Mary French Hitch

From "A Hitch Orchard", Daisy Hitch Davies, 1931: It was Mary French Hitch who with another signed the compiler's application papers for membership into the Society of Mayflower Descendants of the state of Massachusetts.

A transcription of a letter written by Mary F. Hitch to Radford Hitch in Georgia:

New Bedford, Mass. March 10, 1900

Dear Cousin Radford:

I was very glad to hear from you, and am glad you liked my picture. When I looked at yours I did not wonder that Captain Clay had recognized you as a member of the Hitch family. It is always pleasant to make new acquaintances, if only on paper, and I trust we may see each other after I shall be very glad at sometime to accept your invitation and visit you in your home.

Perhaps you would like to know something about me. In June 1890, I graduated from Wellesley College, proud in my possession of a B.A. degree. Since there I have been teaching in a preparatory school for _____ in this city. I have charge of the Geometry, Latin, and Greek classes so you may imagine time does not waste(?) on my hands. The school is not a large one, but most of the pupils are interested in this work, which makes my task(?) all the pleasanter. We send about six to college each year.

Before taking up this work, I was in a bank. I rather(?) enjoy business better, and therefore am studying Stenography. My brother is a cotton sampler and stapler. He with my Mother and myself and a cousin compose our family, my Father having died a few years before I graduated from Wellesley.

When you send your picture I wish we might have one of Mrs. (?) Hitch too, for we are glad to welcome her to the family.

We are having delightful spring weather now, and I shall make my first excursion into the woods this week. It is time now(?) to enjoy the willows and alders and birches and note with what grace their tassels give us their spring-greeting. I am very fond of the wild flowers and have quite a large herbarium. We have the electric now out into the suburbs so it is easy to become acquainted with nature; and man cannot improve upon our early spring friends in their snow white purity and grace, as if they had received their color from the snow.

Mrs. Fengae (?) wished to be remembered to you and your wife, to whom we all send most cordial greetings and many wishes _____ _____ _____ _____, much prosperity.

Affectionately Your Cousin, Mary F. Hitch