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Jesse Hutchinson was a musical man; and when he heard the astonishing beauty of the voice of Mary Leavitt as she sang in a village choir, he fell in love. Speaking of Mary and her sister Sarah, English writer Mary Howitt said,

Nothing could be more simple and primitive than the life they led; they spun and wove their own and the family clothes; practised their songs over the wheel and the loom, and on Sundays or meeting-days sung in the church or the meeting-house. Mary was very beautiful, and had many lovers; but Sarah had the finer voice, and her skill in church-music was so great that she would take any part, and people came many miles to hear her sing.

Like Mary and Sarah Leavitt, Jesse Hutchinson was a gifted singer, and he was known to play a spirited fiddle. One day he dressed himself in his finest clothes, tied his long hair in a queue in back, made the romantic journey to the Leavitt household, and asked the young woman to marry him. She gave the only answer she could  -  "No"  -  for she was just fifteen years old.

Jesse was an industrious man of high principles; and Mary's father, Andrew Leavitt, spoke well in his favor. But Mary had made up her mind. Leaving Jesse in the parlor, disappointed, she went to bed.

In the morning, Mary found Jesse still in the parlor and every bit as disappointed; but she was steadfast in her refusal. So, Jesse made the lonesome trip to Salem, "thinking that time and absence might operate in his favor."  Following his return, Mary consented, and they were married on Thursday, August 7, 1800. After their wedding, Jesse and Polly, as Mary was fondly called, made their home in Jesse's father's old house.

The youngest Hutchinson daughter spoke of Mary as a brunette with dark, sparkling eyes. One of Jesse's grandchildren remembered him as "a tall, thin, rather stern man."  He had blue eyes and light brown hair.

In the evening after supper, when time allowed, the Hutchinsons  -  joined by Mary's twin sister, Sarah Leavitt  -  would harmonize on hymns and ballads, and Jesse would set toes to tapping with his spirited fiddling.

Many children  -  Jesse, David, Noah, Mary, Andrew, and Zephaniah  -  were born to the couple. Around this time, Jesse Sr. thought his passion for instrumental music was leading him away from life's more sober duties. So he flung aside his bow and took apart the fiddle, making tobacco boxes out of the pieces.

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Jesse and Mary withdrew from the religious "standing order" and became Baptists. As they solemnly traveled on horseback past the old church, on their way to worship services in Mason, New Hampshire, rowdy young boys would hoot at them. Soon, though, a Baptist congregation formed in Milford, meeting in the North district schoolhouse near their home. Later, Jesse and his brother Andrew built Milford's first Baptist church.

Tragedy struck the young Hutchinson family with the death of Jesse, the oldest child, and Mary, the only daughter. Not a lot is commonly known about little Mary. Joshua gave this account of Jesse's death:

[I]n the spring of the year, he went as usual to carry the dinner to father, down to the old saw-mill. While there, he came suddenly to his death by the falling of a stack of boards upon him.

Another young daughter, Elizabeth Maryann, died much later, in 1828.

The spirits of the Hutchinsons were lifted once again on Monday, November 25, 1811, by the birth of twins, Caleb and Joshua, bringing the number of children to six  -  all boys.

By the age of four, these tuneful twins would march through the fields, roads, and paths near the old homestead, Caleb bugling and Joshua beating the double quick on an old tin pan. They became known as the "twin buglers," using household items to imitate band instruments.  "On several occasions," said Joshua, "our services were engaged at trainings and public festivities. On one occasion, father put us on the steps of the town-house, and as we struck up some of our stirring marches the multitude gathered round, and were almost wild in their admiration."

During these years, the Hutchinsons added Jesse Jr., Benjamin, and Judson to their family, bringing the number of children to nine  -  all boys!

Then on Sunday, March 14, 1819, the world turned upside down, with the birth of a daughter  -  Sarah Rhoda Jane Hutchinson. Rhoda, as she was familiarly known, became a key addition to the family chorus, and her duets with her mother, during chores, were said to be wonderous.

Judson, who most likely was charmingly eccentric from birth, was musically precocious.  His older brother Joshua wrote,  "Judson . . . the dear, confiding, generous, loving, humorous, gifted Judson, while an infant upon the floor, was heard to hum distinctly the melody of old Greenville, 'Gently, Lord, O gently lead us.'  He was in the nursery alone with mother, and to her great surprise she heard the music, but did not know where it originated at first."  Mary Hutchinson told her children that this happened when Judson was only nine months old.  Decades later, the youngest Hutchinson daughter recalled,  "She was singing and spinning, when his little voice followed hers in song."

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In 1824 Joshua "was detailed to the kitchen to help mother, Caleb [was delegated] to drive the cows, help milk, ride the horse to plough, and assist the other brothers in forwarding the work, so that the debt could be paid. For father had just bought a new farm, nearby the old homestead; for the reason, he said, that it would 'keep the family together.'"  Joshua's kitchen duties must have intensified his vocal training, since his mother was said to be the family's principal music teacher.

When time came to move, Joshua carried his littlest brothers  -  John and Asa  -  down the hill to the new homestead on Milford's North River Road. Abby, the last of the children, was born there in 1829.

Meanwhile the youngsters were learning vocal music at home, in the church, at the district school, and in singing schools.

At age eighteen, Joshua, having sung for years in the choir at the Baptist church, was asked to become the choirmaster.  "I continued in the position of chorister fourteen successive years. As the younger members of the family came to years, and were considered admissible to the choir, they were encouraged to join, until at one period there were some ten regular members."   "[A]t the very beginning of our musical experience," added John, "Joshua had much to do with our development."

About this time, the gregarious and enthusiastic Jesse Jr. was sent to Amherst to begin an apprenticeship with the local newspaper, the Farmers' Cabinet.  Edward D. Boylston described a vibrant intellectual community of reading, debates, and public lectures in the area during the period that he and Jesse were apprentices. Jesse would come home on Saturdays and return to Amherst on Monday mornings.

During his tour of duty in Amherst as a printer, Brother Jesse became involved in the romance of his life with Susan Hartshorn.  They were married on Wednesday, June 8, 1836.  That same year, the young couple removed to Lynn, Massachusetts.

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Back when Brother Judson was fifteen or sixteen, he decided he couldn't do without a fiddle. Dimond Pearsons let him have one on credit, and soon Judson paid for it with the proceeds raised from two hens and a crop of beans. His father still opposed a devotion to instrumental music, so it would never do for Judson to practice in public. He made a strategic retreat up the stairs to the higher reaches of the house. John, too, bought a violin and paid with money made from raising a crop of beans.

The Hutchinson brothers  -  Judson, John, and probably Asa  -  kept their musical enterprise out of sight for two years. When they could, they performed outdoors. A rock, behind the orchard, became a favorite spot for their covert rehearsals  -  "rock concerts," as they fancied them. There the boys spent many happy hours singing, learning to play their instruments, and dreaming of a brilliant future combining artistic and financial success.

As Brother Joshua told the story, Jesse Sr. overheard Judson carry two parts on the violin and sing a third, and he was most impressed. Not much later, the proud father was visited by a relative who  -  not incidentally  -  owned and played a fife.  "Would you like to hear my sons play 'Washington's March'?" he asked. And moments later, to their great surprise and amazement, the Hutchinson boys found themselves playing their beloved instruments in the presence of their father. To this fledgling performance, they added "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle."

Another event must have played a big part in bringing these musical pursuits out in the open. Asa, the youngest of the brothers  -  and his father's pet  -  determined that he must have a bass viol or cello; but he did not have enough money. Now, Brother Andrew was a Boston merchant, having moved there when he was eighteen; and he provided Asa with an instrument that was said to be the first of Yankee construction. According to a family story, it was made with a jackknife and had been played for more than thirty years in Boston's Old South Church. Such a large instrument would be much harder to conceal, or move about secretly, than a fiddle.

Asa's voice was deep for one his age. Joshua said that he would "lend his rich voice, with the commanding bow, to form a basis for the richest harmonies"  -  suggesting the importance of the foundation this provided for family singing.

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Tales of the early instrumental performances of the brothers are told and retold mostly because their fiddling was forbidden, but the reputation of this musical family rested on their natural vocals and thoroughly rehearsed harmonies.  Abby recalled:

In the summer of 1836,  an important new opportunity presented itself to Joshua  -  a teacher's class in Boston,  under the direction of Lowell Mason and George J. Webb.

It was not long before Joshua began taking one or another of his eager younger brothers with him to his singing schools, where their occasional impromptu vocal or instrumental performances delighted the students.  "About that time,"  he wrote,  "I urged my father . . . to give the young brothers, especially Judson, better advantages, for we all accorded to him the preeminence."

Judson and John, by 1840, joined the Milford brass band, an ensemble which was in steady demand to perform at campaign events in that year's hotly contested races.  At Francestown, they saw Daniel Webster in action.  "He was then in his prime,"  wrote John,  "tall, with magnificent presence and noble face, his form clad in a blue coat and brass buttons, and a resplendent vest of buff material."  In later years, John recalled,

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"The processions, especially those of the Whigs,"  he added,  "were great affairs, with the log-cabins on wheels, and barrels of hard cider for free distribution to all who came, and veterans of the Revolution seated on the team."   "In our band we had, of course, to play for both political parties, first for the Whigs and then for the Democrats.  As the music was purely national, we considered that good taste was not violated in so doing."

An incident took place in Boston during this election campaign, and one might wonder whether it made an impression on members of the Hutchinson family and especially on Jesse, who by then was well established in nearby Lynn.  Henry Russell, one of the musical stars of the day, used  "music and the concert room for electioneering purposes,"  singing  "at one of his popular concerts a parody on the Old English Gentleman, written by a Boston city officer."

It would not be hard to imagine the idea flashing through Jesse's head that reform-minded vocalists could do a world of good by singing songs of social and political commentary and advocacy in their popular entertainments.

Hutchinson family musical reunions, in the 1830s, took place on Fast Day and Thanksgiving.  These joyous events, according to an early source, were the setting for the  "first attempts at anything like regular concerts."  On one such occasion,  "The old minister of the village church became interested, and invited the young musicians to give their first Public Concert in the Baptist meeting house."  So, brothers Joshua and Jesse planned a grand entertainment to be given by the whole family.  Andrew tried to resist, saying he could not spare the time from his business; but Joshua would not take  "No"  for an answer.

The brothers who lived farthest from Milford arrived on Thursday, November 5, 1840, for rehearsals.  Joshua prepared the program and gave notice of the concert.  The announcement was written on two slips of paper, one placed on the old Town House, and the other on the bridge.

Joshua arranged for Solomon K. Livermore, a local lawyer, to speak about music; and he secured the services of Rev. John G. Richardson.  The songs included hymns, anthems, glees, and ballads.  Rhoda and Abby sang a duet,  "Ava Sanctissima"  -  "Abby arrayed in all the loveliness of youth and innocence, and Rhoda fair and timid as a fawn."  Grandfather Andrew Leavitt joined in singing the old chorals.  "The house was packed with an audience of all ages and positions,"  said Joshua,  "and the utmost respect was shown through the entire entertainment, which closed with Old Hundred and the benediction."

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According to all accounts, this entertainment was a great success and was not soon forgotten. It held a special place in the hearts of the starry-eyed younger members of the Hutchinson family, speaking, as it did, to their fondest aspirations.

Judson and Asa, too, had thoughts of making a living as musicians.  After the Milford concert, a certain turn of events forced them into an early career decision.  Many years later, John recalled that the brothers

John and Asa were met in Lynn by  Joshua,  Jesse,  and  Judson.

At that time, the Rainer Family was having great success with a series of engagements in Boston.  Their concerts were popular because they had learned to blend their voices together unusually well; mention was often made, too, of their modest manners and pleasing appearance on stage.  John heard the Rainers sing, and probably so did Jesse.  The success of these Tyrolese Minstrels greatly influenced the performances and career plans of the Hutchinsons.

On Saturday, February 13, 1841, at Sagamore Hall in Lynn, the Hutchinson brothers  -  evidently Joshua, Judson, John, and Asa  -  performed  "before a respectable audience, which had been assembled to see what Jesse's brothers could do as singers."  Frequent applause told them the concert went quite well.

Years later, Joshua wrote that Jesse's  "musical criticism was severe, for he had heard the 'Stars' of that day, and did not allow a 'Hutchinson' to be marked second rate."  Jesse's appraisal, then, may have been behind the singers' judgment that they needed more discipline and culture.  Joshua chose not to join the group, because of responsibilities to his young family and commitments to his singing schools and choir.  The others set out for Boston, for day jobs and exhausting practice sessions at night.  Even Jesse went along and worked for a time as a compositor in the Advertiser office on Court Street.  During the spring of 1841, the Hutchinson brothers rented a large room on Purchase Street, which they used as a "bachelor's hall."

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It was a hectic season for the Hutchinsons.  They visited the eminent musician Lowell Mason, asking his advice about how to improve their vocal performances.  Mason  -  being already quite busy and also, perhaps, sales-oriented  -  suggested purchasing his new book, the Academy of Music.  Another time, the brothers visited George J. Webb, proposing to join the Handel and Haydn Society.  Webb asked to hear them sing.  He supplied a newly-published piece of music, and played the piano accompaniment.  "At the conclusion he arose and approvingly said, 'I should be pleased to propose you to the society.'"  After Judson and John attended a rehearsal, though, they decided not to pursue membership: their voices being light, they feared they would lose their identity in the society's style of choral singing.

The trio rehearsed in a hall on the corner of Pearl and Purchase streets above Andrew's store.  Universalist services were held there, led by Rev. Spear.  Judson directed the choir.

The Hutchinson brothers heard John Hawkins give a temperance lecture at Boston's Marlboro Chapel, probably in April, and they signed the pledge.  Jesse had adopted the temperance reform several years earlier.

Judson returned to Lynn, and he was followed by his younger brothers.  Asa entered into Jesse's stove and hardware business on Union Street; and Judson and John ran a grocery store next door.  The brothers rehearsed in earnest in a room at the corner of Union and Silsbee streets.  They pooled their resources to purchase, for three dollars, a song collection called the Orphæan Lyre.  To this they added The Kingsley Social Choir and The Æolian Lyre.  John spent the last of his money on  "The Maniac,"  a dramatic score by Henry Russell.

"While we brothers were keeping our grocery and stove stores on Union Street in Lynn,"  said John,  "a few rods farther down the street, in a modest building, dwelt Frederick Douglass.  A short time before[,]  he had come panting up from the South with bloodhounds baying upon his track."

Brother John, of all the Hutchinsons, had the strongest drive to make a living as a concert singer.  It was his single-mindedness that kept pushing the trio toward lives as professional musicians.  But during the fall of 1841, he had a run of poor health, suffering from  "the whooping-cough, measles and bilious fever."  The trio's ambitions were set aside for a time.  Then with John's recovery came new hope and plans for a glorious future in the world of music.