Loranus Eaton Hitchcock (1851-1920)

From the Delta Upsilon Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1908.

   After several write-ups centering on oddly named members of the Maine state legislature, we journey to Maine's neighbor to the south, Massachusetts, to profile Loranus Eaton Hitchcock, a man long prominent in legal circles in that state. A former city solicitor and police court judge for the city of Chicopee, Hitchcock would later be appointed as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, serving on the bench for nearly two decades.

   A native of Vermont, Loranus Eaton Hitchcock was born in the town of Rochester on February 3, 1851, being one of three children born to Rev. Harvey Hitchcock (a Methodist minister) and the former Mahala Ward. Of these three children, Loranus was the only one to live to adulthood and was left motherless when still in infancy. At age two he and his father moved to Chicopee, Massachusetts, where Hitchcock would attend school. Following his graduation from that city's high school in 1868, he enrolled at Amherst University, where he was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Graduating in the class of 1872, Hitchcock continued his studies at the Columbia Law School, earning his degree in 1874.

  On October 5, 1875, Loranus Hitchcock married Ella Asenath Goldthwaite, to whom he was wed until his death in 1920. The couple would have two children, Raymond Harold (born 1876) and Bessie Mahala (born 1878). 

   Following his graduation from Columbia Hitchcock returned to Chicopee, where he underwent further law reading in the office of George Dexter Robinson (1834-1896), a future Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Representative. Hitchcock would join Robinson's practice as a clerk and was later admitted as a partner, practicing law in both Chicopee and Springfield. In 1881 he entered public office for the first time, being appointed as Police Judge for Chicopee. Hitchcock's time on the bench extended over two decades (1881-1903), and he later held the posts of city auditor (serving from 1882-1890) and city solicitor (serving from 1892-1903).

                                                            From the Boston Daily Globe, September 17, 1903.

   In 1903 Loranus Hitchcock was elevated to the Superior Court of Massachusetts, being appointed to that court by Governor John L. Bates. Acknowledged as having had "the unanimous endorsement of the Hampden County bar" leading up to his appointment, Hitchcock served on the bench until his death at age 69 on March 15, 1920. In the weeks preceding his death, Hitchcock had been residing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, presiding over a session of the Suffolk Superior Court. He was survived by his wife Ella and was interred at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. 

From the Cambridge Tribune, March 20, 1920.