Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hitchcock, Peter

HITCHCOCK, Peter, jurist, b. in Cheshire, Conn., 19 Oct., 1781; d. in Painesville, Ohio, 11 May, 1853. He was graduated at Yale in 1801, admitted to the bar at Cheshire, Conn., in 1804, and in the spring of 1806 removed to Geauga county, Ohio, settled on a farm, and for several years divided his time between clearing the wilderness, teaching, and practising his profession. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1810, served in the state senate in 1812-'16, and was its president for one term. In 1816 he was elected to congress, and before the expiration of his term was appointed by the legislature judge of the supreme court of Ohio, was re-elected for three successive terms, and retired in 1852, after a judicial service of twenty-eight years, during part of which he had been chief justice. In 1850 he was a delegate to the State constitutional convention. Throughout his career he was a generous benefactor of benevolent enterprises.