Calvin Milton Hitch

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1869-1944 | lawyer, legislator, public administrator, diplomat, banker, civic organizer, and reported railroad charter petitioner

Calvin Milton Hitch spent the first half of his career moving outward from Brooks County and the second half bringing his experience home. He began in Quitman banking and law, represented Brooks County in the Georgia House, worked for three governors and a United States senator, and served abroad for about two decades. After retiring from the Foreign Service, he returned to Quitman and helped reorganize a bank, organize the county chamber of commerce, reopen the tobacco market, and build Brooks County Hospital.[1][2][3]

Folks Huxford names Hitch among the men who petitioned for the South Georgia Railroad charter in 1896, but the original petition was not inspected. No located evidence puts him on the subscription committee, the first board, the officer slate, or the operating staff. No source found in this research states how much stock he subscribed, or even proves that he completed a stock purchase.[1][4]

Early life and education

Hitch was probably born at Morven, Georgia, on July 28, 1869. The date and place appear in his Social Security claim record, and his obituary says he would have turned seventy-five on July 28, 1944. The 1900 census instead reports March 1870, while later census ages alternate between birth years of about 1869 and 1870. The Georgia death index and contemporary obituary fix his death in Brooks County on July 6, 1944.[5][6][7][13] The 1870 census places a child called Milton in the Brooks County household of Robert and Martha Hitch. In 1880, ten-year-old M. C. Hitch appears as a son of R. M. Hitch in the Morven district. The names, siblings, ages, and location make this a continuous childhood household.[8][9]

Folks Huxford identifies his parents as Dr. Robert Marcus Hitch and Martha Serena Fall. The census evidence strongly supports Robert as his father and Martha as his probable mother, but it does not itself supply either parent's full name. By 1880, R. M. Hitch's wife was recorded as A. E. Hitch, whose biological relationship to Calvin was not established in the records reviewed.[1]

The 1932 State Department register says Hitch attended Emory College from 1887 through 1889 and then attended business school. Huxford names the second institution as the Commercial College of Kentucky University at Lexington and calls him a graduate. The 1940 census reports two years of college. No diploma or institutional register was inspected, so the attendance is better documented than a specific degree or graduation year.[2][10]

Marriage and household

Hitch married Ida Blanche Parrish in Berrien County. The original marriage register was inspected for this dossier. It records a license for "C. W. Hitch" and "Ida B. Parrish" on January 26, 1890, followed by a marriage return dated January 27. The entry explains why one index gives January 26 and another gives January 27. The initials do not match Calvin's usual name, but Ida's identity, the place, the date, and the later census and passport chain make the identification strong probable. Huxford's February 19 date conflicts with the original register and is not followed here.[11][12][1]

The 1900 census finds Calvin, Ida, and their son Guy boarding at 65 Capitol Avenue in Atlanta. Calvin was working as a sawyer. In 1910 he was an insurance salesman on Washington Street, with Ida and Guy still in the household.[13][14] Their son appears as Guy Hitch in 1900 and Guy H. Hitch in 1910. Huxford calls him Guy Harvard Hitch, but the middle name was not independently established from an original vital record.[1]

The overseas censuses continue the same household. In 1920 Hitch was enumerated with the United States Consular Service. The automated index assigns implausible family relationships to unrelated officials, so those labels were rejected. The 1930 census places Calvin and Ida at Basel, Switzerland. In 1940 they were back at 712 North Court Street in Quitman, where Calvin's occupation was recorded as executive manager.[15][16][10]

Banking, law, and the legislature

Hitch's first documented public work was local. A March 1894 report named him to Quitman's five-member board of education for a two-year term.[17] Huxford says he read law while working at the Bank of Quitman, became its cashier in January 1895, and served as attorney for the Brooks County Building and Loan Association.[1] A January 1897 burglary report independently called him cashier of the Bank of Quitman.[18]

The most reliable description of his prosecuting office comes from federal personnel registers. The 1932 register calls him solicitor of the Brooks County Court from 1892 through 1896. Earlier editions summarize the work as prosecuting attorney for Brooks County from 1890 through 1896, while Huxford gives 1892 through 1895. His 1944 obituary elevated the title to solicitor general of the Southern Judicial Circuit, but no appointment or election record was found to support that broader office. The county-court title is therefore used here.[2][3]

Hitch served as Brooks County's representative in the 1896-97 legislature. A March 1896 report said he faced no opposition for the seat, while Huxford says he was elected that October to a two-year term. The State Department register's 1896-97 summary and Huxford's term description do not align perfectly.[19][1][2] In September 1897, the Macon Telegraph printed his detailed speech on Georgia's convict system and identified him as a member of the House penitentiary committee. The speech shows that he did more than occupy the seat: he engaged one of the legislature's most difficult policy questions and argued from his committee's inspection work.[20]

Telephone and railroad ventures

Hitch participated in two local infrastructure efforts during the same period. In February 1896, he joined J. O. Bradley, Dr. E. A. Jelks, and other Quitman men in forming a stock company for a telephone system. A contemporary report said enough telephone subscriptions had been obtained to proceed. These were subscriptions to the local telephone venture, not South Georgia Railroad subscriptions.[21]

Huxford later named Hitch among the incorporators of the Quitman Telephone Company on December 7, 1896. That corporate role is consistent with the February organizing report.[1]

For the South Georgia Railroad, the evidence is narrower. Huxford includes Calvin M. Hitch among the twenty-six petitioners for the railroad charter in February 1896. The surviving organizational reports name other men to the subscription committee, the founding board, and the first officer slate. Hitch does not appear in those groups. His banking and legal background may explain why he was a plausible incorporator, but it does not prove that he performed the railroad's legal work, solicited subscriptions, served as a director, or bought a particular number of shares.[1][4]

Georgia executive service

Governor Allen D. Candler appointed Hitch second executive clerk in November 1898.[22] He continued in the executive department under Governor Joseph M. Terrell. Contemporary coverage says he then left for work with Senator Augustus O. Bacon before returning to Atlanta government. On June 29, 1907, Governor Hoke Smith appointed him secretary in the executive department and warrant secretary.[23]

The work could be substantive. In 1908, Smith sent Hitch and George Tumlin to inspect the state prison farm and juvenile reformatory at Milledgeville. Their report recommended pardons or clemency for fifty-four inmates. Smith also assigned Hitch to consolidate Georgia's presidential and congressional election returns that November.[24][25]

Hitch handled political organization as well. In 1910 he directed correspondence for Hoke Smith's campaign, served as secretary of the campaign committee, and became one of the state Democratic convention's secretaries.[26] He returned as Hoke Smith's executive secretary in 1911. During a dispute over sealed gubernatorial communications, Hitch publicly argued that state senate president John M. Slaton had departed from executive-office precedent by opening them. The search found no criminal allegation, ethics charge, or personal scandal involving Hitch.[27]

A proposed move to Senator Hoke Smith's staff did not become his lasting job. By November 1911, Josiah Carter had taken the Senate post and Hitch had become Georgia manager for the Columbian Woodmen insurance organization.[28]

Washington and the State Department

The federal registers give 1907 through 1910 as Hitch's period as private secretary to Senator Augustus O. Bacon. Georgia newspapers place him with Bacon by about 1905, so the exact starting year remains unsettled.[2][23] The 1913 Official Register adds a distinct position: Hitch was then a United States Senate clerk assigned to the Committee on Woman Suffrage, paid $2,100 a year.[29]

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan appointed him assistant chief of the Division of Latin-American Affairs on July 2, 1913. Contemporary reports announced the selection just before the effective date and identified Fred M. Dearing as his predecessor.[30]

Hitch's official consular chronology can be reconstructed from the State Department's registers:

These dates come from the 1916, 1917, 1918, 1924, 1928, and 1932 registers.[2][31][32][33][34] A contemporary report said he would sail for Nottingham on March 17, 1915.[35]

Hitch remained at Nottingham through the First World War. During a 1919 visit to Washington, he described air raids in Nottingham and London and the heavy passport work that followed the armistice. The same interview said his son Guy had served as vice consul at Belfast and assisted survivors of the Tuscania disaster.[36]

His public writing reflected the years abroad. In 1923 the Atlanta Journal published his article about Nottingham and the Dorothy Vernon tradition. In 1926, while serving at Basel, he wrote an argument for strict firearms regulation based on British law.[37][38] These articles show a diplomat interpreting European institutions for a Georgia readership, although they do not establish official United States policy.

The inspected federal registers do not give Hitch's retirement date. A 1937 report said he had retired several years earlier, a 1941 family announcement called him recently retired, and an Associated Press obituary gave 1934. These accounts agree that he left the service before resuming his Quitman career, but they do not establish an exact retirement date.[39][41]

Return to Quitman

Hitch returned to Quitman during a hard period for local institutions. When Citizens National Bank opened on August 25, 1934, he became executive vice president and a director, according to Huxford. The 1944 Associated Press obituary said he became executive officer after the bank-holiday reorganization and remained with the bank until his death.[1][39]

His civic work is unusually well documented because it was recognized while he was alive. In 1937 the Brooks County Kiwanis Club gave him its public-service trophy. The Valdosta Daily Times credited him with helping reorganize the national bank, leading the movement for a forty-bed hospital, helping secure a tobacco market, and organizing and presiding over the Brooks County Chamber of Commerce.[40] Reports from June 1937, when he became ill at the bank, also described Brooks County Hospital as having been built largely through his efforts.[41]

The bank, chamber, tobacco market, and hospital gave Hitch a practical use for the administrative experience he had gained in state and federal service.

Final illness, death, and family

Hitch suffered a heart attack on Sunday, July 2, 1944, and entered Brooks County Hospital. He died there at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 6, less than a month before his seventy-fifth birthday.[7]

The death notice named his wife Ida; son Guy; granddaughter Mrs. Frank Morrison; sisters Lula Hitch Chapman, Mrs. T. A. Rozier, Mattie Hitch, and Mrs. S. G. Etheridge; and his late father, Dr. R. M. Hitch. It said funeral services would be held in Quitman the next day, but arrangements were incomplete when the paper went to press. The follow-up funeral report and burial place were not found despite exact-name, funeral, cemetery, obituary, and adjacent-page searches. No verified Find a Grave memorial was located.[7][39]

Evidence limits

• The original birth certificate, if one exists, was not located. The July 28, 1869 date comes from a government-derived Social Security record and is supported by the obituary, but the 1900 census reports March 1870.
• The marriage register says "C. W. Hitch", not Calvin M. Hitch. The identification is strong probable from the spouse, place, date, and later household chain.
• The State Department registers disagree with some newspapers and Huxford about the opening dates of his county prosecutor and Senator Bacon service. The conflicts are preserved rather than blended into false precision.
• A 1902 report names a Calvin Milton Hitch among Atlanta College of Pharmacy graduates. No second record connects that graduate to this man, so it is not included as part of his education.
• No evidence was found for a South Georgia Railroad role beyond Huxford's report that he was a charter petitioner.
• The official retirement date, final funeral arrangements, and burial place remain unresolved.

Assessment

Huxford places Hitch in the South Georgia Railroad charter group while he was a young bank cashier, lawyer, county prosecutor, and incoming legislator. No located evidence identifies him as a railroad operator. He was also involved in Quitman's telephone venture. Decades later, he applied his administrative experience to the bank, chamber, tobacco market, and hospital in Brooks County.

Sources

1. Folks Huxford, History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), pp. 194, 197-98, 201, 211-14, 346-47, 477-82.
2. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1932), p. 175, Internet Archive.
3. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1916), p. 100, Internet Archive.
4. "South Georgia Railroad Organized", Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, Newspapers.com image 852573116.
5. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, Calvin M. Hitch, Ancestry record 3356632.
6. Georgia Death Index, Calvin M. Hitch, Ancestry record 840268.
7. "Calvin M. Hitch Dies in Hospital", Valdosta Daily Times, July 6, 1944, Newspapers.com image 890350944.
8. 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Robert and Martha Hitch household, Ancestry record 589192.
9. 1880 U.S. census, Morven district, R. M. Hitch household, Ancestry record 8268502.
10. 1940 U.S. census, Quitman, Calvin M. Hitch household, Ancestry record 57370974.
11. Berrien County marriage register, C. W. Hitch and Ida B. Parrish, original image.
12. Georgia marriage indexes, Ancestry records 57964 and 1101.
13. 1900 U.S. census, Atlanta, Ancestry record 8898681.
14. 1910 U.S. census, Atlanta, Ancestry record 3447804.
15. 1920 U.S. census, U.S. Consular Service, Ancestry record 105959043.
16. 1930 U.S. census, Basel, Ancestry record 102401244.
17. "Quitman's School Board", Savannah Morning News, March 29, 1894, Newspapers.com image 852572845.
18. "Bank at Quitman Robbed", Daily Times-Enterprise, January 21, 1897, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
19. Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, Newspapers.com image 852573152.
20. "The Convict Question", Macon Telegraph, September 24, 1897, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
21. "Quitman to Have a Telephone System", Atlanta Constitution, February 7, 1896, Newspapers.com image 26809619.
22. Atlanta Journal, November 1, 1898, Newspapers.com image 969453966.
23. Atlanta Journal, June 30, 1907, Newspapers.com image 969916099.
24. Atlanta Journal, September 30 and October 4, 1908, images 970009112 and 969951966.
25. Atlanta Journal, November 11, 1908, Newspapers.com image 969962453.
26. Atlanta Journal, August 24 and September 1, 1910, images 969914582 and 969951763.
27. Atlanta Journal, May 27 and August 21, 1911, images 969919342 and 969926699.
28. Atlanta Journal, November 15, 1911, Newspapers.com image 969948323.
29. U.S. Civil Service Commission, Official Register of the United States (1913), entry for Calvin M. Hitch, Internet Archive.
30. Macon News, June 30, 1913, Newspapers.com image 823496323.
31. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1917), p. 104, Internet Archive.
32. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1924), p. 140, Internet Archive.
33. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1928), p. 151, Internet Archive.
34. U.S. Department of State, Register of the Department of State (1918), p. 122, Internet Archive.
35. Atlanta Journal, March 12, 1915, Newspapers.com image 969936560.
36. Atlanta Journal, May 29, 1919, Newspapers.com image 970614816.
37. Calvin M. Hitch, Nottingham article, Atlanta Journal, December 30, 1923, Newspapers.com image 970917128.
38. Calvin M. Hitch, firearms-law article, Atlanta Journal, May 30, 1926, Newspapers.com image 972298237.
39. Associated Press obituary, Ledger-Enquirer, July 7, 1944, Newspapers.com image 852499077; Hitch family announcement, Atlanta Constitution, September 14, 1941, Newspapers.com image 384670830.
40. Brooks County Kiwanis award report, Valdosta Daily Times, November 6, 1937, Newspapers.com image 890532577.
41. Macon Telegraph, June 5, 1937, Newspapers.com image 826243297.