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1852-1853
Chapter 12 Part 2
Miriam G. Goodenow married T. P. Robb - a member of the Sacramento Common Council - in December, and Boulard, Dunning, and Oakley promptly left for New York on the Pacific. The bride and groom remained in California for a time, and apparently so did brother George Goodenow.
"Miriam G. Goodenow married T. P. Robb - a member of the Sacramento": The Goodenow-Robb Wedding - "Married," New York Daily Tribune, January 14, 1853, p. 6 col. 3.
It is often said that Robb and Goodenow were wed at San Francisco on December 15, 1852. Another report had them married around the first of December at Sonora. Genealogy records which are readily available on the Internet say the couple was married at San Francisco in 1854. Those who claim the event took place at Sonora around December 1, 1852, talk the best game.
The Return to New York of Boulard, Dunning and Oakley - "Married," New York Daily Tribune, January 14, 1853, p. 6 col. 3; Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 186.
The Alleghanians arrived in New York on board the Northern Light; it was carrying California news up to December 15, 1852. See New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, p. 8 col. 4.
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Miriam Goodenow was among the most popular American vocalists of her day, and no doubt fans wished her a long and happy life. She and her husband blissfully started raising a family.
By about the time of the Goodenow-Robb wedding, Jesse had become a flour dealer, in partnership with James Duhig. One correspondent wrote:
Jesse Hutchinson has gone into the flour business, and says he is fully impressed that it is his duty to endeavor to persuade every man, woman and child in California that they should eat unbolted (or Graham) flour bread which he calls the "Bread of Life," and is so eager to fulfill his mission, that I have repeatedly met him on the street with a fifty pound bag on his shoulder, on his way to some convert.
Meanwhile on January 9, 1853, the Alleghanians arrived in New York on board the Northern Light, without Jesse, their most successful publicist, and without Miriam Goodenow, their chief attraction. The New York Tribune said, "Among the passengers by the Northern Light, yesterday, we notice the names of Messrs. Boullard, Oakly and Dunning, (of the Alleghanian troupe,) who have returned home after a very successful tour through California. Miss Goodenow, who accompanied them, remains in California with her brother. Jesse Hutchinson, their business agent, has gone into the flour business in San Francisco."
It was probably about this time that Jesse wrote:
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Brothers! I hear your voices sweet, Re-echoing o'er the plain, And calling me in gentle tones "Oh! Brother, come home again." |
Jesse's career as a flour dealer was brief. In January he made arrangements to go home.
Jesse was well-known for his generosity, which at this time evidently exceeded his means.
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I gave to the poor and needy, and great was my reward, For I felt I'd done my duty, and lent it to the Lord. Thus, on through California, I traveled on my way, Until my purse was empty, I had nothing more to pay. |
Jesse planned to take Vanderbilt's Pacific to San Juan del Sur, cross Nicaragua, and board the Pampero for New Orleans. He left on Tuesday, February 1, 1853. Once on land, his party took mules up to Lake Nicaragua and boated across to the other side, where they would float down the San Juan River.
"She and her husband blissfully started raising a family": As far as the story of the Hutchinson Family goes, at this point Miriam Goodenow dropped out of sight. It appears, in fact, that she may have been totally out of the public eye following her wedding to
One of our e-mail correspondents has acquired a likeness of Miriam that makes her look younger and livelier than the picture in Singin' Yankees, though the recently-surfaced image comes from a publication dated 1851 which was near the end of her professional singing career.
It is particularly easy to get a sense of Miriam's husband,
Earlier it looked as though Miriam Goodenow Robb's oldest daughter totally dropped out of sight quite early in life, allowing for the easy if tentative interpretation that she died young. Now, though, evidence is running strongly to the contrary. A second, independent information source is needed regarding a key point in the daughter's personal and family history, but it appears as though she may have consistently gone by her husband's name, rather than by her own given name, when she was in any way before the public. Further information about the family history of Miriam G. Goodenow may be en route right now. Time will tell. But there are good genealogy-related reasons to concentrate, at first, on
"By about the time of the Goodenow-Robb wedding, Jesse had become": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., and James Duhig, "Graham Flour Depot," San Francisco: s.n., December 22, 1852, in Item 50r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire. Though presently I have no details, an e-mail correspondent advises that members of the Duhig family were quite important in the part of California where they settled.
"Jesse Hutchinson has gone into the flour business, and says": "California," New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1853, p. 6 cols. 3-4.
According to news from California, a handful of dealers were restricting flour supplies so they could raise their prices to the limit. It was becoming a public-policy issue. This is the situation Jesse stepped into.
"Meanwhile on January 9, 1853, the Alleghanians arrived in New York": "Fifteen Days Later from California," New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, page 3, column 1; "Passengers Arrived," New York Daily Times, January 10, 1853, p. 8 cols. 5-6.
"The New York Tribune said, Among the passengers by the Northern Light": "City Items," New York Daily Tribune, January 10, 1853, p. 7 col. 3.
According to available evidence, Richard Dunning was the next founding member, after Miriam Goodenow, to leave the Alleghanians. Compact news items in New York City newspapers suggest that William H. Oakley may have been in and out of the group into the 1860s, though this is less than a sure thing. Either way, by the early 1860s, William H. Oakley left the Alleghanians, evidently to never return. And then there was one: James M. Boulard. By the early 1870s, the Alleghanians long-time business agent was referring to himself as the group's proprietor and manager, and even Boulard had moved on to new endeavors or to familiar endeavors under a new name. The Alleghanians was a very different band in later years. But even in the 1870s, the group was still singing some of Jesse songs such as "The Good Old Days of Yore" and "Right Over Wrong."
"Brothers! I hear your voices sweet, Re-echoing o'er the plain": Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., "Last Poetry Written by Brother Jesse, at San Francisco, California," appended to Abby Hutchinson Patton, "Impromptu Lines from Sister Abby: Orange, New Jersey, near New York, to Judson, John, and Asa in New Hampshire, White-Washed Cottage, July 27,
Abby's little doodle, "Impromptu Lines," is of special interest in part because so little is heard from her over the next few years. She never intended this piece for publication; but for a time, printed copies were folded and tipped in to Hutchinson Family songsters, as a bonus for purchasers. Thus, it was distributed at concerts and at other points of sale.
"I gave to the poor and needy, and great was my reward": Jesse Hutchinson
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Then Jesse encountered a familiar problem - low water hindered the progress of boats coming to pick up the travelers, who waited three days in uncomfortable and unhealthy conditions. According to John:
When part way on his journey some one of the company discovered that a trunk, containing twenty thousand dollars in gold, had been left behind on the isthmus. He
Jesse sailed on the steamship Daniel Webster, disembarking at New Orleans on March 12. He took the Wm. Noble to Cincinnati, where he arrived on Saturday, April 2, 1853.
Back in the spring of 1852 when Jesse's brothers ended their tour, Judson announced that he would leave the group, move to Illinois, and return to agricultural pursuits. So by then, worries about Jesse's influence on Judson were probably far from the minds of John and Asa. And Jesse's later verses, beginning, "Brothers! I hear your voices sweet," could be taken to mean that, by early 1853, they may have wanted him back as their business agent (and lyricist).
In the summer of 1852, the Hutchinson brothers devoted themselves to farming, giving some concerts in August. John's wife and daughter became quite sick; and then Brother Caleb came down with a serious illness. In October, the trio started a short trip through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. By December 10, they began a tour of New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts that lasted well into the new year.
It is in the context of this time that John first mentioned a musical instrument which would be associated with the group forever after. "I saw this Prince melodeon, made at Buffalo, in a music store in Springfield. I at once concluded it was just what I wanted."
The boys thought this instrument an innovation, and gave it a cold welcome. Abby was sure she never could sing with it. She loved the accompaniment on the viols. Of course none of us knew how to play the new instrument. So I made no attempt to use it in any of our concerted pieces, but at first brought it in for an accompaniment to my own song, "Man the Life-Boat," getting an imitation of the sinking of the vessel and the roaring of the waters that was very effective. In time, when I got used to playing it, the objections to the instrument on the part of the others ceased.
"Then Jesse encountered a familiar problem - low water hindered": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 187-188.
"When part way on his journey some one of the company discovered": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:317).
"Jesse sailed on the steamship Daniel Webster, disembarking": "Latest News by Telegraph," New York Daily Tribune, March 15, 1853, p. 4 col. 6; Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 188-189.
"I saw this Prince melodeon, made at Buffalo, in a music store in Springfield": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 2:295-296); see also 1:316-317.
Reference to Abby might be taken to imply that the melodeon was introduced before her retirement. But a check of numerous press notices uncovered no mention of the instrument earlier than the time under present consideration.
In addition to the violin, cello, and melodeon accompaniment often described, we know that Abby and John's son Henry played guitar. See John W. Hutchinson (1896, 2:294). Late in the Civil War, Asa's company included Caleb's daughter Susan M. Hutchinson on guitar. A photograph exists of Susan, outdoors with guitar in hand, as a member of the Tribe of Asa. It bears the title, "Home of the Hutchinsons, Old High Rock, Lynn, Mass." Though quite small, the most accessible copy may be the one in Carol Brink, Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (New York: Macmillan, 1947), picture section. The young man, standing, is Ira C. Stockbridge. There is another Tribe of Asa photo, showing Susan with her guitar, which was shot indoors and is not captioned. At a time when Asa's children - Abby and Fred - were in school, the Susan Hutchinson/Ira Stockbridge lineup of the Tribe of Asa toured through the middle and western states, according to Oliver Dennett Hutchinson to Elizabeth Hutchinson Fournie, Rugby, North Dakota, April 27, 1940.
Not a single Hutchinson Family notice mentioning guitar accompaniment surfaced during research for this book, suggesting that, at most times, the instrument may have been seldom used.
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On April 6, the family got news that Jesse was sick. He was in Cincinnati, being cared for by the Leavitts. Brother Judson hurried there and sent back discouraging reports. Soon John, Fanny, Asa, and Lizzie left for Cincinnati. They stopped for a few days in New York, where they met Joshua on his way home from Philadelphia. Not much later, they got word from Joshua that Brother Zephaniah had died on the 19th of April.
Zephaniah stood out among his brothers as the pioneer of the family, having early taken to farming in rural Illinois. He was the quartet's business manager during their first couple years of prosperity, and he deserves his share of the credit for their success. He was a member of both known lineups of the Home Branch, which kept the Hutchinson Family active in America while the main group was in Europe.
After they arrived in Cincinnati, the brothers showed little sign of alarm over Jesse's illness. They decided to mix family obligations with business and advertised concerts to begin on May 17. Yet John recalled, "Our brother Jesse was cheerful, but dangerously sick. Some days he would rally and we would begin to hope. His three brothers would take turns in caring for him."
Jesse died at the water-cure establishment of Dr. E. A. Pease at Carthage, Ohio, on Sunday, May 15, 1853. "He died easily," said John, "retaining his faculties to the last."
On the 17th, this announcement appeared in the Cincinnati Times: "Owing to the sudden demise of one of the brothers of the Hutchinson Family, the concert announced for this (Tuesday) evening will be indefinitely postponed." The published program for the canceled show was full of Jesse's songs.
On May 20, Jesse's funeral was held at Stone Cottage in Lynn, and he was interred at the Eastern Burial Ground.
The tributes to his character were many. "Jesse," wrote Edward D. Boylston in the Farmers' Cabinet, "served an apprenticeship at this office, and graduated with the honors of the craft, and the esteem of all who knew or were associated with him." "He was a genius in his way," reported the New York Evening Mirror. "Gentle-hearted, artless, and honest, he wrote and sang his songs, preaching brotherhood and peace wherever he went." "He was a man of almost infantine simplicity of character," said the New York Tribune, "of warm affections, and of sterling integrity. Every movement for the interest of humanity received his earnest sympathy and devoted efforts."
"Zephaniah stood out among his brothers as the pioneer of the family": A collection - evidently small - of letters, clippings, and papers of Mary Francis
Elizabeth Hutchinson, Zephaniah's widow, was pregnant at the time of his death. Zephaniah Kittredge Hutchinson was born to her in December but the boy died in August 1854.
"They decided to mix family obligations with business": "The Hutchinson Family," Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 14, 1853.
It is a mystery why the brothers took so long getting to Cincinnati. The Hutchinsons were remarkably mobile and their movements were usually quick. Evidently only Judson was greatly troubled by Jesse's condition.
"Yet John recalled, Our brother Jesse was cheerful, but": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:318).
"Jesse died at the water-cure establishment of Dr. E. A. Pease": Location: Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 189. Date: "Cincinnati, May 16," Amherst, NH, Farmers' Cabinet, May 19, 1853, p. 2 col. 6; "The Cincinnati Forgeries - Death of Jesse Hutchinson, &c.," New York Daily Times, May 18, 1853, p. 1 col. 3, dateline Cincinnati, Monday, May 16; Abby Hutchinson Patton, "Impromptu Lines from Sister Abby: Orange, New Jersey, near New York, to Judson, John, and Asa in New Hampshire, White-Washed Cottage, July 27,
"He died easily, said John, retaining his faculties to the last": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:318-319).
John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:319), speaking of Jesse as he lay dying, said, "He spent much time from day to day in making verses and rhyming." Ludlow Patton copied a number of Jesse's unpublished writings into his scrapbook, evidently in the mid-1890s. One piece is clearly marked as having been found in Jesse's portfolio. See Jesse Hutchinson
Sir, I have to write upon my port-folio, resting the same upon my knee while I stand upon one foot and try to breathe from a small six inch porthole from my cabin.
See Jesse Hutchinson [ Jr. ], "Acapulco: Sufferings on Board the Monumental City," New York Daily Tribune, June 15, 1852
It seems most likely that Jesse started traveling with his writing portfolio and using it no later than 1848. The location of its contents - if they have been preserved - is not commonly known.
Jesse left behind much material that was quite suitable for singing. It is a mystery why his brothers did not set his remaining verses to music. It took brother-in-law Ludlow Patton, many years later, to recover a good many of Jesse's little-known writings. One is left to wonder whether there may be more. If you know what became of the contents of Jesse's writing portfolio or if you know of other writings by him which may not be part of the main Hutchinson Family collections, and you would be willing to share your information, please e-mail us via the contact link near the bottom of the page.
"Owing to the sudden demise of one of the brothers": "Postponed," Cincinnati Daily Times, May 17, 1853, p. 2 col. 2.
"The published program for the canceled show was full of Jesse's songs": "We're With You Once Again at Smith and Nixon's Hall!" (Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Commercial Print
"On May 20, Jesse's funeral was held at Stone Cottage in Lynn": Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall, History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts: Including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 2 vols. (Lynn:
A photograph, copies of which seem to have circulated to some degree, is said to show Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., in his coffin at Stone Cottage, High Rock, in Lynn, Massachusetts. If you know the whereabouts of this picture and would be willing to share the information you have about it, please e-mail us via the contact link which appears near the bottom of the page.
John said it was the "work of many weeks" to settle the estates of Zephaniah and Jesse. According to Hope Cushing et al., Jesse's estate was left to his mother and sister Rhoda. See Elizabeth Hope Cushing and others, Historic Landscape Report: High Rock Reservation, Lynn, Massachusetts (Boston: Boston Univ., American and New England Studies Program, 1986), 7. Asa served as the administrator. The debts against Jesse's estate were reported to be
"Jesse, wrote Edward D. Boylston in the Farmers' Cabinet, served": "Death of Jesse Hutchinson," Amherst, NH, Farmers' Cabinet, May 26, 1853, p. 2 col. 6.
"He was a genius in his way, reported the New York Evening Mirror": "Jesse Hutchinson," s.l.: s.n., n.d., excerpt originally published in New York Mirror, n.d., in Item 51r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"He was a man of almost infantine simplicity of character": "Jesse Hutchinson, of the Hutchinson Family," New York Daily Tribune, May 18, 1853, p. 5 col. 4.
Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. (1813-1853)
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Late in life, Frederick Douglass remembered that
Jesse . . . had the gift of verse as well as that of music; and well did he use it. He wrote on the spur of the moment and with surprising facility. He could frame words fitted to the immediate occasion; and these were sung with telling effect by the rest of the family.
Joshua described his brother as "the enthusiast, the warm-hearted, and generous
Jesse, wrote Mary Howitt in 1846, "is considered by the quartet themselves as superior to them in
Sister Abby said that Jesse had "long'd for a world full of life, full of light." Many years later, she added: "Our brother Jesse was an inspired man, if any song writer ever was inspired, and his impromptu songs written on the spur of the moment, in some great meeting were always a success."
John wrote well of Jesse, but no specific passage captures how much his older brother meant to him. It seems likely that John greatly admired, even idolized Jesse, from early on. Though generally not taken literally, John's claim that he withdrew from the church in 1835, "for conscience' sake," over the slavery issue, corresponds exactly with the time that Jesse began to advocate abolition. John must have remembered being caught up in Jesse's early fervor for the cause. John always spoke of Jesse as the true genius of the family. But actions speak louder than words. At a significant cost, both personal and financial, John maintained Jesse's plans for the layout of the High Rock property; and he preserved Jesse's orchard evidently with loving care. Near the end of his own life, John took steps, which were not always popular, to ensure that Jesse's plan for a stone tower and observatory on the summit of High Rock was finally carried out. John could have saved himself a great deal of trouble by drifting into other endeavors. But he never wavered.
The Hutchinsons were noted for their originality, and Jesse and Judson were the most original and creative members of the family. Jesse was an early proponent of temperance, and he embraced antislavery nearly a decade before his brothers and sister became publicly identified with that cause. It was Jesse and his friend Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, more than anyone, who convinced members of the quartet to begin expressing their antislavery sentiments more fully in concert. Jesse wrote and sang songs for workers. Jesse and Judson left the earliest-known records of Hutchinson Family support for the women's movement; and they were the most vocal advocates of health and dietary reform. It was Jesse who had faith in the popular acceptance of his song, "The Old Granite State," when members of the quartet thought he must be out of his mind.
"Late in life, Frederick Douglass remembered that Jesse . . . had the gift": Frederick Douglass in his "Introduction" in John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:xv-xviii).
"Joshua described his brother as the enthusiast, the warm-hearted": Joshua Hutchinson, A Brief Narrative of the Hutchinson Family (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1874), 32.
"Jesse, wrote Mary Howitt in 1846, is considered by the quartet":
"Sister Abby said that Jesse had long'd for a world full of life": Abby Hutchinson Patton, "Impromptu Lines from Sister Abby: Orange, New Jersey, near New York, to Judson, John, and Asa in New Hampshire, White-Washed Cottage, July 27,
"Many years later, she added: Our brother Jesse was an inspired man": Abby Hutchinson Patton, "Story of the Song 'Get off the Track' as written by Mrs. Abby H. Patton," MS, n.d., in Item 122v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
"Though generally not taken literally, John's claim that he withdrew": Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Milford, New Hampshire, June 26, 1894 (Milford, NH: Cabinet Print
"John always spoke of Jesse as the true genius of the family": George A. Ramsdell, The History of Milford, Family Registers by William P. Colburn (Concord, NH: Rumford Press, 1901), 487.
"At a significant cost, both personal and financial, John maintained": E.g., John W. Hutchinson 1896, (2:94-96). See also Elizabeth Hope Cushing and others, Historic Landscape Report: High Rock Reservation, Lynn, Massachusetts (Boston: Boston Univ., American and New England Studies Program, 1986), 43.
Hope Cushing, writing on behalf of the Historic Landscape Report team, speculated that some of the fruit trees on High Rock in the 1980s may have been planted by Jesse Jr.
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These things, which were thoroughly identified with Brother Jesse, are among the most recognizable elements in the legend of the Hutchinson Family. The Hutchinsons were the Tribe of Jesse in more ways than one.
Hutchinson Family concert ads often boasted of new songs in their repertoire; and those numbers which featured words by Jesse were among their most rewarding productions. Jesse was not only the most successful lyricist in the family - he was their only successful lyricist. The Hutchinson Family sang the verses of quite a variety of poets who were much admired in their day. Eliza Cook, Thomas Hood, Henry W. Longfellow, Charles Mackay, George P. Morris, Alfred Tennyson, and John G. Whittier are important examples. But very often it was Jesse's newest songs that received the most attention. When he came out with a piece such as "Eight Dollars a Day," it brought his brothers and sister a great deal of favorable notice. Jesse was probably the family's most effective public speaker. He wrote a great deal of advertising, correspondence, and promotional copy on behalf of the singers. His way with words would be sorely missed.
"Jesse," said the New York Times, "was the manager of the concerts, and, under his skillful engineering, the family were placed in circumstances of pecuniary abundance. Perhaps no
Jesse was the original prophet of the "Good Time Coming" - a future full of social and moral progress predicted in his songs. Before he left for California, he contributed "Right Over Wrong," his Good Time Coming anthem, to the Hutchinsons' repertoire. Set to music supplied by Judson, it was the Hutchinsons' first song sung at a woman suffrage convention. The brothers used it in the fight against slavery. And John sang it in later years in support of woman's rights and temperance and at labor reform meetings.
No matter where the Hutchinsons might go, they would never be far from Jesse's influence.
On February 16, 1854, William Lloyd Garrison attended a demonstration of the spiritual manifestations. The medium was Leah Brown, formerly Leah Fish of the Fox Sisters. The participants in the seance were asked to put a sheet of paper under the table; and later it was found that the name Jesse had been scribbled on it. Garrison asked Jesse to press his foot firmly to the floor, to make raps under it, and to take him by the right hand. Garrison's foot was put to the floor, and he felt the knockings as requested; next, his hand was patted, first on one side and then on the other. Jesse's hand had "a negative feeling, as though there was no warmth in it, but
"Jesse, said the New York Times, was the manager of the concerts": "Death of Another Member of the Hutchinson Family," New York Times, January 13, 1859, p. 4 col. 6.
"On February 16, 1854, William Lloyd Garrison attended a demonstration": William Lloyd Garrison to Helen E. Garrison, New York, February 16, 1854, in Louis Ruchames, ed., From Disunionism to the Brink of War 1850-1860, vol. 4 of The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, Belknap, 1975), 292-293.
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If we cannot positively affirm that . . . Jesse Hutchinson
"If we cannot positively affirm that . . . Jesse Hutchinson [ was ] present": The Liberator, Boston, n.d.
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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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