Glenn Elwood Hatchitt listed his birthplace as Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois (roughly 25 miles north of Quincy, IL) on his 1917 draft registration form. Both of Glenn's parents, Samuel Willis Hatchitt and Ida May Armstrong, also were born in Hancock County. The 1900 US Census indicates that Willis was the owner/operator of a farm in Hancock County, but by 1905 the family, including Willis, Ida, Glenn, brother Gerald, and Ida's mother, Mary Armstrong, had relocated to 310 East 9th Avenue in Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa where Willis worked as an electrician for the power company, according to the 1905 Iowa State Census.
According to the 1920 US Census, the family was living at 1807 Iowa Street in Davenport and Glenn worked as a motorcyle mechanic. Also living with the family was Glenn's brother, Gerald Hatchitt, his wife, Doris, and their son, Robert. Gerald was employed as a salesman for a biscuit company.
Above, left to right: June Kathryn, Margaret Ann, James Allen, Mary Louise, John Willis, Anna Frances, Gordon Elwood, Norma Jean, Shirley Mae, Hazelle, Glenn (Edith Eleanor was not present for this photo and Lawrence Lee had not yet been born)
Left: Glenn and Hazel at a family picnic; Crapo Park, Burlington, Iowa
As shown above and to the right, the 1922 City Directory of Davenport, Iowa indicates Glenn was employed as a representative for the A.H. Gottschlich Company which was a high profile motorcycle dealership for which he had worked in Oskaloosa.
Glenn owned his own company, Tri-City Delivery Service which operated in Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa and Moline/Rock Island, Illinois. The new business was much more than a one-man operation and Hazelle had the job of managing schedules and taking incoming service calls. The family operated the business for 32 years.
Below: Glenn Hatchitt with one of his delivery vans
Photo courtesy of Glenn Geisler
Help Grow
the Hatchitt Page
Do you have photographs of Hatchitt family members, events such as old reunion photos etc., pictures taken at Warm Mineral Springs, or anything else Hatchitt related you'd be willing to share with the rest of the family? If so, please email copies to:
Below: Glenn's 1917 Draft Registration form, photo of Hazelle from about 1915, the news story about their wedding, an authenticated record of Glenn and Hazelle's marriage from 1960, their original marriage license, and the formal announcement of the wedding.
late 1918 where their 10 additional children were born between 1919 and 1938.
Glenn and Hazelle became first-time parents on July 20, 1918 when daughter Shirley was born. The family moved from Oskaloosa to Davenport, Iowa in
The Votaws
The early history of the Votaw family is somewhat confusing. One source reports that the father of John Votaw (1711- ??) was John (or Jean) Jacob Vauteau, born in Bolbec, Normandy, France in 1684 and died in Dublin, Ireland in 1773. Another source shows John/Jean Jacob Vauteau's father was Isaac Vauteau, born in Normandy in 1622 and died in 1717 in Dublin, Ireland, but it also indicates Isaac's son, John/Jean, did not father any children and the Vauteau family line ended.
Daughter Eleanor married John Wheeler Coffin August 16, 1838 in Wayne County, Indiana. Both Eleanor and John were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). A Quaker record dated about a year after Eleanor and John were married indicates that "Eleanor Coffin (form Votaw)" was "reported to the monthly meeting for acting contrary to the rules and advices as outlined in the Discipline." The meeting then appointed a committee to "treat with the accused and report their finding." The results of the report: "treated with satisfaction and disowned."
John and Eleanor's first 4 children (Dayton, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Priscilla) were born in Wayne County, Indiana between 1839 and 1845. Another Quaker record indicates the couple was accepted into the Pleasant Plain Monthly Meeting in Jefferson County, Iowa on July 26, 1848. The couple's 5th child, Jonathan V. Coffin, was born August 13, 1849 in Iowa. According to the 1850 US Census, the family was living on a farm in Mahaska County Iowa, neighbors to relatives, the Samuel Coffin, and Daniel Votagh (Votaw) families. The couple's last child, John Wheeler Coffin, Jr., was born October 19, 1852, roughly 5 months after his father died due to complications from being kicked in the head by a horse on the family farm. Dayton H. Coffin died May 14, 1865 and Jonathan V. Coffin, died March 19, 1860. Both are buried near their father in the Spring Creek Friends Cemetery, not far from their farm in Mahaska County, Iowa.
Grave stone of Eleanor Votaw
Coffin Horner
Jonathan Votaw married Elizabeth Hampton (born November 4, 1797 in Virginia) January 2, 1817 at Sugar Creek, Warren County, Ohio. Both were Quakers, and members of the Miami Monthly Meeting located at Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. On April 30, 1817 the couple petitioned the Miami Monthly Meeting to relocate to the White Water Monthly Meeting in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana.
Jonathan and Elizabeth were the parents of 5 children born between 1817 and 1823. Jonathan died August 16, 1823 in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana of unknown causes 4 months after his youngest son was born. Elizabeth married Benjamin Samms on October 24, 1827 in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana and the couple became parents of 4 children born between 1828 and 1838. Elizabeth died August 7, 1862 in Chester, Wayne County, Indiana.
The infraction that resulted in Eleanor's being disowned was that she and John were "married contrary to discipline" (both parties were members of the Society of Friends and were married by a civil ceremony or by a member of another denomination).
After Eleanor's husband, John Wheeler Coffin, died in 1852, she remained a widow for 15 years, then married Rev. James S. Horner April 9, 1867. Rev. Horner officiated at the marriage of Glenn and Hazel Hatchitt, Eleanor's grand- daughter and husband, in 1917.
Front: Eleanor Votaw Coffin (mother of John Wheeler Coffin, Jr.), her granddaughter, Lillie Iowa Prine Jackson, holding her daughter, Grace Janet Jackson; in back:
Eleanor's daughter and Lillie's mother,
Priscilla Coffin Prine, about 1892;
A Memory Saved for Perpetuity
The family story goes...Eleanor Votaw Coffin
was alone one afternoon in the family's farm home with her first 2 children, Dayton and Sarah Celeste, when she saw several Indians walking up the lane to the house. She hid the children inside a very large grandfather clock, then found a hiding place for herself where she could see what was going on. The Indians entered the house and spent a lot of time just looking at the family's belongings and eventually left the house and walked back the way they had come.
Isaac Votaw, born in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania January 29, 1744, was reportedly so enamored of Ann Hough Smith, a young Quaker woman (born July 20, 1746 in Bucks County, PA), that in order to marry her, he became a Quaker as well.
Grave stone of Sarah Votaw Peterson
Isaac and Ann became the parents of 10 children. Daughter Sarah Votaw, born February 24, 1774 in Unison, Virginia, was disowned at age 16 for having an illegitimate child, Jonathan Votaw, on December 18, 1789. Jonathan was raised by his grandparents, Isaac and Ann Smith Votaw. In his will, Isaac made a bequest to his grandson, Jonathan, the wording of which indicates Jonathan's father may have been Daniel Eaches, a Quaker man living in Loudoun County, Virginia at that time. Sarah later married Uriah Peterson and the couple had 10 children. Sarah died July 21, 1852 in Greenwood, Pennsylvania.
The couple married on February 11, 1768 in Bucks County. Isaac died August 12, 1817 in Goshen, Ohio. Ann Smith Votaw died January 23, 1834 in Winona, Ohio.
Eleanor Votaw Coffin Horner died August 10, 1902 at the age of 82 in New Sharon, Iowa.
Below: Photo of James and
Eleanor Votaw Coffin Horner
Below: the obituary of Eleanor Votaw Coffin Horner
(Courtesy of the Oskaloosa, Iowa Public Library)
On February 4, 1952, while on a combat mission, First Lieutenant John W. Hatchitt's aircraft developed engine trouble. He headed toward Cho-do Island, North Korea and tried to bail out but was unsuccessful. His remains were not recovered. First Lieutenant Hatchitt was awarded the Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
First Lieutenant John W. Hatchitt was killed on February 4, 1952 while piloting his F-86E Sabrejet fighter bomber with the 25th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 51st Fighter Interceptor Group. The following are the original notes provided by the United States Air Force regarding John's death.
To view a gallery of F-86 related photos, a full report from the United States Air Force regarding the loss of 1st Lt. John W. Hatchitt, previously classified information and a detailed map of the areas covered in the report.
Willis Hatchitt and Great-Granddaughter
Back row: Emma Alice Hatchitt (sister of Willis, who married Ida Armstrong Hatchitt's brother, Albert b.1869), William Ewing (husband of Elva Hatchitt), Livy Hatchitt (father of Willis Hatchitt b. 1835), Clarence Eugene Hatchitt (Willis' older brother b.1868), Estella Ruth Armstrong (b.1895).
Middle row: Samuel Vernon Hatchitt in arms of Elizabeth Vernon Hatchitt (wife of Clarence; b. 1867), Elva Viola Hatchitt Ewing (sister of Willis, b. 1872), Eliza Egbers Hatchitt (Willis' mother b. 1849), Edna Laurine Armstrong (b. 1906), in arms of Albert Armstrong (b.1860, husband of Emma Alice Hatchitt).
Front row: Lela Ellen Hatchitt (b. 1898), Margaret Helen Armstrong (b.1903), Harriet Martha Hatchitt (b. 1900) (Lela and Harriet were children of Clarence), Essie (b.1895) or Goldie (b. 1894) Ewing.
The early generations of the Hatchetts were natives of Shropshire, England. Richard Hatchett b. 1580 emigrated to Virginia where he died in 1659. The next several generations lived in the state of Virginia until 1857 when Joseph Hatchitt died in Pittsylvania, Virginia. (The spelling of the family name changed to Hatchitt in Joseph's generation). Joseph's son, Pliny Hatchitt, married Catherine Thornbury in 1831 in Bullitt County, Kentucky where the couple's first 4 children were born. The family relocated to Hancock County, Illinois in about 1840 where Pliny died in 1893.
Willis and Ida Armstrong Hatchitt
1907 photo of Willis Hatchitt's Parents and Siblings
Below
The obituaries of:
Samuel Livy Hatchitt
b. August 31, 1835 in Bullitt County Kentucky
d. March 16, 1921 in Lewistown, Lewis Co., Missouri
and
Elizabeth "Eliza" Ann Egbers Hatchitt
b. May 14, 1849 in Rocky Run, Hancock County, IL
d. March 26, 1940 in Labelle, Lewis County, MO
Courtesy of Vanessa Prinster, 2G granddaughter
of Eliza Ann Egbers Hatchitt
