 He and his parents moved to Mount Morris, Illinois in 1837.There he was educated at Rock River Seminary and later at De Pauw University.An expert shorthand writer (one of few men of his time who represented that skill), he became a very close friend of future President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, and during the famous Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858, at the request of Lincoln, Hitt served as a shorthand note-taker.