Ethan Allen Hitchcock (September 19, 1835 – April 9, 1909) served under
Presidents William McKinley and
Theodore Roosevelt as U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to:
* Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)
* Interior Secretary of Pakistan
* Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines)
* United States Secretary of the Interior
See also
*Interior ministry ...
.
Business career
Hitchcock was born on September 19, 1835, in
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
, the son of
Henry Hitchcock
Henry Hitchcock (September 11, 1792 – August 11, 1839) was the first Attorney General of Alabama, having been elected by the Alabama General Assembly in December 1819 in its initial session. He was also the Secretary of the Alabama Territor ...
(1791–1839), a
justice on the
Alabama Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...
, and Anne Erwin Hitchcock. He was the brother of
Henry Hitchcock
Henry Hitchcock (September 11, 1792 – August 11, 1839) was the first Attorney General of Alabama, having been elected by the Alabama General Assembly in December 1819 in its initial session. He was also the Secretary of the Alabama Territor ...
, nephew of Major General
Ethan Allen Hitchcock, grandson of Judge
Samuel Hitchcock, and great-grandson of
Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen ( – February 12, 1789) was an American farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, American Revolutionary War patriot, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for ...
.
He was in mercantile business at
Saint Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...
, 1855–60, then went to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to enter a commission house, of which firm he became a partner in 1866. He was married to Margaret Dwight Collier on March 20, 1869. Ethan and Margaret Hitchcock had three daughters, Sarah, Anne and Margaret Hitchcock.
In 1872 he retired from business, in 1874 returned to the United States, and in 1874-97 was president of several manufacturing, mining and railway companies.
[
He was a member of the Missouri Society of the Sons of the Revolution.
]
Government career
Hitchcock was in his sixties when President McKinley appointed him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia in 1897 and in February 1898 Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, the first Ambassador accredited from the United States to the court of Russia.
References
External links
*
New York Times article on Hitchcock's appointment as Interior SecretaryDecember 22, 1898.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchcock, Ethan
1835 births
1909 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
19th-century American diplomats
19th-century American politicians
Alabama Republicans
Ambassadors of the United States to Russia
American expatriates in China
Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery
Businesspeople from St. Louis
McKinley administration cabinet members
Missouri Republicans
Politicians from Mobile, Alabama
Theodore Roosevelt administration cabinet members
United States secretaries of the interior