George B. Hitchcock
Reverend George Beckwith Hitchcock (1812–1872) was an American involved in housing slaves on their way to freedom. His house in Lewis, Iowa, now a National Historic Landmark, was part of the Underground Railroad.
Life[edit]
George Beckwith Hitchcock was born in Massachusetts January 9, 1812. His father was David Hitchcock Jr. and mother was Sarah Swan. His older brother Harvey Rexford Hitchcock (1800–1855) was ordained a minister and became a missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1831.[1] He was against slavery, and joined the abolitionism movement known as the Underground Railroad. He became an ordained minister in 1844 for the Congregational Church, becoming a travelling preacher in Iowa. He settled in Lewis, Iowa in the mid-1850s, and he lived in a log cabin until the completion of his stone house in 1856.[2] The Reverend George B. Hitchcock House is now a museum. He moved to Missouri in 1865, and began preaching to newly freed blacks, moving to Kansas to do the same two years later.[3] Hitchcock died August 4, 1872, of presumed natural causes.
References[edit]
- ^ "Hitchcock Family History". Hitchcock House web site. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ Leah D. Rogers and Clare L. Kernek (November 15, 2004). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Reverend George B. Hitchcock House" (pdf). National Park Service.
- ^ "George B. Hitchcock House". Aboard the Underground Railroad. US National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011. Retrieved May 14, 2010.