner of his father in the transfer business, which they have since actively and successfully conducted, being accorded a liberal patronage.
     On the 2d of June, 1906, Mr. Hotchkiss was married to Miss Nellie E. Cramer, of Middletown, Connecticut, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Cramer and a descendant of an old Massachusetts family. In the maternal line she is connected with the Strong family which was established at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1636. Mr. Hotchkiss is a member of the Young Men's Republican Club, belongs to the Yale Alumni Association and fraternally is connected with the Royal Arcanum, while the rules which govern his life are indicated in the fact that he holds membership in the Church of the Redeemer. Both he and his wife are connected with very old and prominent New England families and they are well known socially in New Haven.