Enos Hitchcock (1744 - 1803)

Enos Hitchcock

Enos Hitchcock was an American clergyman, author, educator, and education advocate.

He graduated from Harvard College and soon began preaching. When hostilities between the colonies and Great Britain broke out in 1775, Hitchcock joined the army, serving as a chaplain in the Continental Army from 1779-1780. After the war ended, Rev. Hitchcock preached in various localities until he settled in Providence, NC, in 1783 as pastor of the First Congregational Church, becoming an active member of its benevolent society.

In 1788 Hitchcock received his doctorate from Brown University and maintained close ties with it thereafter. With the president of that university, James Manning (1738-1791), and other prominent citizens of Providence, he was active in educational matters, and by the time of his death had succeeded in establishing a public school system in Providence. In addition to these activities, Rev. Hitchcock was a member of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

Enos Hitchcock also wrote several epistolary works in which, among other things, he objected to the use of suicide as a plot point. His bullied rural heroes and heroines are ultimately rewarded for their virtue and courage.