FRANCIS C. HATCH
History of Arizona, 1896

The State of Vermont is always suggestive of the honest, hard 
and rugged characters in human life. It presents to the mind 
pictures of the bold Green Mountain Boys and brave Ethan Allen 
before the gates of Ticonderoga. It was people like those who 
won their independence from the British king and erected the 
basis of the great American nation.  Francis C. Hatch came of 
this stock. He was born at Woodstock, Vermont, October 10, 
1856; son of Philo and Elizabeth (Fitch) Hatch.  The father 
was a business man in Woodstock and held prominent positions 
in his town. He was a man of very strong character and was 
well known and respected. His death occurred April 10, 1882, 
but the mother is still living and a resident of the old home 
place.  Although in her eightieth year she enjoys exceptionally 
good health and is remarkably well preserved. Of the four 
children born to them only one besides our subject is now 
living, Elizabeth, wife of Hon. William E. Johnson, of 
Woodstock, who is one of the leading lawyers of Vermont.

Francis C. Hatch, the youngest of the family reached mature 
years in his native town and there received his early 
scholastic training. In 1876 he entered Norwich University, 
the oldest military college in the United States with the 
exception of West Point and remained there a part of four 
years. He then traveled over Europe for a year and a half 
and after returning studied law with his brother-in-law, 
William E. Johnson and was admitted to  practice in the 
courts of Vermont in 1880.Later he entered the law office 
of Smith, Wellington and Black of Troy, New York, but 
subsequently gave up the practice of law entirely and lived 
for some time in New York City. In the fall of 1882 after 
the death of his father, Mr. Hatch started for California 
but stopped off at Prescott Arizona where he remained until 
the following spring.  After extended trips through Old 
Mexico and California he located in Visalia, California 
and became interested in the stock business which he followed 
for two years.  Prior to this, early in 1883, while on a 
visit back to Arizona, he took up his legal residence in 
Phoenix, and this he has since called his home. In 1884 Mr. 
Hatch was appointed aid to the staff of Governor Tritle and 
during the legislature of that year he was appointed by the 
governor Director of the Insane.  With the board of directors, 
consisting of Hon. M.W. Stewart of Wilcox, and Dr. Oscar 
Lincoln of Prescott, he built the  present Insane Asylum, 
three miles east of Phoenix and this is one of the finest 
public buildings in the territory.

In the fall of 1885 he associated himself with ex-Governor F.
A. Tritle of Prescott and Col. James H. Drake of St. Paul, in 
the cutting and polishing business, introducing into the markets 
the far famed Arizona petrified wood.  Since that time he has 
been connected with the house of Drake and Company, of St. Paul 
and their polishing works at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, visiting 
Europe in 1887-89 and 1890.  He spent the larger part of these 
years in that country and created during the Paris Exposition 
of 1889, and at the World's Fair in Chicago, quite an excitement 
over the petrified woods.  At Paris he held the commissionership 
from Arizona under the appointment of Governor Wolfley.  Mr. 
Hatch is interested in other enterprises in the East and in 
Costa Rica, Central America. In the month of January 1896 he 
was elected director general of the Phoenix Carnival Assc. He 
is still a single man and a member of the Bohemian Club of San 
Francisco, the Maricopa Club of Phoenix, Republican Club of 
New York City, Woodstock Club and the Lakota Club, which is a 
fishing, hunting and sporting near Woodstock Vermont. He has 
always been a great social leader and his friends are legion.

USGenWeb Project NOTICE: 
In keeping with our policy of providing free information 
on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as
long as this message remains on all copied material. These 
electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for
profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization. 

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must 
obtain express written permission from the author, or 
the submitter and from the 
listed USGenWeb Project archivist. 

submitted by burns@asu.edu