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By March 1851, the Alleghanians had leased New York's Hope Chapel for a lengthy series of concerts.  The New York Daily Tribune observed that "Their programme contains some of the choicest gems of the favorite English composers, which, rendered in the inimitable style of the Alleghanians, will prove a most rich and enjoyable treat."  This emphasis on "English composers" is strangely at odds with the Alleghanians' early, well-cultivated reputation as American artists.

"The Alleghanians continue to draw full houses at Hope Chapel," reported the Tribune in April.  "Their style of music is exceedingly popular with the majority of the 515,394 inhabitants that reside in this city: and as Hope Chapel only holds about 1,200 persons, they will have to remain several weeks in order to give said majority an opportunity to hear them."

"This company give an entertainment at Newark this evening," said another New York Tribune notice late in April.  "As a quartette they are probably not excelled in this country, and our Newark friends should not fail to embrace this opportunity to hear them.  They have given nearly thirty Concerts in this City, and though the weather was frequently inclement we believe they always had good audiences and never failed to give entire satisfaction.  Miss Goodenow sings 'Ben Bolt' most sweetly, and several of her songs became so popular with the audiences that they were called for almost nightly."

Sometime after a May 8 concert at Providence, Rhode Island, for reasons unbeknownst to present-day Alleghanians scholarship, the record of this company's activities seems to stop abruptly.

As a lyricist Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., may never have had a day in his life when he woke up feeling the need to write a song or revise some of his earlier verses.  He worked strictly on the inspiration of the moment.  Hutchinson Family records are extensive, almost beyond belief; but as far as is generally known, these records are silent on what sparked one of Jesse's most enduring creations.

The early days of 1851 could have seemed terribly gloomy to abolitionists like Jesse because of the fugitive slave provision of the Compromise of 1850.  But he knew better than to think the proslavery forces would win the day.  He was nothing if not an optimist.   A spring tour of the Hutchinson Family started with the out-of-the-ordinary vocal trio of Joshua, Judson, and John, with Jesse more than likely serving as their advance agent.  At Providence, group membership ballooned to six, with the addition of singers Caleb, Jesse, and Asa Hutchinson.  Somewhere along this line of travel, Jesse wrote his long-lived reform anthem, "Right Over Wrong."

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John W. Hutchinson would continue singing "Right Over Wrong" in public into the 20th century.  This song was hardly inflammatory.  Nonetheless, the Alleghanians sang a toned-down version which they titled after its first line, "Behold, the Day of Promise Comes."  The Alleghanians performed this piece in concert at least to the mid-1870s and maybe beyond.

"The Old Fashioned Bible," possibly the all-time most enduring Alleghanians original song, also dates from this time.  "Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye," another popular song sung by the Alleghanians, originated no later than 1851.

Jesse Hutchinson had come to believe in modern spiritualism.  He thought he could prove its truth  -  through the guidance of spirits  -  by locating the pirate's treasure buried at Dungeon Rock in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Jesse consulted mediums and then used drill and powder to tunnel into Dungeon Rock.  But his temperament was not suited for such monotonous labor, and soon a request to sing with his brothers Judson and John on a western concert tour saved him from this project.  Not long after Jesse stopped drilling and blasting, Hiram Marble and his son Edwin took up the task.  Hiram Marble said he would either prove the truth of spiritualism or dig its grave.

After concerts at Bennington, Vermont, and Troy, New York, Jesse's singing trip with his brothers, Judson and John, led to Cleveland and other points in Ohio.  At Akron, for the first time the Hutchinsons sang at a woman's rights convention.  This tour led from Cincinnati to Louisville.  In June, the Hutchinsons visited their brother Zephaniah's Illinois farm, and a bit later their travels took them to St. Louis, where advance word of their antislavery views brought them much trouble including being refused the use of a concert hall.  Stops after this included Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit, among many others, followed by a return to Cleveland.  Mixed in here was more trouble, this time at Painesville, Ohio.  Hutchinson Family concert tours could be quite eventful.  Asa B. Hutchinson, who came on from New Hampshire, replaced Jesse in the singing group.  At Buffalo, Jesse took leave of his brothers, for his wife and their only living child were quite ill.  Jesse hurried home to Lynn, Massachusetts, to care for them.

In September, Judson, John, and Asa Hutchinson started on a new singing trip through southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., had a habit of writing topical songs and then, later, changing lines, zipping in new verses, and otherwise rewriting these pieces, here and there, as the inspiration struck him.  These evolving topical songs did not come in one single, official, authoritative version.  On the contrary, typically several variants were afloat.  This reworking process, in the case of "Right Over Wrong," was well under way at the time of Jesse's death.  The "Right Over Wrong" lyrics have been published in several different versions.  This one, in my view, is the best.

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On Wednesday evening, September 10, 1851, Susan Hutchinson died.  From what is known of her life, it seems unlikely she enjoyed much good health during her adult years.  Evidently their daughter's condition gave some reason for hope; but on the 21st, little Susan died.  Jesse had lost his wife and all six of their children.

Jesse's plans included tending to the business of his brothers' concert tour later in the fall.  "My affairs at home are yet unsettled, but [I] am preparing soon to go out with the Brothers on a musical tour," he wrote in a private circular to friends and family.  "I hope soon to meet many friends to whom this message is sent, till which time, an affectionate adieu."  Evidently he wrote nothing further on this subject or at least nothing else known was published or saved.

Jesse looked forward to this fall concert trip, no doubt thinking that getting away, seeing loved ones, and being productive would help him work through his grief.  But John Hutchinson said, probably referring to events of November 1851, "[W]e were unable to agree on the terms by which he should act as our advance agent. . . . "   And this is the entire record of the ending of the exceptionally productive business arrangement between Jesse and his brothers.

When one considers the remarkable degree of candor in a couple major collections of Hutchinson family papers and the equally remarkable degree of detail in the family's printed works as well as unpublished papers, John's note about this break with Jesse  -  our only account  -  is strikingly terse and seemingly evasive.  It is otherwise most notable for being strictly one-sided.  If there is blame to be found, John and Asa Hutchinson would be as worthy of consideration as anyone.

It is highly unlikely that the differences between the brothers had to do with finances.  John W. Hutchinson, speaking of Jesse, said, "Though he infrequently appeared with us in concert, he always shared equally in our profits."  In fact, the Hutchinsons, in general, had a long history of sharing generously.

It seems probable that Jesse wanted to take the Hutchinson Family to the Pacific coast.  He had already expressed great interest in California, he loved scenes of tremendous excitement, and the California Gold Rush was among the greatest spectacles of the age.  But his brothers had responsibilities to young families who must have thought the singers should not venture off on such a long and dangerous journey.  It is probably not mere coincidence that Jesse ultimately hooked up with the Alleghanians, a band of singers who toured far more widely than the Hutchinsons.

Susan Hartshorn Hutchinson  (1815-1851)
Susan Mary Emma Hutchinson  (1851-1851)

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The main causes of this incident may have been mostly personal in nature between Jesse and his brothers.  Quite likely John and Asa Hutchinson asked for, but failed to obtain, assurances from Jesse that he would make no effort to involve their brother Judson in the spiritual manifestations or any of his other current passions.  "Judson," said John, "was a man of the most ardent, loving and susceptible nature.  His nerves were always tuned to concert pitch, and he could stand no more than the ordinary limit of excitement in our eventful experiences without breaking."

As for Jesse, he needed to get away.  Though he loved his High Rock home in Lynn, Massachusetts, it was filled with troubling memories.  So he set off in search of adventure.  On Saturday, December 6, he was where we would expect to find him  -  in New York on Broadway, among a huge crowd of people who had come to welcome the Hungarian revolutionary, Lajos Kossuth, who was making a triumphant U.S. tour.

By the 17th, members of the Hutchinson Family trio started yet another trip leading from one concert hall to the next.  In Providence, the brothers were surprised by news they received from Jesse.

This, at least, is the way John told the tale.  How did his account get the story wrong?   Let me count the ways . . .

Now, these vocalists, the Alleghanians, were in New York, their hometown, well before the Hutchinsons.  In December, the Alleghanians sang for the National Temperance Society and at meetings in New York and Brooklyn in honor of Kossuth.  This was a couple weeks or more before the Hutchinsons reached the city, which could raise a question of who was bumping heads with whom.  It is uncertain that the Alleghanians' and the Hutchinsons' schedules were in "conflict" much during the next few months.  Travel itineraries show them often going their separate ways.  And it is worth adding that Jesse had been the Hutchinsons' principal advance agent for the past few years.  He might have thought those travel routes were his, he being the main person who planned them.

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The New York Daily Tribune, in a report about one of the Alleghanians' December events, said, "At the close of the meeting, when the Alleghanian Vocalists sang the triple aria in honor of Kossuth and Hungary, the music of which infused the national anthems of England, America and France, the audience manifested much pleasure.  When the strains of our own 'Yankee Doodle' gushed forth from the voices of the singers, they appeared to produce an electrifying effect upon the meeting, for both ladies and gentlemen rose from their seats with one national feeling, and cheered vociferously, at the same time waving their pocket handkerchiefs from all parts of the building."

While the Hutchinson brothers had been struggling with the problem of how to replace the all-important singing voice of their sister Abby, Miriam Goodenow of the Alleghanians was the darling of the New York press and was drawing a great deal of attention to her group.

It was very common at this time for advertisements and press announcements to make special note of concert program songs which were to be sung by Miriam.  "The Alleghanians respectfully announce to their old friends, and the public, that they will give a vocal concert, at the Broadway Tabernacle, on Monday evening, January 5, 1852," said a newspaper ad.  "In addition to a choice programme of their best songs, new and old, Miss Goodenow will sing the 'Bird Song,' which was received with such enthusiastic applause at the great National Temperance Convention."

It was already announced by this point that the Alleghanians would perform at a grand temperance banquet of the National Temperance Society at Metropolitan Hall on Wednesday, February 18, 1852.  This event was to be "a demonstration that an entertainment conducted on purely Temperance principles may be as rich, as sumptuous, as enthusiastic and as truly patriotic as any that have been held under the inspiration of intoxicating drinks.  A large number of eminent and highly distinguished gentlemen, from different sections of our country, and of the most eloquent advocates of the cause, are expected to be present and respond to sentiments that may be offered."  Research is ongoing as to whether any "eminent and highly distinguished" ladies were expected and would take part in the program.  The Alleghanians, in addition to other popular songs, were hereby announced to sing "England and America's Welcome to Kossuth" by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.

Right around this time or not much later, Jesse wrote a promotional piece for the Hutchinson Family and arranged for its publication.  This has received no known attention, though Jesse's lengthy plug was reprinted, apparently in full, in Story of the Hutchinsons.

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Jesse's verses refer to an event which only could have happened recently.

Tripler Hall was renamed Metropolitan Hall in December, and the new name did not catch on all at once.  The Hutchinsons sang there Tuesday evening, January 6.

"Thus far the Lord hath led me on."   - Isaac Watts

One of the main goals for this first edition of Voice and Spirit has been to lay the foundation for an eventual revised, greatly expanded second edition.  Thus far the Lord has led us on.   A full-length biography of the Alleghanians is very much needed, and it is starting to look feasible.  Whether it would take the form of a traditional, hardcopy book or remain as a World Wide Web-only publication is yet to be seen.  Either way, I am hoping many readers of these pages will keep an eye out for Voice and Spirit II.  If it is possible to make a full-length Alleghanians biography happen, my plan is to do it.

Alan Lewis,  August 14, 2007