History of Bucks
County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
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CLARENCE DECKER HOTCHKISSCLARENCE
DECKER HOTCHKISS, of the editorial staff of the
“Intelligencer,” Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in
Philadelphia, August 4, 1857, and is a son of George W. and Williamina
(Bittenbender) Hotchkiss, of English and German ancestry,
respectively.
He is a lineal descendant of Samuel and Elizabeth Hotchkiss,
who were married at what is now New Haven, Connecticut, in 1632, from
which date the ancestors of the subject of this sketch were residents of
that locality and of New York. Samuel
Hotchkiss, the great-grandfather of Clarence D., was commissioned a
master in the United States Navy, July 18, 1788, but resigned his
commission March 16, 1799, and settled in the Wyoming Valley,
Pennsylvania. He married Sarah
Decker of Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
His son George, reared in the Wyoming Valley, had three children,
Jeremiah, Emeline and George W. Hotchkiss.
George W. Hotchkiss, the father of Clarence D., married
Williamina Bittenbender, sixth daughter of William Bittenbender,
of Easton, Pennsylvania, and removed to Philadelphia and later to
Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.
George W. and Williamina (Bittenbender) Hotchkiss were the
parents of five children, all of whom are deceased except the subject of
this sketch.
Clarence D. Hotchkiss attended the public schools of
Philadelphia and the Wyoming Seminary, and subsequently took the studies
of a college course under private tutors.
Upon leaving school he entered the drug business in Philadelphia,
but relinquished that business on the removal of the family to Doylestown,
and entered the office of the Doylestown Democrat. He
subsequently served on various papers in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and
Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and subsequently founded the Apprentices’ Journal, a mechanical monthly journal, which he
published in Philadelphia for a number of years, but sold his interest
therein and returned to Doylestown in 1885, and again took a position on
the staff of the Democrat, which
he retained until 1890, when General W. W. H. Davis, the then
editor and proprietor, sold the plant to a syndicate, who organized the
Doylestown Publishing Company. Mr.
Hotchkiss then took a position on the reportorial staff of the Intelligencer,
daily and weekly. In 1892 he
was promoted to local and news editor, a position which he has since
filled with eminent ability. At
the incorporation of the Intelligencer Company in 1898 he became a
stockholder, and later a director of the corporation, and takes a deep
interest in the conduct and success of this old and reliable newspaper. Mr. Hotchkiss and his family are members of the Doylestown Presbyterian church, and he was the first president of the Bucks County Christian Endeavor Union, and has always been one of the active workers of the organization. He is one of the directors of the Intelligencer Company, secretary of the Press League of Bucks and Montgomery counties, trustee of Doylestown Fire Company, No. 1, and has been secretary of the Doylestown Board of Health since its organization in 1894. He is a member of Doylestown Lodge, No. 193, and Doylestown Encampment, No. 35, I. O. O. F., being one of the most active members of both organizations, filling important positions on their respective degree staffs, and serving for many years as one of the trustees of both. He is a member of the Bucks County Historical Society, and was for several years a member of the Doylestown Glee Club. Mr. Hotchkiss enjoys considerable local celebrity as an amateur photographer, and is a member of the Columbia Photographic Society of Philadelphia. He married June 19, 1878, Albertine Walton, daughter of Dr. Thomas H. Walton, for many years a druggist of Doylestown, now deceased. Two children of Clarence D. and Albertine (Walton) Hotchkiss survive: George S., of the reportorial staff of the Intelligencer, and Sarah W. Text taken from page 478 of: Davis, William W.H., A.M. History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III Transcribed February 2004 by Thera Schwenk-Hammond; tsh@harborside.com; http:// www..rootsweb.com/~schwenk as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html Published April 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/ |
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Page was last edited:
11/15/2008