A Civil War Survivor’s Final Journey
After surviving Libby Prison and a life of devotion to family and church, Shirland Hitchcock dies in a tragic accident at his daughter’s White Bluffs home.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Shirland Harris Hitchcock was born at Milford, Connecticut, July 25, 1843, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. U. S. Agnew, in White Bluffs, Washington, June 21, 1923, following an accident in which he was fatally burned. On November 14, 1866, he was married to Eliza Ann Bouton of Milford, Connecticut, who died April 6, 1923, their married life having covered a period of nearly 57 years. On August 16, 1862, Mr. Hitchcock at the age of 19 enlisted with the Union forces and served the duration of the Civil War. He spent 18 months in Libby Prison at Richmond, Virginia, and while there suffered an attack of yellow fever. He leaves to mourn his loss a sister, Mrs. A. E. Botsford of New York City, a brother, Edwin Peck Hitchcock of Branford, Connecticut, a daughter, Mrs. C. E. Edwards of Monterey, California, a daughter, Mrs. U. S. Agnew of White Bluffs, Washington, a son, E. M. Hitchcock of Long Beach, California, 7 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
“He has gone to join his wife in the great beyond and has left behind a world that is better for his having lived.”
Shirland Hitchcock’s life spanned from the harrowing imprisonment of the Civil War to the quiet pioneer expansion in White Bluffs. Today, the town itself has largely vanished, but these individual accounts preserve the human connections that once populated the river valley before the Manhattan Project transformed the landscape.
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