The Mena weekly star., 1909-04-15
HITCHCOCK DEAD
FORMER SECRETARY OF THE IN TERROR PASSES AWAY AT
 WASHINGTON.
DIRECTED LAND FiAuD INVESTIGATION
MT. Hitchcock Was a Great Grandson of Ethan Ail..., of Vermont, and Resident of Missouri-His Work in interior Department Made Many Enemies as We'll as Friends.

Washington, Apr. 10.-Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior under President Mckinley and Presi- dent Roosevelt, died here this morn Ing at II o'clock. He was "A years old.
 Mir. Hitchcock had been i'll for some weeks He contracted severe cold while in the West and he hurried to Washington to place himself in the hands of specialists who had attended him in his official career here. He suffered from complication of kid ney heart and pulmonary diseases.
 Ever since he reached here he has been confined to his bed and constant y attended by his physician and trained nurses. With him at the home of his son-in-law, Lieutenant Com. aander Sims of the navy, the ex-nayal aide of the President, were his chil- iIen, Mrs. Sims and Mrs. Shepley, and dis daughter, Miss Margaret Hitch cock
 Ethan Allen Hitchcock of Missouri, !. great-grandson of Ethan Allen of Vermont, was born in Mobile, Ala; | lived year at New Orleans and then removed to Nashville, Tenn. where ae attended primary schools, complet- llng his course of study in 1855 at the military academy in New Haven, Conn. 3ejoining his family, then living in St. Louis, he engaged in mercantile busi- | lesS until 1860, when he went to Chipa
 enter the commission house of Oly- nade a partner in 1866. He retired
 lom business in 1872 and spent q ouple of years in Europe Return | ng to the United States in 1874. was | ngaged as president of several manu-
 .aeturing, mining and railway com
 lanies, until he was appointed, August | s6, 1897, envoy extraordinary and min
 ster plenipotentiary to Russia. He cached his post in December of that year, and February II, 1898, was made | ambassador extraordinary and minis ter plenipotentiary at St. Petersburg. where he discharged the duties of his office to the Russian court, until he eft for home to assume. on February 70, 1899. the duties of Secretary of the interior, for which office he was nomi- hated by President Mckinley and con hrmed by the senate the same day, December 21, 1898
 | His passing marked the close of a career whose prominent feature was an administration of the Interior de- partment that stirred the western land | problems as never before.
 Brought home from St. Petersburg, Mir. Hitchcock was almost immediately plunged into a vortex of complica-
 lions growing out of vast frauds and charges of fraud and counter charges, growing out of the requirement of pub l lie lands in the western states. Mir. Hitchcock directed the most sweeping investigations, arousing the enmity of powerful political interests.
 That work is recalled today as one of the most answering and relentless inquisitions in the annals of govern ment prosecutions. He prosecuted cases against numerous men in public life and private business, including Senator Mitchell of Oregon, who was convicted and died not long afterward; ex-Representative Binger Hermann, who had served as commissioner of the general land office and was ac- quilted; ex-Senator Dietrich of Ne braska; Representative Williamson, of Oregon and John A. Benson, a million aire real estate broker of San Fran cisco