Ware-Jones-Pierce County GaArchives Biographies.....Hitch, Simon Wood unknown - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 22, 2004, 2:04 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 913-915

   SIMON WOOD HITCH. An active and well-known member of the legal profession,
Simon Wood Hitch has for many years been successfully engaged in the practice of
law in Waycross, Ware county, where he has gained a large patronage. A son of
the late Sylvanus Hitch, he was born in Clinton, Jones county, Georgia, coming
on the paternal side of New England ancestry.

   Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Sylvanus Hitch was left an orphan in
childhood and was brought up in the home of his grandparents. Learning the
tailor's trade in the old Bay state, he subsequently worked as a journeyman, and
while yet a young man came south in search of a favorable opening. He located in
Jones county, Georgia, at Clinton, which was then, although without railroad
facilities of any kind, a place of considerable commercial importance, being a
large cotton market. Opening a merchant tailor's establishment, he carried on
business there until 1855, when he migrated to South Georgia, and purchasing a
tract of laud bordering on the Saint Mary's river, in Charlton county, he was
employed in tilling the soil in that vicinity for ten years. Moving then to
Clinch county, Georgia, he there lived retired from active business until his
death, which occurred in 1880, he being seventy-two year's of age at that time.

   Sylvanus Hitch married Ann A. Nichols, who died in 1898, in Loudon county,
Georgia, leaving seven children, as follows: Sylvanus; Simon Wood; Margaret Ann;
Charles; Badford and Nannie. Her father, Simon Wood Nichols, was born in South
Carolina. Coming from there to Georgia in early manhood, he was for several
years a general merchant in Savannah, from there moving to Clinton, Jones
county, Georgia. Instead of continuing in mercantile pursuits, he invested
largely in real estate, buying extensive tracts of land in Appling, Ware and
Clinch counties. Subsequently settling in Dupont, Clinch county, Mr. Nichols
carried on farming for a while, but afterwards resumed mercantile business, in
which he continued until his death, which came when he had attained a good old
age. Mr. Nichols married Margaret Waver, who was born on one of the West India
islands, of French parents, and she was a sister of John J. Waver. During one of
the insurrections in the West Indies, she was carried by her parents to
Savannah, Georgia, where she was brought up and educated. She survived her
husband a few years.

   Making good use of his time and advantages, Simon Wood Hitch attended
Professor Landrum's school in Oglethorpe county, and afterward taught school in
Clinch county for a few months. Desirous of entering upon a professional career,
he subsequently studied law with his uncle, Congressman J. C. Nichols, and after
his admission to the bar at the age of eighteen, located first in Clinch county.
He later opened an office in Blackshear, Pierce county, where he practiced law
for ten years. In 1887 he settled in Waycross, and in the practice of his chosen
profession has here achieved well-merited success, his legal patronage being an
extensive and remunerative one.

   Mr. Hitch married, in Macon, Georgia, at the Wesleyan Female College, Miss
Fannie Alice Myers, who was born in Augusta, Georgia. Her father, Dr. Edward
Myers, was born in Orange county, New York, and was a son of Selim and Mary
(Howell) Myers. Becoming a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church, he was
for a while a member of the Florida conference, later being associated with the
Georgia and South Carolina conferences, and preaching in different parts of
those states. For a time he was one of the professors of the Wesleyan Female
Seminary, in Macon, later serving as president of that institution, an office of
which he was the incumbent at the time of his daughter's marriage to the
subject. Giving up that position. Doctor Myers lie-came pastor of the Trinity
Episcopal church in Savannah, Georgia. When, in 1876, yellow fever became
epidemic in Savannah, he was at Cape May, attending a joint meeting of the
Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal church, South, looking to a
national union. Returning to the stricken city to care for his flock, he was
himself taken ill with the disease, and lived but a short time, having given up
his own life in an attempt to save others. He married Mary Mackie, who was born
of Scotch ancestry, in Augusta, Georgia, where her father was for many years a
banker. Mr. and Mrs. Hitch have four children, namely: Mary, the widow of Elbert
P. Peabody, who has four children, Elbert P., Francis, Walton and Mary E.;
Frank, who lived but twenty-one years; James, a missionary of the Methodist
Episcopal church, South, to Korea; he married Reubee Lillie and has two
children, Simon Herbert and Frances Elizabeth; Edward Sylvanus is the fourth
child of Mr. and Mrs. Hitch. The wife and mother departed this life on November
6, 1912, after having reared to honorable manhood and womanhood her four
children. In the foreign missionary work of the Methodist Episcopal church,
South, she was most active, holding at the time of her death the position of
conference secretary of the foreign department of the South Georgia Conference
Missionary Society. She inherited her father's fine business ability and a deep
religious experience made her a notable character as a wife, a mother and as a
leader in all church work.

   An active and influential member of the Democratic party, Mr. Hitch has
served in various official positions. He was appointed by Governor Bulloch a
member of the election board at the time of the three-days' election. Just
following his admission to the bar he was appointed as solicitor general of the
Brunswick judicial district, and served in that capacity for ten consecutive
years. He has rendered appreciated service as a member of the Waycross board of
education, having been a member when the present system of graded schools was
adopted, and when the present fine school building was erected.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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