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William B. Hitch

One of the representative citizens of Fayette county who has gained a competency and at the same time the respect of his fellow men because he has worked for them along legitimate lines, is William B. Hitch, a native of Union township, where he was born September 22, 1858. He is the son of Isaac and Malindy (Stanboy) Hitch, the former born in Delaware and the latter in the state of Virginia, each of worthy old families. It was in the early forties that Isaac Hitch came to Iowa and located in Fayette county, on what is now known as the Frisby farm, having taken up a quarter section of wild land on which he erected a log cabin, cleared a small patch and set to work developing the farm, having a very valuable place in due time. He later bought a farm in section 35 in Union township, then bought a farm of eighty acres in Illyria township and remained there until about 1866, when he moved to Chickasaw county, where he lived for several years. His health failing, in 1875 he went west with his family and settled in the San Joaquin valley, California, and engaged in wheat raising until his death in 1877.

After the death of his father, William B. Hitch returned to Fayette county and worked as a farm hand for several years. Two of his brothers, John and Lorenzo, were soldiers in the Federal army, having enlisted in Company A, Thirty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Lorenzo served until his discharge on the account of disability. John served out his full enlistment.

In 1888 Mr. Hitch purchased eighty acres of land in Union township. Prospering, he added to his original purchase until he became the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and ninety-five acres, which he placed under a high state of improvement and which he has made yield a very profitable income. He has also been very successful as a raiser of cattle and standard-bred horses. Among the many valuable horses bred and raised by Mr. Hitch was “Feric D.,” the fastest pacing filly in Fayette county.

Mr. Hitch was married September 28, 1882, to Lucy Jane Patterson, daughter of Joseph Patterson, a well known citizen of Fayette county, where Mrs. Hitch was reared and educated. This union has resulted in the birth of two children, Lorenzo, living at home, educated in the schools of his native county and graduated from the New Hampton Normal and Commercial College, also attended the Upper Iowa University. He has taught school since he was eighteen years of age, with the exception of the past two years when he has been employed as a salesman; Ruth B. is living at home.

William B. Hitch is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, also the Yeoman lodge. Politically, he is a Democrat.

The paternal grandparents of William. B. Hitch were Isaac and Goodie or Patsy (Lynch) Hitch, who spent their entire lives in Delaware. The maternal grandparents were John and Margaret Stobaugh, of German descent, the grandfather dying in the East, after which event his widow remarried and came to Iowa in the early forties, locating in Fayette county, having made the trip here with the father of William B. Hitch, and she remained here until a short time before her death, when she moved to Washington county, this state. A brother of William B. Hitch's mother had the distinction of serving as a soldier in the war of 1812.

~transcribed for Fayette IAGenWeb project by Claudia Meyer