Lent Munson Hitchcock
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(October 15, 1816 - February 27, 1869) A sea captain's son who became a sailor at the age of 14, Lent Munson Hitchcock left his native Connecticut and joined the Texas Navy about 1836. Seafaring duties brought him to Galveston in 1837 where he later served as harbor master, city alderman, treasurer, and Confederate army volunteer. An active Mason and Episcopalian, Hitchcock played a prominent role in the city's early development. The town of Hitchcock (18 mi. NW) was named for him in 1891.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Connecticut sea captain's son who went to sea at fourteen, Lent Munson Hitchcock left New England to join the fledgling Texas Navy around 1836. He came to Galveston in 1837 and became part of the port city's early leadership, serving as harbor master, alderman, and treasurer before volunteering for the Confederate army. Active as a Mason and Episcopalian, he left his name on the town of Hitchcock, christened for him in 1891.
Why it matters
His life links the maritime founding of the Republic of Texas to the growth of Galveston as a great Gulf port, embodying the seafaring roots of early Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Lent Munson Hitchcock
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bernard Moore Temple
Galveston, TX
Virginia-born Bernard Moore Temple served in the Confederate army before heading west to build a career in civil engineering. As chief engineer for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1880s, he oversaw much of the line's expansion across Texas and insisted on quality construction, and the railroad town of Temple, Texas, was named in his honor in 1881. This marker commemorates the engineer whose work helped stitch the state together by rail.
Hendley's Row
Galveston, TX
The mercantile house of William Hendley & Co., founded in 1845, helped drive Galveston's rise as a great port, launching a packet line of fast sailing ships and building ever-larger vessels for the Gulf trade. Between 1855 and 1858 the firm erected this three-story Greek Revival commercial row of four granite-trimmed buildings, whose rooftop cupola became a lookout post for both Confederate and Federal forces during the Civil War. After the war it housed banks, engineers, and merchants as the block stayed at the center of Galveston commerce.
Pier 19, Mosquito Fleet Berth
Galveston, TX
This stretch of Galveston waterfront has carried nearly every current of Gulf history — Jean Lafitte's pirate ships, the Republic of Texas Navy, Confederate marine assaults that broke Federal occupation in 1863, and, so the story goes, Prohibition-era rum runners. In calmer years it became the berth of the Mosquito Fleet, small fishing boats named for their insect-like profiles. Their crews blended Asian and European fishing customs into a distinctly American trade, still honored in the yearly blessing of the fleet.
Galveston, C. S. A.
Galveston, TX
Galveston was Texas's most important seaport during the Civil War, a cotton-exporting city with foreign consulates and a ring of mud forts and gun batteries. Even under Federal blockade, daring blockade runners slipped out to Nassau, Havana, and Europe, trading cotton for guns and medicine. Confederates under General John B. Magruder retook the city on January 1, 1863, and the Trans-Mississippi Department made its final surrender here—followed on June 19 by the Emancipation proclamation that gave rise to Juneteenth.