Sylvester Thomas "Vet" Hockett
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - November 18, 1938
"VET" HOCKETT DIES.
S. T. (Vet) HOCKETT, another of the old time pioneers of Eagle county passed away at a nursing home in Eagle early Thursday morning. Mr. HOCKETT had been confined to his bed for some months and the end was not unexpected.
Funeral arrangements had not been completed at this writing. We will give Mr. HOCKETT's obituary next week.
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - November 25, 1938
"VET" HOCKETT LAID TO REST SATURDAY. Well Educated And Of High Literary Attainments, He Chose To Follow The Lure Of Prospecting In The Mountains.
Contributed. Sylvester Thomas HOCKETT was born in Grant county, Indiana, in 1857, and died, November 17, 1938. His parents were of genteel Quaker stock. It was in this belief he was born and reared, and it was the belief he lived. His parentage included a long line of WINSLOW, BINFORD, and NORDYKE schoolmasters and preachers. So it was not strange that he too chose education as his profession.
When he was eight years old, he moved with his parents to Cedarvale, Chautauqua county, Kansas. There he attended grammar school, when at sixteen years of age, after having completed a short term in normal school, he became a schoolmaster. He has often recounted of the custom of boarding with the parents of his pupils as pay for his services. He was a most successful teacher and for a time, even young as he was, taught in the Kansas Normal school.
In 1884, he came to Eagle where he lived with his father, brother and two young sisters. His brother, Art, was the first postmaster of Eagle.
He accepted the position as teacher in the Upper Gypsum Valley school. During the period, he was an active promoter of the literary societies, church and other cultural activities. As the railroad was fast moving through Colorado, he discontinued his teaching and started work on it, where he held the position of supervisor of the water division. This was his work until he located on Lake creek to follow his life dream of a gold miner. From early spring until late fall he lived ton this place, following the gold trails. The only success he attained was the satisfaction and pleasure he gained by living in God's hills.
He was ever proud of Colorado's snowy peaks, her god and her columbines. This pride inspired his many poems, inscribed on whatever was handy to his pen. He was an ardent reader and always wanted to found a public library for Eagle. Books were his companions as he lived his solitary life of prospecting.
In his declining years he lived wit his brother, Addison. To the end, he remained the son of a proud line of gentlemen, and he never wavered from the Quaker belief, faith and culture.
He requested a Masonic burial, an order of which he was a proud member for many years. As he expressed in his own writing, he still hopes to take his place in the promised land:
"I have grown old and feeble And my limbs refuse to stand; I have come down from the mountains to look for a better land. I am done with my shovel and pan; They fall from my nerveless hand. I will dig in the streets for gold When I reach the other land."
He is survived by his daughter, Emily LOTT, his brother, Addison HOCKETT, and a sister, Myrtie GANT.
Services were held in Gypsum for the deceased last Saturday afternoon, under auspices of Castle Peak Lodge No. 122, A. F. & A. M., and under direction of Funeral Director Paul ANDRE.
