![[1846 Margaret Gillies sketch of the Hutchinson Family quartet]](http://www.oocities.org/hfsbook/pic/gilliessketch342.jpg)
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1848-1849
Chapter 9 Part 2
On election day the quartet crossed paths with another talented group of vocalists.
[T]he Alleghanians, a popular band of singers, spent a good deal of time singing with us. We enjoyed all this very much, though a slightly different face was put upon the matter a few weeks afterward, when we found they had fallen in love with our songs, to the extent of preceding us over our Ohio route, singing them all the way.
The quartet gave a concert at Erie, then went to Ashtabula and Zanesville, singing to packed houses. After that, they were frightened by seeing a man shaking from the ague. A good crowd turned out for their first show in Cleveland on November 15. Their second concert was more successful still. They found their audiences to be receptive, to say the least, on this, their most westerly tour. Hereafter, Cleveland became one of the most important cities to the career of the Hutchinsons. At Elyria,
The Hutchinsons traveled through Sandusky to Cincinnati, arriving on November 23. Daniel Kendrick Leavitt - their mother's youngest brother, who was commonly called by his middle name - insisted that they stay with him. He had not seen the Hutchinson brothers for twenty years, and he had never seen Abby. The quartet gave many concerts in the area.
The Hutchinsons, not averse to performing in a slave state, crossed into Kentucky and sang at Coventry. Their antislavery songs were cheered, but the engagement was not a financial success. Returning to Cincinnati, they were reunited with Jesse. From there, they went to Springfield and Columbus. Then they returned to Cincinnati to spend Christmas with their uncle.
"[T]he Alleghanians, a popular band of singers, spent a good deal of time": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:248).
Concert programs show that members of the Alleghanians were, indeed, fond of singing Hutchinson Family songs. On the other hand, the Hutchinsons liked performing the music of John Calhoun Baker of the Baker Family, John liberally borrowed songs from the repertoire of Henry Russell, and the Hutchinsons drew important elements of their vocal style and stage manner from the Rainer Family. There is nothing at all remarkable about the Alleghanians singing material associated with the Hutchinsons.
John had better reason than he gave in his family history to be concerned. At this point, he thought the Hutchinson Family was but a handful of months away from losing Sister Abby's services, which were believed to be essential to the group's success. At the same time, the Alleghanians quartet was very much on the rise, largely on the beauty of the singing of Miriam G. Goodenow and on her apparent star power.
In the 1840s and into the 1850s, a large number of traveling family groups entered the field. Many of them - probably most of them - at one time or another earned a notice from some newspaper somewhere comparing them favorably to the Hutchinson Family, before each of them, one after another, fell entirely off the map. Unlike these countless short-lived companies of harmony singers, the Alleghanians would not be going away anytime soon. A couple years after John led his last grand tour, former Alleghanians James M. Boulard and Carrie Hiffert would be finishing up a European concert trip.
"At Elyria, [W]e had such a jam, said John, that it was almost impossible": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:248-249).
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On December 30, the group took a boat for Wheeling, in western Virginia. Once on board, they got word of cholera. Judson became frightened and announced his plans to go home. "As time passed on," said John, "the excitement subsided; but Judson had made a vow to return home if spared, and we could not move him." In fact, he went so far as to declare he would never perform with the group again. With that, the singers ended 1848 - one of the most eventful years in Hutchinson Family history.
At Pittsburgh the others tried, without success, to persuade Judson to stay with them. He started for home, and Jesse went after him. The party still comprised a quartet, since Ludlow had a fine tenor voice and was well acquainted with the repertoire. Then Brother Asa took sick, so the group had to give up their planned concerts. Those who were left made the difficult journey over the Alleghenies, with the temperature at ten degrees below zero. In Baltimore they learned that Judson and Jesse had proceeded north. They traveled to Philadelphia, where Asa left them for New York and home.
On January 8, 1849, they went to Bristol, Pennsylvania, where they were invited to give a concert. Two days later, John, Abby, and Ludlow made what may have been their public debut as a trio. Their singing was received with rapturous applause. The program was interesting and varied, reaching all the way back to a tune from the Rainer Family, but also including "A Song for Ohio" - which was written on this very tour. And they gave an early performance of "Uncle Sam's Farm," which would soon become one of the Hutchinson Family's best-known originals.
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Of all the mighty nations in the east or in the west, Then come along, come along, make no delay; St. Lawrence marks our Northern line as fast her waters flow; While the South shall raise the cotton, and the West, the corn, and pork, Our fathers gave us liberty, but little did they dream |
"As time passed on, said John, the excitement subsided; but Judson": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:249-250).
"With that, the singers ended 1848 - one of the most eventful years": Dale Cockrell thought the Hutchinsons reached their peak of popularity in 1844. See Dale Cockrell, ed., Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1989), 282. He could be right. Yet a strong case could be made that 1848 was their biggest year. The original group was still intact and its members generally enjoyed good health. They produced several of their most celebrated original songs in 1848. The quartet was packing the largest halls available across a widening geographic area. They were quite busy on behalf of the Free-Soil campaign. And the group was receiving extensive free publicity in news articles everywhere they roamed.
"The program was interesting and varied, reaching all the way back": "A Song for Ohio," lyrics: Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., fragment: "We've roamed afar from our native hills, To see the lands of Ohio."
"And they gave an early performance of Uncle Sam's Farm, which": "Uncle Sam's Farm: Song and Chorus,"
Jesse wrote "Uncle Sam's Farm" to be sung to the tune, "Walk Into the Parlor, Boys, and Hear the Banjo Play." This must be the way it was sung at Bristol. The original song was issued in several broadside editions. Later, Judson composed a new, but somewhat similar melody. See caption by Ludlow Patton above "Uncle Sam's Farm," s.l.: s.n., n.d., in Item 73r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire. That is the version of "Uncle Sam's Farm" which became well known. I have not seen the score(s) published in 1849, though copies are known to exist, so I am not certain which tune is presented.
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The brave in every nation are joining heart and hand A welcome, warm and hearty do we give the sons of toil Yes! we're bound to lead the nations for our motto's "Go ahead," |
From Bristol the trio went to New York, where they were joined by Jesse. They decided the tour was over; and the party broke up, with members returning to their homes. Though this was the middle of the concert season, ironically, the New Branch was the only Hutchinson Family ensemble that was still on the road.
Back on January 24, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma in California. Needless to say, Jesse was quick to catch the fever. Not long after the end of the tour into the Midwest, he wrote "Ho! for California" "for a band of overland emigrants, who left Massachusetts, in the spring of 1849."
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We've formed our band and are well manned Then, ho! brothers ho! To California go. There's plenty of gold in the world we're told On the banks of the Sacramento. Heigh O, and away we go, Digging up gold in Francisco. Heigh O, and away we go, Digging up the gold in Francisco. |
"Ho! for California" was another of Jesse's most popular songs. It was sung again as a farewell to a Massachusetts company traveling to California, as their ship, the La Grange, sailed out of Salem Harbor on March 17. Later it became a part of the group's concert repertoire. Somehow in the folk process, Jesse's chorus was borrowed for the sailor song, "Sacramento," which was sung to the tune, "Camptown Races."
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Ho! boys ho, to There's plenty of gold, So I've been told, On the banks of the Sacramento. |
"Uncle Sam's Farm" sequence of stanzas: An interesting alternative way of singing "Uncle Sam's Farm" might be to start with the lines that begin, "The brave in every nation are joining heart and hand," then go straight from that verse into the one which begins "Of all the mighty nations in the east or in the west," and after that sing the chorus for the first time and then continue on with the song.
"Not long after the end of the tour into the Midwest, he wrote": "The California Gold Diggers: Song and Chorus," music: adapted and arranged by Nathan Barker, lyrics: Jesse Hutchinson
"It was sung again as a farewell to a Massachusetts company": "Duncan Emrich, American Folk Poetry: An Anthology (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 560-561."
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On Wednesday, February 28, 1849, Abby J. Hutchinson married Ludlow Patton at the New York home of the groom's father. We may well imagine a ceremony as wonderful as the marriage of nearly half a century that began on this occasion. A few days later, the newlyweds traveled to Milford, and a Hutchinson-style musical wedding party followed.
John was anxious - very - to start a tour. Many journalists had reported that Abby would retire from the concert stage following her marriage, and John's diary implies that he feared the same. Evidently he wanted to organize a trip, partly to put to an early test Abby's willingness to travel with her brothers. But we are told it was Judson who was most opposed to starting out.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, March 14, the world gained another charming Abby Hutchinson, in the person of the firstborn child of Asa and Lizzie. No doubt Asa wished to stay home for the birth, and we may well imagine that he had been as opposed as Judson to beginning another tour.
John must have been greatly relieved, when on May 15, the Hutchinson Family quartet - with Ludlow as business manager - set off on a singing trip to Maine. The tour led them through eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and they arrived in Portland on June 1. While there, the Hutchinsons visited their dear friends, W. Oliver Dennett and family, and serenaded Henry W. Longfellow with some of his own verses.
The singers continued through Lewiston, Augusta, and Hallowell. The Waterville Mail enthused that it was the original Hutchinson Family quartet - with Sister Abby - that would be giving a concert at the Congregational Church on June 16. Possibly the news didn't reach Skowhegan - for after the show at the Union Meeting House, an odd rumor quickly spread that Abby was not present among the singers.
Ludlow scheduled appearances at Bangor's City Hall for June 21 and 23. A notice tells us that the Hutchinsons "might sing here a long while to full houses if their engagements would admit of it." At the second concert, the group announced that they had added entertainments for Monday and Wednesday evenings. Jesse's "Eight Dollars a Day" had previously caused the editor of the Augusta Age much distress; so, of course, the crowds in Bangor and other Maine communities demanded to hear it.
"While there, the Hutchinsons visited their dear friends, W. Oliver Dennett": This study turned up no information, either way, about whether Oliver and Lydia Dennett had children of their own. Evidently, though, they raised Clementine Dennett after the death of Oliver Dennett's sister-in-law.
"The Waterville Mail enthused that it was the original Hutchinson Family": "The Hutchinsons," Waterville (ME) Mail, n.d., in Item 30v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"Possibly the news didn't reach Skowhegan - for after the show": In future years a puzzling phenomenon took place, with some degree of frequency, in which people who knew Abby in her early days - or at least people who were familiar with the Hutchinson Family around that same time - failed to recognize her when they saw her. This may have been an early example. One of the funniest such incidents happened decades later at John's seventieth birthday celebration when several guests asked Abby, not recognizing her, if Sister Abby was there.
"A notice tells us that the Hutchinsons might sing here a long while": "The Hutchinsons had a crowded house," Bangor (ME) Daily Whig and Courier, June 23, 1849, p. 2, col. 1.
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The quartet gave concerts in Old Town and Orono; and after making an incursion into Lincoln County, their plan was to go back via Bucksport, Belfast, East and West Thomaston, Waldoboro, Damariscotta, and Wiscasset. From there they proceeded through Bath, to Portland, and then to home.
Not long after the quartet's return to Milford, Abby became seriously ill; and John reported that "for two months her life was despaired of." Dr. Kittredge, evidently coming up from Boston, took charge of her treatment. One article said Abby was "very ill," while another reported on her "dangerous illness" and said she was "near unto death a part of the time." Her condition was so serious that it was thought best not to move her. For a month and a half or more, she remained at the Milford homestead. Finally, when she had recovered enough, she was taken to Kittredge's Hydropathic Institute at 24 Franklin Street in Boston. Even then, Abby's condition was slow to improve. One report said she had gained three pounds that week, adding, "She has lived twenty-one days without taking a particle of food - swallowed nothing, during that time, with the exception of cold water."
A rhyming note written by Dr. Kittredge on October 7, at the time of her discharge from his Hydropathic Institute, goes far to confirm this account of the seriousness and course of her illness.
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For days and weeks together, you suffered much from pain |
Abby went with her husband to Connecticut for a while. She would not be singing with the group anytime soon; and it seemed entirely possible that she might never go on another concert tour with her brothers. Such a loss would be considerable. Joshua said it was Abby's voice that perfected the quartet's harmony. He was far from alone in that belief.
Abby had a positive attitude. Years later, Joshua described her as "born to smile." She worked very hard to recover, and in a way her illness made her stronger.
How much better [ said Abby ] to take up the burden of life cheerfully than to go mourning along the road; when we learn to bear our cross bravely, it seems transformed into a crown of light.
"Not long after the quartet's return to Milford, Abby became seriously ill": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:252).
"One article said Abby was very ill, while another reported": This account of Abby's illness was drawn from "We are sorry to learn," s.l.: s.n., n.d.; and "Good News for the Lovers of Sweet Harmony," s.l.: s.n., n.d., in Item 30v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire; as well as "Is It Possible?"
Alarming news reports of cholera were both numerous and widespread at the time. No commonly known reports of Abby's illness link it explicitly to cholera, but neither do any information sources used in this study say anything to rule it out.
Curiously, about the time of this illness, the photographic record of Abby seems to stop. Individuals were consulted who have responsibility for Hutchinson family memorabilia in institutional holdings as well as in private hands, and no one was aware of any likenesses of Abby through this long period, except for the well-known Frank B. Carpenter portrait. Pictures of her become fairly common again when she is in her thirties - about the time she started becoming more active in public events.
"One report said she had gained three pounds that week, adding": "Is It Possible?" s.l.: s.n., n.d., in Item 31r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"For days and weeks together, you suffered much from pain": E. A. Kittredge, "Noggs Farewell to His Pet Patient and Her Loving
Dr. Kittredge's medical views may have placed him on the fringes of his profession. His use of the phrase, "thy friend 'Starvation,'" refers to his enthusiasm for fasting as a medical treatment technique.
Did Abby's substantial weight gain, followed by an equivalent loss of weight, mark the beginning of chronic health problems?
Abby became severely ill about four or five months after her wedding. Carol Ryrie Brink raised the question of whether this had anything to do with Abby's reproductive health. See Carol Brink, Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 141.
"Joshua said it was Abby's voice that perfected the quartet's harmony": Joshua Hutchinson, A Brief Narrative of the Hutchinson Family (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1874), 49.
"How much better [ said Abby ] to take up the burden of life cheerfully": Abby Hutchinson Patton, A Handful of Pebbles (Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1891), 49.
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Behold the day of promise comes, full of inspiration The blessed day by prophets sung for the healing of the nation Old midnight errors flee away, they soon will all be gone While heavenly angels seem to say the good time's coming on
The good time, the good time, the good time's coming on The good time, the good time, the good time's coming on |
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Brattleboro, Vermont: Published by the author. 2006, 2007.
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