Welcome back to the Hitch Family Newsletter (HFN)! This is lucky Issue Number 13 of this publication, the third following a complete volume of the first ten issues I published as a keepsake for future generations. The volume called Hitch Family Newsletter, Issues 1 through 10, Autumn 1994 through Spring 1997 has been a great success and has received good reviews from people who have gotten a copy. If you are interested in receiving a copy there are still some available so just fill out and return the order form on the back page or send me a postcard.

In other news of note, the Hitch family is now on the Internet! Those of you with Internet access can visit at http://www.geocities.com/eightone_md. I have placed there a wide variety of Hitch-related genealogy and history including photographs, signatures, historical documents and stories. There are also the complete genealogies of the 14 Hitch lines I have been tracking to date.

Also in this issue are two photographs. One is an excellent family portrait of the Tennessee Hitches taken c. 1906. They are descendants of the Christopher Hitch line of Fauquier County, Virginia; taken circa 1906. The other is of Elizabeth (Lizzie) Hitch (1851-1939) of Clark County, Indiana taken in the 1880s, the daughter of John Hitch (1812-1858) and Anna Riggle (1815/17-1898).

I hope you enjoy both stories. Please continue to write to me with your thoughts, suggestions or comments about the HFN and, continue to send me information and stories about your branches of the family. I especially enjoy getting copies of all those old photographs lurking out there. If you have any, please get them to me so that we can make sure that they are saved for posterity.

Recent anniversary celebration of Mr. and Mrs. R.F. Burden recalled their marriage at College 1880 - Other nuptials which have had Wesleyan as a background.

A faded letter, a Golden Wedding and a Wesleyan freshman have combined to revive from the past the romantic episodes in the history of Wesleyan College - both of them weddings.

Minnie (Bass) Burden, daughter of the Rev. W.C. Bass was married to Richard F. Burden Sept. 9, 1880 during her father’s presidency; and they have recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. Frances Elizabeth Hitch, the grand-daughter of Fannie Myers Hitch, who was married to S.W. Hitch during her father’s term as president, is now president of the freshman class at Wesleyan. The faded letter was one found by Mrs. Burden which she received from her mother in 1874, describing Fannie Myers' wedding.

They were also members of the Adelphean Sorority, now known as Alpha Delta Pi. This sorority was organized at Wesleyan and is the oldest in the United States. The hall of this historic organization was the scene of both weddings. It was in the old-old building, a replica of which is to be the new Alumnae House at Rivoli, as George I. Seney had-not yet made possible the "old" Wesleyan or what is now known as the Conservatory.

The Adelphean Hall was at one end of the main floor and the Philomethean Hall at the other. Then the structure was renovated and several floors and spires were added, the Adelphean Hall was made into two rooms and the Philomethean Hall became the Grand Parlor. The sororities were homes on the fifth floor. So the wedding ceremonies were read in what is now known as the president’s office and the Student Government rooms.

A clipping from a Macon Telegraph of 1880 is tucked away in Mrs. Burden’s scrapbook, along with many other records of interesting events in her life. It reads: "Night before last at the Wesleyan Female College Mr. Richard F. Burden was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Bass, daughter of Rev. W.C. Bass, president of Wesleyan Female College. The bridal couple left immediately for Cincinnati and the North.

The scrapbook also contained a newspaper print of a pen and ink sketch of Mr. Burden. When asked if that was the way the groom looked on his wedding day, Mrs. Burden laughingly remarked "No indeed, he had a long beard when we were married, and looked like he was fifty years old." But she hastened to explain that everybody wore beards then.

The wedding was in the evening and the bride wore the conventional white dress and veil; but her bouquet was a nosegay made by Mrs. Woodruff, mother of the Macon Florist, from her own garden flowers. She also made a boutonniere for the groom.

Of course, this popular young couple received many lovely wedding gifts but the one that Mrs. Burden remembered particularly was the Family Bible, presented them by "Aunt Nora" Canning her Sunday School teacher. It was a vast proportions, according to the "bride" and one of her chums, Leila (Burkes) Holmes remarked to the donor; "Well Aunt Nora, you need not give me a Bible when I marry. I had rather have a Jews-harp." Mrs. Burden did not remember what the teacher's gift to Dr. and Mrs. W.B. Holmes was but she knew that it was not a Family Bible similar to hers.

Campbell King is one of three people still living in Macon who attended the Burden's wedding and the only one of their "set". The other two were members of the college family and younger.

He recalled with pleasant reminiscence the jolly times their crowd used to have together. They called themselves the Creme de la Creme club and had many parties and good times in innocent fun.

"We did not run with the fast crowd." he said for none of us danced but sometimes we did go to the theater. We had the beat time of any group in town; and we were all at the wedding."

"We were at the train to see them off; but there was no rough stuff. Of course we threw a little rice around but we did not tie any tin cans as I can remember."

The Golden Wedding celebrated on Sept. 9 by Mr. and Mrs. Burden with a quiet home dinner given by their two daughters, Octavia (Burden) Stewart and Alice (Burden) Domingos, recalls this delightful event fifty years ago which it commemorated. The only guests on this occasion except the immediate family, were Mrs. Ria Burkes and her daughter, Miss Margie Burkes who have both a blood and Wesleyan kinship to the Burdens. Both Mrs. Burden’s daughters are graduates of Wesleyan and Adelpheans. Eugene Burden is their only son.

The wedding of Fannie (Myers) Hitch, daughter of Dr. Edward Howell Myers who was twice president of Wesleyan, occurred on December 3, 1874. The only written record of that wedding is in the letter which Mrs. Burden recently found. Her father and mother were living in the college. This is an extract in the letter:

The Maggie mentioned in the letter as a "young fry" was a younger sister of the bride who, with Mrs. Burden, was visiting away from home at the time. Julian was then about six years old.

Mrs. Burden had been graduated from Wesleyan the summer before and she recalled with great glee the April Fool joke which the senior class played on Dr. Myers. It seems that he did not attend class on time and the Mercer boys had told them how they ‘walked out’ when the professor was late. So the girls first hid under their desks and then, when he did not come, left the class and went down on the back campus. Mrs. Burden said that Dr. Myers did not think their conduct was at all "lady-like" and told them so very emphatically.

Mary (Hitch) Peabody, only daughter of Mrs. Hitch, is living in Macon with her daughter Frances (Peabody) McKay. They are both Wesleyan graduates, and Mrs. Peabody was an Adelphean, having attended there before the sororities were disbanded.

The fact that "Betty" Hitch, the president of the Wesleyan freshman class was called before the sophomore court for being the only "Hitch" in her class, recalls to Mrs. Peabody the conversation of two of the old mammy servants of the college at the time of her mother's wedding. One of them said "Mis’ Fannie is gittin’ married dis mornin’, ain't she? Whose she gwiner marry?" The other replied "Lawd, chile, I der know, it's either Mister Itch or Mister Scratch, I disremember which."

Then the wedding hour was set for 7 o’clock in the morning in order that the bride and groom might attend the luncheon with which Mr. And Mrs. Green (Greenberry Jones Foraker, another uncle and aunt of the groom wished to entertain for them at their Atlanta home. It seems that there was but one train a day running between Macon and Atlanta then.

The story is told of their trip to Atlanta that they had not been on the train long before the nervous young groom felt the need of a smoke, so he left his bride and went into the smoker.

Now the bride was widely acquainted, through her father and numbered among her friends the famous barrister, L.Q.C. Lamar. He happened to be traveling the same route and, passing through the train, spied the pretty young girl sitting alone. He sat down for a chat.

When the young lawyer returned to his seat, he found it occupied by a man who was at the top of the ladder which he had just begun to climb and felt rather timid about intruding, being naturally reticent, also. So he continued up the car and returned, not once but several times.

The Federal Census of 1900 shows Mary F. Hitch in a household in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts with her mother Melanie F. Hitch, brother Frank B. Hitch and cousin Harry G. Macomber. Indeed, my records show Mary French Hitch in the following family:

Joshua Charles Hitch, born 1/1/1829 and died 5/25/1890, married 11/16/1859 to Melanie B. French (3/1841-aft 1920), the daughter of Rodney and Rowena (Burt) French. They had two known children:

• Frank Burt Hitch (7/13/1861-??)
• Mary French Hitch (10/6/1865-??)

Apparently, neither Mary nor her brother Frank Hitch ever married.

In the Census of 1900, Radford T. Hitch is shown as a boarder in a household with his wife Dollie in Greenville County, South Carolina. This also correlates with my records that show Radford in the family as follows:

BACK ROW: Tip Hitch (1874-1920), Bruce Seaton, Fate McGinley, Roy Hitch (1891-1960), Jim Hitch (1889-1975), Enoch Waters with nephew Jim, Mose Hitch (1896-1932), Mack Davis, Mack Hitch (1877-1957).

NEXT ROW: Raymond Hitch (1895-1947), Robert Davis (??-1980), John Hitch (1893-1983), Alfred Davis, Tip Davis (1896-1977/78), boy at Uncle Mack’s.

FRONT ROW: Edith McGinley James, Frankie Hitch Davis (1900-1986), Ida Davis ____, Wade Hitch (1901-1973), Hattie McGinley Fife, Tom J. Hitch (1902-1989), Mildred Hitch Clark (1900-??), Nola Hitch Coulter (1896-1981), Mary Hitch (1898-1975), Mary Ellen Hitch Gardner (1903-1992), and Jane Davis’ two daughters.

Mike Hitch

12310 Backus Drive

Bowie, MD 20720

Telephone: (301) 805-9855