# Representative women of New England/Caroline H. Hitchcock

​CAROLINE H. HITCHCOCK ​ CAROLINE HANKS HITCHCOCK was born September 20, 1863, in Lowell, Mass. From that city during her early childhood she came to the house on Harvard Street, Cambridge, which is still her home. Her parents were the Rev. Stedman Wright Hanks and Sarah Hale Hanks. Her father was descended from an old English family of Malmesbury, near the great Stonehenge in Wiltshire. "All the Malmesbury men who fought in the battle of Eddington under Alfred the Great were rewarded with certain tracts of land, which are still held by the descendants of these old families. Among these so called 'connnoners,' each of whom had five hundred acres, were two brothers of the name Hankes, who.se descendants still hold the 'commoners' rights' in Malmesbury, King Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, having given them one charter, King John another later, and so on."
It was along the old Roman Foss Road that the first known ancestor of Mrs. Hitchcock travelled when he ventured to leave his native place. This was Thomas Hanks, who then .settled in Stow-on-the-Wold, and whose son Benjamin with his wife Abigail "came from, London, October 17, 1699, and landed in Plymouth, Massachusettts." This Benjamin Hanks was the great-grandfather of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States. The olil records show that " the history of the descendants of Benjamin Hanks is interwoven in the annals of New England, where they are known as 'a remarkably inventive family' ami 'a family of founders.' The first bells ever made in America were cast on Hanks Hill in their old New England farm.
"Mrs. Hitchcock's great-grandfather, one of the descendants of this Benjamin Hanks, placed in the steeple of the old Dutch Church in New York City the first tower clock in America, a iuu(iue affair, run by a windmill attachment. The bells and chimes made by members of the Hanks family, are now ringing all over the world, on land and sea, one of them being the bell in Philadelphia which replaced the old Liberty Bell, and another the great Columbian liberty bell, which hung in front of the Administration Building at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. This bell weighed thirteen thousand pounds, to represent the thirteen original States, and was made from relics of gold, silver, old coins, and metal sent from all parts of the world. On it were inscribed the words, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men'; also these: 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,' and 'A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another.'"
It was Mrs. Hitchcock's great-grandfather who erected the first silk-mill in America to run by water-power. He also made the first cannon carried by the Connecticut artillery into the battles in which many of the family gave their lives for their country. For the United States army and navy during the Revolution the Hanks inventions in almost every department were manifold. The founder of the American Bank Note Company and also the discoverer of the new mineral in California, named, after Professor Hanks, "Hanksite," were of her family. Sunday-school publications prepared by a member of this family from a careful research into the Hebrew language and literature have been studied all over America.
Mrs. Hitchcock's father was the author of the well-known Black Valley Railroad temperance illustrations and of many books on the subject of temperance. Realizing the needs of those who "go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters," he instituted sailors' libraries. His daughter well remembers helping prepare the first little box of books that was sent on board ship as a "library," and which was ivally the nucleus of what has become a great system of floating libraries.
She is, as was her father, an ardent believer in temperance. On her mother's side, also, Mrs. Hitchcock is of English descent. The English historian Atkyns says, "The family of Hale has been of ancient standing in this county, and always esteemed for their probity and charity." Illustrious names have crowned this family throughout its history, from Sir Matthew Hale, Lord C'hief Justice, to the patriot soldier, Nathan Hale and the beloved minister philanthropist, the Rev. Dr. Eilward Everett Hale, ​ now chaplain of the United States Senate. Mrs. Hitchcock's great-grandfather Hale was a sur- geon in the Revolution, and her grandfather a drummer boy in the company with his father. Her mother was born, and lived until she was sixteen years old, on one of the rare spots on God's green earth, on the edge of a little lake called "Indian Pond," in the heart of our New England mountains, in Orford, N.H. After teaching in the little red school-house among the hills, she was called to Lowell, where, after having taught a few years, she married. Later she removed with her husband to Cambridge to educate the children. Here her daughter, Caroline Hanks, went through the public schools, and then entered the Harvard Annex, now Radcliffe College. After leaving college, she taught in the Harvard School until her marriage in 1887, when she went with her husband, Sanmel M. Hitchcock, to New York. She now lives with her son, James Hitchcock, on Harvard Street, Cambridge.
A few years ago Mrs. Hitchcock became in- tensely interested in theosophy. She is now president of the Cambridge Lodge of the Universal Brotherhood Organization and Theosophical Society, whose head(iuarters are at Point Loma, Cal. Here the Children's Raja Yoga School is being carried on with marked success, and the School for the Revival of the Lost Mysteries of Anticiuity has been already established under Katherine Tingley, of Newburyport, Mass. When asked the other day, "What are the Mysteries?" Mrs. Hitch- cock answered: "What, indeed, is there that is not a mystery? Is not life it-self the Great Mystery — life, this jjanoramic glimpse be- tween two vast silences? Raja Yoga is the Science of Life, the study by means of which we may come to understand the inner workings of that great law which has made brotherhood a fact in nature, and has made life joyful just in that degree that we recognize that the welfare of one is indissohibly and forever a part of the welfare of all. Tlieoso])hy is nior(> than a name, more than a theory: it is a living, trans- forming ])wer, that shall lift the whole world and fill all life with light and joy. It is the history of the mental, moral, and spiritual evo- lution of the sou! on this planet."
Mrs. Hitchcock believes that the future of the world rests in the hands of the little children. "At Point Loma hundreds of them," it is said, " gathered from many nations, are being trained in the atmosphere of love, the spiritual science of the soul. Music and art are the transform- ing powers of life, and here they are taught in their deepest- meaning. The power of beauti- ful expression comes from the arousing of the inner powers of the soul, which are in sym- pathy with whatever is high and pure. Many of these little children are homeless waifs, who are being instructed in the laws of Universal Nature and Justice, the laws governing their own being, and the wisdom of mutual helpful- ness. The children are taught to regard them- selves as integral and responsible parts of the nation to which they belong; to aspire to the position of national benefactors, teachers, and helpers, and so become exponents of the truest and wisest patriotism." Mrs. Hitchcock is also interested in the various branches of this .school, which are found in all the large centres of Amer- ica, as well as in her own Cambridge, where she works indefatigably with the children. As stated in a recent periodical, she is "en- thusiastically loyal to her countrywomen, as she is, indeed, to everything truly American. She believes heartily in woman suffrage, and regrets deeply varicnis fraudulent methods that govern motlern politics." Another subject which has deeply interested her of late is anti- compulsory vaccination, on which she spoke earnestly at the State IIf)use some months ago. Although she was obliged to refuse the nomi- nation for presidency of the society of that name, her heart is entirely in sympathy with the cause.
The Cambridge Press of May 13, 1903, says: "As a writer, Mrs. Hitchcock is especially gifted. Her l)oks — ' Nancy Hanks, a Story of Abraham Lincoln's Mother' and 'The History of the Hanks Family in America' — are regarded as authorities on these subjects. The first clears up what had b(>en for years before its publication mysterious and unsatisfactory with regard to the biography of the most lovable and noble mother of our great President. As a lecturer, Mrs. Hitchcock is fluent and interesting as well as graceful. Her lectures upon ​the different religions of the world, illustrated with beautiful stereopticon views, are well known."