Hotchkiss, Archibald (1794–1882)

Archibald Hotchkiss, pioneer and land agent, was born in Washington County, New York, on February 1, 1794. Apparently he was in Mexico in April 1833 before he traveled to Texas as the agent of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company. He arrived in Nacogdoches in August 1834, and the East Texans, discontented with the company, threatened to expel him. He was in Montgomery, Alabama, sometime before August 1835 and there gave such glowing descriptions of Texas that he influenced Stephen W. Blount to move there. Hotchkiss wrote Mirabeau B. Lamar urging the expulsion of the Cherokee Indians from East Texas in 1835, but Sam Houston and others complained to Andrew Jackson that Hotchkiss had made a contract with the Creek Indians to procure land for them in Texas. Hotchkiss was administrator of the Emanuel Santos estate at Nacogdoches in 1840 and wore the military title of captain in 1841. As an active Mason, Hotchkiss took the past master's degree at the lodge in Nacogdoches in July 1851. When he died in Palestine on January 20, 1882, he was reportedly the oldest living Mason in the United States.