Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Winfield S. Hancock (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Sketch of the Life and Public Services of Winfield S. Hancock
His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Hawksworth. Her grandfather served in the Continental armies, and died soon after the close of the Revolution from exposure in the rigors of the service. Her father went into the Revolutionary ranks when only a lad of fifteen, and returned to the battle field five times as a member of different regiments. At Taneytown, Md., his command was called upon to escort Burgoyne's prisoners, captured at Saratoga, to Valley Forge. For his services in the Revolution he received a pension during life.
An incident is related of his mother's family, showing the bravery of its female members when exposed to the dangers of savage warfare.
During the French and Indian wars before the Revolution, in the absence of the men on military service, the Indians attacked their house and drove them to the attic. They defended themselves with great heroism, chopping off the fingers of the savages with hatchets, as they attempted to climb up to kill or capture them.
General Hancock's Father - His Influence Over His Son.
General Hancock's father, Benjamin F. Hancock, was born in Philadelphia, and at the early age of fifteen, accompanied our military forces to the banks of the Delaware river in the war of 1812-15. Being a youth of studious habits, and strong aspirations for solid attainments, he received a fair common school and classical education, and studied law. He was of that class of young men who continually advance, and in his maturity became a lawyer of eminence, and a citizen of sterling character and wide influence. He removed to Norristown, the county seat of Montgomery, when his son, Winfield Scott, was four years old. At Swede's Ford, on the site of Norristown, Washington crossed the Schuylkill river in his campaign of Valley Forge. In sight of these historic hills Hancock passed his early years.
His father was a man of strong intellect and of very broad, patriotic views. For more than a third of a century he was deferred to and reverenced by the community in which he lived. Being an able counsellor, his legal opinions were sought by the profession both at Norristown and in Philadelphia. His wife, the mother of General Hancock, was a woman of strong character and greatly respected among the people of Norristown and in the church. She was long a devout member of the Baptist Church. His father became a constant attendant with her, and was liberal in the support of the service. He is remembered for many years as the able Moderator of the May anniversary meetings of this denomination in Philadelphia.
It is related of him that at the age of thirty, having become a constant smoker, and accustomed to take a social glass with his legal friends, as was the custom of that day, he resolved, in view of the effect upon his physical powers, his character and maturer manhood, to cease the use of both forever. Having a liberal supply of cigars, he placed the bundles upon the mantel shelf of his office, and bade his friends as they came to take the last he could offer. From that date forward to the end of his long life he never smoked, or drank intoxicating liquor.
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