Jessie Hitchcock: Park County Superintendent of Schools, 1910

Death of a Young Mother

The end of March 1887 was a terrible week for a young family in Crete, Nebraska. Their mother, Ester, first became slightly ill, but her condition worsened as the week went on. A physician was called to the house and diagnosed a dangerous inflammation of her bowels. Ester died by the end of the week. The local newspaper reported, “Mrs. Hitchcock was possessed of a gentle, loveable nature… [and that] she must leave her precious children tore her motherly heart. Before she died, Mrs. Hitchcock gave her two little twins, three years old, to her sister, Mrs. J. P. Clarey.”

The twins, Jessie and Bessie Hitchcock, had been born in Crete, Nebraska, on March 1, 1884. After their mother’s death, their father, Hugh Hitchcock, continued as a widowed single father for several years. He remarried seven years later, when Jessie and Bessie were ten years old, to Mary Stettinius Taylor. Their new stepmother had three children, ages 24, 18, and 10, from a previous marriage, and together they became a blended family. Hugh was a successful businessman, and the family also ran at least 200 head of cattle in Nebraska.

Twin sisters Jessie and Bessie Hitchcock in 1905

A New Life in Cody

After their stepmother, Mary, died in 1906, her biological children were old enough to go their separate ways, and Hugh Hitchcock and his adult twin daughters, Jessie and Bessie, moved to Cody. In September 1906, Bessie married Paul S. Craig, at a time when Cody was still part of Big Horn County. The local newspaper reported that the groom was “a graduate of Ohio State University,” while the bride was “educated at the Milwaukee Seminary and is a polished young
lady.” The article also noted that the couple was currently “on a wedding tour among the cities, mines, and mountains of the West.”

Meanwhile, her twin sister Jessie taught school in Cody after a solo trip to Europe, and their father, Hugh, filed for a 160 acre homestead east of Heart Mountain. Soon after, Bessie and her new husband returned to Cody and also filed for 160 acres.

The Hitchcock Ranch east of Heart Mountain in about 1910

A Family Ranch Near Heart Mountain

The homestead became known as the “Hitchcock Ranch” and the Northern Wyoming Herald reported in June 1912 that it was operating as a dude ranch. The newspaper described a “Camping Party” in which “intrepid young ladies braved the perils of the wild Hart Mountain fastnesses this week. Headquarters will be established at the Hitchcock Ranch from which short campaigns will be conducted to nearby points of interest and sport.” The article also mentioned that the camping party was chaperoned by Hugh and his daughter, Jessie, among others.

Jessie Hitchcock at the “Hitchcock Ranch” (later the Heart Mountain Ranch)

Superintendent of Park County Schools

Meanwhile, Jessie was working her way up in her career as an educator. In 1910, she ran for the position of Superintendent of Park County Schools as a Democrat. She won the election and left her classroom for the administrative role in the brand-new Park County, which had been established in 1909 and was still being organized.

In her new position, Jessie traveled all over Park County and became known to many for her hard work. She visited schools and classrooms, spoke with teachers, and asked what they needed to improve instruction. One newspaper article noted that “Miss Hitchcock is the first superintendent that has within the lifetime of the present generation—so we are informed—who has gotten out among the schools in this part of what was Big Horn and is now Park County.”

Under her leadership, Wapiti School was established in 1911, and the newspaper reported that “the North Fork people are very much pleased with this, their first school, and with the work of the superintendent.” One article hinted that Jessie faced subtle disrespect in her new position, however. The Northern Wyoming Herald remarked that she was “better known in some parts of this great county as ‘that Jessie girl of ours.’”

Jessie Hitchcock traveled by train and horseback in her role as Park County Superintendent of Schools

Soon, she faced direct opposition from some people in the community. In 1912, she sued Park County for $1,200 in lost wages, representing the difference in pay between a person in her position in a third-class county and one in a first-class county. Because Park County was considered a first-class county, she won the case, and the Board of Commissioners paid the difference in her wages.

Local newspaper editors reacted negatively, with headlines such as “County Is the Loser,” and by referring to her as the “notorious superintendent.” Jessie was accused of double-charging the county $150 for “services rendered at a recent teachers’ institute.” Newspapers declared that Jessie was “at it again,” and the Powell Tribune claimed she was “in deep water again.”

An editor of the Powell Tribune soon escalated the campaign against her. Jessie was a registered Democrat, and an editorial dated September 22, 1911, stated, “In the campaign last fall we supported the Republican nominee for County Superintendent of Schools and may therefore, indirectly at least, be said to have opposed the candidacy of Miss Hitchcock.” Later that week, Jessie visited the Powell schools on her normal rounds as superintendent. The editor of the Powell Tribune was offended that she did not stop by the newspaper office while she was in town and wrote the following editorial:

“The city of Powell was on Tuesday of this week favored with a visit by Miss Jessie Hitchcock, ‘Superintendent of Public Instruction,’ but for some unaccoutable [unaccountable: SIC] reason our lady guest omitted the small but formal matter of calling on the editor and owner of this great family journal. Now after all we’ve done for Jessie, this isn’t one bit nice, and language is quite inadequate as a means of expressing our disappointment and humiliation. We supposed at least while here Jessie would avail herself of our very generous offer to print free of charge any answers she might have to any and all charges of graft and general misconduct in connection with the administration of her office. Nothing doing. She passed us up cold as a clam. Ignoring us in this manner is almost more than we are able to stand – more than we are able to stand.”

In the midst of this opposition, Jessie’s beloved twin sister left the Hitchcock Ranch and moved with her husband and children to the San Francisco area. Hitchcock family pictures in the Park County Archives suggest that the sisters were very close, and her sister’s move may have been difficult for Jessie.

Twin adult sisters Jessie (left) and Bessie (right) with Bessie’s children

Leaving Cody

Jessie soon made plans for her own departure from Cody. She applied for a U.S. passport, intending to travel in Japan, China, and Hong Kong for a year. Her journey included a trans- Pacific crossing aboard the passenger steamships S.S. Maui and S.S Shinyo Maru.

Described in 1918, the Shinyo Maru was “as finely equipped in every detail as the best first-class hotels on shore, and leaves nothing to be desired in service or table. The total length of the deck area measures almost a mile, giving ample opportunity for exercise and promenade.”

Jessie Hitchcock renewed her US Passport for travel in Asia

Jessie Hitchcock left Cody after local opposition to her leadership. At age 35 she traveled to Honolulu, then to Asia aboard the SS Shinyo-Maru.

At some point in her travels, she met her future husband, Frank Wise, a sea captain from Seattle. Jessie and Frank settled in San Francisco near Jessie’s twin sister Bessie. The families lived in California for decades. Jessie and Frank lived in a historic home between the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean.

Jessie’s husband Frank was a sea captain based in Washington and later California

Jessie and Bessie’s father, Hugh, left Cody soon after his daughters departed the area. He died in Nebraska in 1925 and was buried near his first wife, the mother of the twins. Bessie and Paul were married for fifty-two years. When Bessie died in 1958, her husband used his hunting shotgun to take his own life just one month later.

Jessie lived to be seventy-seven and died in San Francisco in 1961. The Hitchcock Ranch later became the Heart Mountain Ranch and is now part of the Heart Mountain Ranch Preserve, which includes the popular local trail to the summit of Heart Mountain.

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