Early Life and Family
Winfield Scott Hancock and his identical twin brother Hilary Baker Hancock were born on February 14, 1824, in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, a hamlet just northwest of Philadelphia in present-day Montgomery Township. The twins were the sons of Benjamin Franklin Hancock and Elizabeth Hoxworth Hancock. Winfield was named after Winfield Scott, a prominent general in the War of 1812.
The Hancock and Hoxworth families had lived in Montgomery County for several generations, and were of English, Scottish and Welsh descent. Benjamin Hancock was a schoolteacher when his sons were born. A few years after their birth, he moved the family to Norristown, the county seat, and began to practice law. Benjamin was also a deacon in the Baptist church and participated in municipal government (as an avowed Democrat).
Hancock was at first educated at Norristown Academy, but removed to the public schools when the first one opened in Norristown in the late 1830s. In 1840, Joseph Fornance, the local Congressman, nominated Hancock to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hancock's progress at West Point was average. He graduated 18th in his class of 25 in 1844, and he was assigned to the infantry.
Read more about this topic: Winfield Scott Hancock
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“Our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen. On the farm the weather was the great fact, and men’s affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice. But in Black Hawk the scene of human life was spread out shrunken and pinched, frozen down to the bare stalk.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“The value of a family is that it cushions and protects while the individual is learning ways of coping. And a supportive social system provides the same kind of cushioning for the family as a whole.”
—Michael W. Yogman, and T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)