The new Geocities ads on the right side of your browser window can be pushed offscreen by clicking on the tab that's marked by a couple
1850
Chapter 10 Part 2
On Monday, September 23, 1850, Abby joined her brothers at Newburgh, New York. The Hutchinson Family quartet was reunited and this was to be the group's longest tour. They planned to travel as far afield as Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis. They sang to a crowded house at Poughkeepsie, and then visited Catskill, Albany, Utica, and Syracuse, arriving on October 1. Judson began this tour in questionable health; and in Syracuse, it was said, he showed "unusual excitement for a mind always impulsive and enthusiastic." Jesse wrote that Judson got caught up in the negative excitement over the Fugitive Slave Bill and also stayed up very late at night reading. These things, along with the emotional stimulation of being in the midst of a busy tour, combined to compromise further his already fragile health. So Jesse thought.
"They planned to travel as far afield as Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis": "Arrival of the Hutchinson Family,"
"Judson began this tour in questionable health; and in Syracuse": W. L. C., "Judson Hutchinson,"
"Jesse wrote that Judson got caught up in the negative excitement": [ Jesse ] Hutchinson, Jr., "Judson J. Hutchinson's Insanity Cured," New York Daily Tribune, October 30, 1850, p. 5 cols. 3-4. Cf. "Grand Temperance Rally," New York Daily Tribune, September 21, 1850, p. 8 col. 1.
Page 6
The quartet arrived in Rochester on October 5 and paid a prompt call on their friend Frederick Douglass. In the North Star, Douglass wrote, "The contemplated concert will doubtless be one of the most brilliant musical
According to Jesse, "Judson, particularly, experienced the most extraordinary demonstrations, accompanied as they were, by what he supposed to be electrical power upon his person, that he was overwhelmed with ecstacy almost too much to bear."
On the 9th, the quartet took the train to Buffalo for an engagement. "This was the best concert we ever gave," said John, "for we were all united in spirit and happy." The next day, he wrote: "Took steamboat Queen City for Cleveland. Judson was quiet, but did not feel like laughing and playing with us. Several times he got Abby to magnetize him."
On the 11th, John's diary recorded more contact with the spirit world. After dinner, the singers visited one of Jesse's friends. "Jesse manifested a desire to see something remarkable done. The clairvoyant was sent into the spirit land. She said she saw some spirits about Judson. They were magnetizing him. Judson seemed very much excited and was happy. He wanted to go home to
[ Jesse, ] sanguine, enthusiastic, and ardently devoted to the new idea, saw in Judson's experiences new proofs calculated to establish the truth of Spiritualism.
He urged him on to new tests. Judson, always thinking elevated and noble thoughts, was lifted by the clairvoyant or mesmeric - we to-day should say hypnotic - state in which he often found himself, to a height far above common humanity, seeing in his new sensations the beginning of a new dispensation.
On the 12th, John recorded in his diary that
Jesse took Judson to that place again, and he got into a bad state. In the evening we gave a concert, but it was a total failure. Judson was all out of spirits. The influence was upon him, and if I looked at him he would shiver and tremble. He refused to sing any comic songs, and I had to struggle through the best I
The group's fortunes had gone into a sharp decline since the best concert they ever gave, back in Buffalo on the 9th.
"In the North Star, Douglass wrote, The contemplated concert": F. D., "Hutchinson Family," Rochester (NY) North Star,
"According to Jesse, "Judson, particularly, experienced": Jesse Hutchinson
La Roy Sunderland published the Spiritual Philosopher.
"This was the best concert we ever gave, said John": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:276).
The quartet's performances during the early part of this tour may have been, as John said, quite exceptional. See "The Hutchinsons in Albany," New York Daily Tribune, October 1, 1850, p. 2 col. 2.
"Jesse manifested a desire to see something remarkable done": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:276). Cf.
Evidently Jesse's friend was a Mr. Dorman.
When Judson was magnetized by those in spirit life, he seems to have entered a gray area of spiritualist doctrine.
"[ Jesse, ] sanguine, enthusiastic, and ardently devoted": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:275).
"Jesse took Judson to that place again, and he got into a bad state": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:276-277).
Page 7
On October 13, Jesse and Judson were together all day. John wrote that Judson
went to dinner, hurried through and left the table with Jesse before the rest were done. We went to his friend's. He had Judson in a magnetic state. Hurried him through. We went to Mr. Severance's, and from there to one of his neighbor's where we sang. On our way to Mr. Bradburn's, our next stopping place, Judson hurried ahead, and went without much ceremony into the house and to the room where a poor girl lay dying in consumption. Sympathy caused Judson to try to do her good. She was frightened. She left the room, Judson remaining and making passes across his chest to relieve her. He magnetized water and sent
On the 14th, Judson was worse, and the group saw fit to postpone their concerts. On the 15th John wrote that "Jesse will keep him in his company. He thinks he can do him good no doubt." Then comes John's diary record for October 17:
Judson no better. A magnetizer called to see him. . . . At ten o'clock he got out of bed, stood in the hall, and preached for an hour. At four o'clock (18th) Mr. Severance and I went for the doctor. Judson was worse. At two o'clock that afternoon we took sail for home with our brother. We watched him all the time, fearful of his jumping off. He did work well to deceive me. Once I had to take him into the cabin by main force.
From Buffalo they went to Syracuse. "As we passed through Rochester," said John, "where he was first magnetized, we had hard work to prevent Judson from jumping from the train."
Ludlow Patton was with the singers in Syracuse, evidently having come to take Abby back to New York. It seems likely, too, that he was concerned for her physical safety, because of alarming reports about Judson's erratic and sometimes violent behavior. This tour marked the end of Sister Abby's days of traveling as a regular member of the Hutchinson Family.
Surprisingly little is known about Abby's life over the next few years, but we do know that her public activities were few. Off and on hereafter, in her letters, Abby would mention her lack of strength and stamina. Her health seems to have been fragile.
"John wrote that Judson went to dinner, hurried through and left the table": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:277).
"Judson no better. A magnetizer called to see him": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:277).
"As we passed through Rochester, said John, where he was first magnetized": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:278).
Page 8
On October 21, the group left Syracuse for home. Judson was kept quiet with anodynes. Poet Harriet McEwen Kimball of Portsmouth wrote one of the finest testimonials to the brothers for the way they looked after Judson over the years.
The brothers, John, and Asa . . . were unwearying in their patient and affectionate care over Judson, whose delicate constitution and proclivity to nervous disease rendered him an object of their continual solicitude. I believe the world never produced a more beautiful example of fraternal devotedness than existed between the brothers, whose sympathies were as harmonious as their voices.
On October 22, Jerusha, her brother, and Jesse took Judson to the hospital at Worcester. The Hartford Courant said:
We have seen a letter from one of the family . . . which says, "Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) we placed Judson in the Lunatic Asylum at
Judson was unhappy at the Worcester asylum and his condition seemed to grow worse. He left after just one night. The party remained in the city for a few days, staying at the American House. On Saturday, Judson went to Milford. "I take great pleasure," wrote Jesse, "in announcing that
La Roy Sunderland was called in, probably by Jesse, to help care for Judson. He consulted Brother Benjamin's spirit to learn the cause of Judson's difficulties. "I spent three days and nights with him," wrote Sunderland, "and, though I must say I found his case far worse than I had supposed, yet I am encouraged to hope that all will be well with him and his, in a short time."
Judson's illness did not follow the optimistic course anticipated by Sunderland and Jesse. Judson was given hydropathic treatments at his home in Milford. Finally on Friday, November 22, he was admitted to the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford, Connecticut, under the care of Dr. John S. Butler. According to legend, Judson nearly convinced hospital staff that it was Jesse who had been brought for admission. Judson did not wish to remain at the Retreat; but if he had to stay, he wanted Jesse with him. Jesse had promised he would stand by Judson. But others in the party overruled them, and the two were separated. Evidently the care that Judson received at the Retreat was both acceptable to him and effective.
"The brothers, John, and Asa . . . were unwearying": "Judson, of the Hutchinson Family," Amherst, NH, Farmers' Cabinet, February 16, 1859, p. 2 cols. 1-2.
"We have seen a letter from one of the family . . . which says": "Insanity of Judson Hutchinson," New Hampshire Journal
Biographies of the Hutchinsons have tended to focus on Judson's occasional despondency. Yet this episode of mental illness shows quite clearly that he had disorders of both mood and thought.
"Judson was unhappy at the Worcester asylum and his condition": E. W. C., "The Hutchinsons," Providence (RI) Mirror, n.d.
The article cited here mentions that one of Judson's brothers suffered from the same type of disorder. This may refer to Andrew, judging by "Death of One of the Hutchinson Family," The Liberator, Boston, n.d.
"On Saturday, Judson went to Milford": "Judson J. Hutchinson," s.l.: s.n., n.d., in Item 36v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"I take great pleasure, wrote Jesse, in announcing that [h]is health": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Judson J. Hutchinson,"
"Later he wrote, All that seems most needed": Jesse Hutchinson
"I spent three days and nights with him, wrote Sunderland": "Case of Mr. Judson Hutchinson,"
"Jesse had promised he would stand by Judson. But others": Private circular of Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., Hartford, CT, November 23, 1850.
The Hartford Retreat provided moral treatment, an important reform in the care of mental illness. This use of "moral" is archaic. Today we would probably use "morale" in its place - morale treatment. Moral treatment had a reputation for being quite helpful, hospital stays were relatively short for the times, and patients were returned to their homes with a reasonable expectation of being productive members of their families and the community. The Hartford Retreat has been known more recently as the Institute of Living.
Page 9
The career of the Hutchinson Family was at a turning-point. Abby's health was uncertain at best, and she retired from the touring group. The company that she helped make famous had not been conspicuously successful before she joined and made it a quartet. And now, how could the trio of brothers ever hope to produce the sound their audience expected, once this key voice was gone?
Discussions of which member of the quartet was most popular generally centered on Judson and Abby. And the interplay between their voices seems to have been particularly important. This may have developed, in part, from a certain little drill.
Abby . . . could make her own part, [ said Frank B. Carpenter ] no matter how intricate the melody might be. To test her abilities, her brother Judson would sing the scales, and difficult improvised melodies, bringing in chromatic runs and changes. Abby would never falter, but would match him every time with her harmonious notes. Her ear was extremely sensitive to sound, and she always sang in perfect tune.
Judson's health was a major question, too. Losing him, along with Abby, must have seemed unthinkable. Concert-goers took Judson to be the quartet's leader. He introduced the songs at their shows. He was their principal instrumentalist, and he was their best, most prolific composer. His eccentric manner and appearance, and his cryptic remarks between songs, must have done much to hold the audience's attention. It would be hard to exaggerate Judson's contribution to the success of the quartet.
Many of the best of the Hutchinson Family's original songs featured lyrics by Jesse and music by Judson. If Jesse's enthusiasm for spiritualism seemed a challenge to Judson's recovery, keeping them apart could deny the group its most important source of new and fresh material.
On Wednesday, October 23, and Thursday, October 24, 1850, the first National Woman's Suffrage Convention took place in Worcester, Massachusetts. Jesse, Judson, Jerusha, and her brother were in Worcester at the time. A great many friends of the Hutchinsons were among those who signed the call for this convention, sent letters of support, spoke from the platform, served as officers, formed the membership of committees, or otherwise took part in the meetings. It is hard to imagine that Jesse, for one, would have failed to make some kind of appearance. And it would not be long before the Hutchinsons - evidently prompted by Judson - would bring advocacy of equal pay for equal work into their advertising copy.
"Abby . . . could make her own part, [ said Frank B. Carpenter ]": Frank Carpenter, New York Home Journal, December 7, 1892, in John W. Hutchinson (1896, 2:270-275).
"On Wednesday, October 23, and Thursday, October 24, 1850": For a modern study of this first national woman's rights convention, see John F. McClymer, This High and Holy Moment: The First National Woman's Rights Convention, Worcester, 1850 (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace College, 1999).
"A great many friends of the Hutchinsons were among those": "The Sphere of Woman," New York Daily Tribune, September 11, 1850, p. 8 cols. 1-2.
|
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 |
E-Mail Us
Brattleboro, Vermont: Published by the author. 2006, 2007.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.