Harrison Clement Hitch

From "A Hitch Orchard," Daisy hitch Davies, 1931: "Excerpt from a letter by one of his sons - Harrison Clement Hitch was educated in the common schools of Gibson Co., IN. and the State Normal School of Terre Haute, IN. He was granted a teacher's license and taught school in Indiana and Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado at the time when the main industry of the country pertained to long horn cattle and the deportations of such outlaws as the James brothers, Cole Younger, and the Fords. Father knew every one of these by sight and when I was a youngster he would sit by the hour and tell of their terrible exploits.

I have often heard him tell of a different nature - that was of immense interest to me.

Elizabeth Spain, an orphan girl and distant relative, of my grandmother was taken to raise by my grandparents when she was five or six years old and from that time lived as one of the family. Father was traveling somewhere in the west when he came to realize that young Elizabeth, then about 16, was especially attractive and an altogether desirable person. He forthwith gave up his traveling and hurried home for the purpose of paying court to her. The courtship was encouraged by Elizabeth and in a comparatively short time they were married.

Father then rented a farm near the old homestead and they started out for themselves. He operated first one farm and then another for several years never with a large measure of success. He suffered severe reverses during the Cleveland Panic and at that time or shortly thereafter gave up farming."

At the outset of the Spanish American War, father with R.H.Chappell and Rev. Ferguson of Patoka, IN. assembled a company of soldiers for service in the was. Mr. Chappell was Captain and father and Rev. Ferguson were Lieutenants. They drilled daily for several months and applied for admission to the U.S.Army. They were encouraged to continue their drilling but the war was ended before they were mustered into some of the service.

We then moved to Princeton, IN. where father engaged in various occupations and businesses for several years. At one time he was in the restaurant business, then in the wholesale and retail fruit and vegetable business. Finally he joined the force of the Princeton Police Department."

The Princeton Clarion News dated May 12,1913 gives several news items and a splendid editorial relative to the death of HARRISON CLEMENT HITCH while protecting a woman from the murderous attack of her husband he was shot by the man. The paper also gives a death and funeral notice in which it stated the funeral was to be held at the Christian Church and that a committee of Ben Hur, a society to which he evidently belonged, would accompany the remains. This sad incident helped to hasten the death of his wife a few months after.

The compiler has also seen a copy of a protest made by the son of the murdered man, Allen Spain Hitch, against the release of the murderer delivered before the Pardon Board Oct. 1930. The protest was successful."

In the Federal Census of 1900, Harrison C. Hitch is listed in Gibson County, Indiana in a household as follows: - Harrison C. Hitch, born 6/1861 in IN - Elizabeth Hitch, born 4/1871 in IN - Allen S. Hitch, born 9/1889 in IN - Morton Hitch, born 3/1892 in IN - Horace Hitch, born 8/1894 in IN - Viola Hitch, born 6/1897 in IN - Chester H. Hitch, born 4/1900 in IN.

Killed in the line of duty. He was a policeman and was shot settling a domestic dispute.

Harrison married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Spain, daughter of James Allen Spain and Sarah Howe, on 05 Apr 1888 in Gibson Co., IN.¹ (Elizabeth (Lizzie) Spain was born on 13 Apr 1871 in IN,^{2 7 8} died on 16 Oct 1913 in Gibson Co., IN ^{2 6} and was buried about 19 Oct 1913 in Oak Hill Cemetery, Patoka, Gibson Co., IN.)