Mary Evelyn Hitchcock

Mary Evelyn Hitchcock
Born Mary Evelyn Higgins
March 10, 1849
Virginia
Died April 6, 1920(1920-04-06) (aged 71)
Pen name Mary Doyle
Occupation author, traveler
Alma mater Lawrence Academy
Notable works Two women in the Klondike: the story of a journey to the gold-fields of Alaska
Spouse Roswell D. Hitchcock, Jr.
Children Harriet Bradford Hitchcock Harriman

Mary Evelyn Hitchcock (pen names, Mary Doyle and Mrs. Roswell D. Hitchcock; March 10, 1849 - April 6, 1920) was an American author and explorer. She was part of the Floradora Company in the early 20th century, and also worked from the New York World as a reporter.[1]

Early life and education

Mary Evelyn Higgins was born in Virginia, March 10, 1849. She was the daughter of Capt. Thomas A. (of Norfolk, Virginia) and Cecelia (Fitzgerald) Higgins. She was educated at Lawrence Academy, where she received academic honors.[2]

Career

She married Commander Roswell D. Hitchcock, USN, (son of Roswell Dwight Hitchcock) and they had one daughter, Harriet Bradford Hitchcock Harriman (1872-1939).[2] Hitchcock accompanied her husband to the Vienna Exposition, 1873, Paris Exposition, 1878, to Japan, 1882, where his ship remained two years; and again in 1892, when he was captain of USS Alert. After the death of the husband, she made a tour of the world.[2]

Hitchcock and Edith Van Buren on the St. Paul with their dogs.

In 1898, she went to Klondike with her friend Edith Van Buren, embarking from San Francisco on a steamer.[3] Their luggage included multiple pets and an early motion picture device called an animatoscope.[4] Hitchcock climbed Skagway Pass on foot before the days of the railroad. She subsequently wrote the book, Two Women in the Klondike, which described this visit to the Yukon.[2]

Hitchcock was so impressed with the mining and agricultural possibilities of the Yukon that she spread the knowledge she had gained through lectures, which added largely to funds for churches and hospitals. She returned to the north, where she staked more than 100 claims and because so deeply interested financially that she spent the greater part of five years there. [2]

In 1904, Hitchcock organized and was president of The Entertainment Club, in New York City. She was also a Fellow of the National Geographic Society, as well as a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy.[2]

Two women in the Klondike

Two Women in the Klondike (1899 cover)

Two women in the Klondike: the story of a journey to the gold-fields of Alaska (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1899) describes the adventures of Hitchcock and Edith Van Buren, a grandniece of President Van Buren, during a perilous and eventful journey taken in the summer of 1898. Owing to the waters of the Yukon River being low, the two women were delayed for some time at Dawson City where they located miner's claims and lived as squatters. Besides the interesting incidents of travel included, the book included graphic descriptions of the Klondike region, and accounts of local customs and superstitions, as well as mining methods.[5] She died April 6, 1920 and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River, Massachusetts.[6]

Selected works

  • Two women in the Klondike : the story of a journey to the gold-fields of Alaska, 1899
  • Tales out of school about naval officers (and others) by a woman who has lived on a man-of-war, 1908
  • First reader : for use in the first year, 1912
  • Second reader : for use in the second year, 1912
  • Third reader, 1912
  • Standard Catholic readers by grades. Third year, 1913
  • Fifth reader : for use in the seventh and eighth years, 1913
  • Life was like that, 1936

References

  1. ↑ Price 1999, p. 112.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leonard, Mohr & Holmes 1907, p. 676.
  3. ↑ "Mary Hitchcock and Edith Van Buren - Klondike Tourists". National Postal Museum.
  4. ↑ Bottomore, Stephen. "Mary Ellen Hitchcock". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema.
  5. ↑ Leypoldt 1899, p. 999.
  6. ↑ "Mary E Higgins Hitchcock (1849 - 1920) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 18 July 2017.

Attribution

  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonard, John William; Mohr, William Frederick; Holmes, Frank R. (1907). Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leypoldt, F. (1899). The Publishers Weekly. 55 (Public domain ed.). F. Leypoldt.

Bibliography

  • Price, Warron C. (1999). Literature of Journalism. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-0189-9.
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