Henry Hitchcock

Who was Henry Hitchcock?

Henry Hitchcock was a lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri.

Born in Spring Hill, near Mobile, Alabama, he was the great-grandson of Ethan Allen. His father, also named Henry Hitchcock, was born in Burlington, Vermont, and was named Secretary of the Territory of Alabama, and later was successively Attorney General and Chief Justice of the State of Alabama.

Young Henry attended the University of Nashville and Yale University. He studied law in the office of Willis Hall, Corporation Counsel of New York City, and the office of William F. Cooper, who later became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was admitted to the bar.

He was active in opposing slavery, and took part in the provisional Missouri state government during the Civil War. He entered the army and served as Judge Advocate on the personal staff of General Sherman, and was present on Sherman's March to the Sea. Excerpts from Hitchcock's letters and diaries of this period were published and are historically significant.

An early president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, Hitchcock was a co-founder of the American Bar Association in 1878.