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ALFRED OWEN HITCHCOCK

Alfred Owen Hitchcock, son of Dr. Alfred and Fidelia Dorcas (Clark) Hitchcock, was born May 16, 1842, at Ashby, Massachusetts. He received his preparatory classical education at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and entered Dartmouth College in the Fall of 1859 as a member of the class of 63.

He severed his connection with that class at the end of Freshman year, on account of ill health, and re-entered in the Fall of 1861, joining our class as a Sophomore. A strong desire to enter the army induced him to abandon his college course, and he left us in November, 1862. In December, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Fifty-third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. At the charge on Port Hudson, June 14, 1863, he was wounded in the right eye. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Fifty-seventh Regiment, Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers, in October, 1863; was promoted to First Lieutenant in October, 1864, and to Captain in May, 1865. He served, as Aide-de-Camp and Provost-Marshal on the staff of Major-General Nelson A. Miles, and was made Brevet-Major for gallant and meritorious services. By a special order of the War Department, he served for a year after the close of the war. He then returned, and commenced the study of medicine with his father at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and afterward attended lectures at Harvard Medical School, from which institution he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in March, 1870. He immediately commenced the practice of his profession at Holliston, Massachusetts, where he remained for two or three years, doing a very satisfactory business, when his father, who was growing old and feeble, sent for him to go to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and take charge of his practice. He has remained there ever since, devoting himself entirely to his profession, with a successful practice.

He was married June 14, 1871, to Miss Georgia L. Bemis, of Huntington, Massachusetts. They have two children: Alfred Owen, Jr., born July 20, 1874, and Edward, born July 31, 1878.

Source: "Memorialia of the Class of '64 in Dartmouth College" complied by John C. Webster, Shepard & Johnston, Printers, 1884, Chicago

Submitted by Deborah Crowell