Lent Munson Hitchcock

Lent Munson Hitchcock first saw Galveston Island in 1828, when the Handbook of Texas calls it a desert isle. He enlisted in the Texas Navy in May 1836 and served as a midshipman on the Independence. In 1838 the navy bought his brig Potomac for $8,000. He held the harbor master's post for thirty years and ran a grocery, a ship's chandlery and the Tremont Hotel. In 1840 he owned four town lots and one enslaved person, and by 1860 his property was valued at $120,000. He helped found Hook and Ladder Company Number One.

What the plaque says

Lent Munson Hitchcock (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. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Moody Mansion — 1.0 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 1.2 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• Galveston Seawall and the 1900 Storm — 1.4 mi
  The concrete wall along the Gulf that Galveston built after the hurricane of September 8, 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in a city of 38,000.
• The Strand — 1.4 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Lt. Commander Edward Lea — steps away
• Louis Trezevant Wigfall — steps away
• Warren D. C. Hall — steps away
• Captain William S. Fisher — steps away