Hitt, James Boyd

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

James Boyd Hitt, who had been actively identified with school work nearly twenty years, is now superintendent of the city schools of Everest, Brown County. Mr. Hitt did his first work as an educator in his native State of Ohio and had been connected with kansas schools for about ten years.

His forefathers in the Hitt family were of Scotch-Jrish ancestry and were early settlers in Virginia. His grandfather, Garrett T. Hitt, was born in Culpeper County, Virginia. He came North and located in Ohio, at first in Tuscarawas County and later in Williams County. He followed farming, and after a long and prosperous career died at Bryan, Ohio, in 1890. He married Angelina Gladstone, also a native of Virginia.

James Boyd Hitt was born at Bryan, Ohio, May 25, 1880. His father, James A. Hitt, was born in Pulaski, Ohio, in 1839, grew up at Pulaski, was married near Bryan, and was a teacher, farmer and operator of saw mills and threshing machines. Altogether he taught thirty-five winter terms of school in Ohio and conducted his milling enterprise during the summer seasons. He afterwards took up farming and in 1905 removed to Jackson, Michigan, where he died in 1908. In the various communities of his residence he always took an active part in the Christian Church and served as deacon and elder. Politically he was a democrat and at one time filled the office of township assessor. James A. Hitt married Frances Mary Brenner, who was born at Bryan, Ohio, in 1847 and is now living with her son at Evcrest. She was the mother of ten children: Anna, who died at Toledo, Ohio, in 1900, was the wife of Eli Kaser, a cabinet maker still at roledo; Clement D. is a liveryman and farmer at Hicksville, Ohio; George is a farmer and thresherman at Bryan, Ohio; Mabel died unmarried at Bryan in 1898; Dora, who died in 1899, was the wife of Joseph Ziegler, a farmer, also deceased; Ella died at Bryan in 1901, unmarried; the seventh in the family is James B. Hitt; Carson was a farmer and thresherman and died at Jackson, Michigan, in 1911; Edmond died at Bryan, Ohio, in 1902; and Mrs. Alice Replogle died at Evansport, Ohio.

James B. Hitt was educated in the rural schools of Williams County, Ohio. In 1898, at the age of eighteen, he began teaching at Hicksville, Ohio, remained there one year, and for five years was a teacher in Williams County. He first came to Kansas in 1904 and was connected with the public schools of Robinson until 1907. He then resumed his further education at Angola, Indiana, where he attended the Academy and also the collegiate department and was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1909. Returning to Kansas, Mr. Hitt began teaching at Everest in September, 1909, as principal and is now superintendent of the public sehools. He had under his supervision a staff of five teachers and 170 scholars enrolled.

Mr. Hitt is a member of the Kansas State Teachers Association and the National Education Association and never loses an opportunity to improve his work and benefit by association with other educators. He is a democrat and for several years had served as an elder in the Christian Church. He also belongs to the Masonic fraternity. In 1915 Mr. Hitt built a modera residence near the schoolhouse in Everest.

He married in 1910, in Steuben County, Indiana, Miss Meta H. Kohl, danghter of Mr. and Mrs. William Kohl. Her father was a stockman and farmer and lives at Metz, Indiana. Her mother is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Hitt have one son, James Kohl, born February 14, 1914.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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