Hutchinson Family Homestead, Milford, New Hampshire

Two years later, I was detailed to the kitchen to help mother, Caleb 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 Hutchinson, A Brief Narrative of the Hutchinson Family (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1874), page 20

Brother Joshua, in relating the incident of moving, says he was detailed to carry his two younger brothers, John and Asa, in his arms across lots: they were very heavy, one being three years and the other one year old. Joshua was twelve. He conveyed them singly at the proper distance, and laying a child down went back and brought the other, and so alternately he reached the new home in safety.

John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 1 page 8

This room ["northeast chamber"] Benny and Judson, Asa and I occupied for years, it being large and airy, with plenty of room for two double beds.

John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 2 pages 152-153

The silver Souhegan, pure and bright in its flow,

Rippled on through the green covered meadow below;

Oft we rambled beside it to gather wild berries,

Sweet buds of the flag, and red river cherries.

The old barn stood near, sweet scented with hay,

Where the soft wing'd swallows did chatter and play;

Many times have I climbed to its scaffold on high

To hunt for hens' nests and to play I spy.

Abby Hutchinson, March 22, 1848

I seemed to hear singing everywhere. In the field, or in the house there was continuous melody, just as birds sing and cannot help it. My mother, father, brothers and sister kept up a running fire of song from morning to night.

Abby Hutchinson Patton on her early home life

Members of the Hutchinson Family quartet were at the Milford homestead, probably in late April or early May 1843, when brother Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., came up from Lynn. He brought a new set of lyrics - "The Old Granite State" - to be sung to the Second Advent tune, "The Old Church Yard." Though Jesse had written verses to this melody in the heat of Milford and Boston antislavery meetings earlier in the year, the new piece was mostly about the Hutchinson Family. It would give the singers a musical way to introduce themselves to their audiences, tell a little about their background, and state their mission in the world.

We had a family gathering at the old homestead. He had the words in manuscript of "The Old Granite State." This we sung together for the first time in the old southwest room of the house, which we called the bar-room. The house was once a hotel, and the bar was located in this place. In our early days teamsters coming from Peterboro continued their habit of stopping at the place, and father would put up their horses and care for their wants. Solely for their accommodation, he kept in a side cupboard some spirit, gin and rum. In the cellar we usually kept one hundred barrels or so of cider. Everybody drank cider then, and in those days hard liquors were considered indispensable in haying. I remember father made a contract at one time to pay a man a big silver dollar a day and furnish him a pint of rum daily, for haying. The rum was mixed with molasses, placed under a bush, and as the mowers came round the field to it, they would take a drink.

To return to the "Old Granite State." Jesse sang the solo and we came in on the refrain. The song seemed the essence of egotism to us, and we wondered that Jesse could have written it. We could not conceive that the public cared anything about the Hutchinson family names. But the fact was, Jesse saw better than we, that this song would make a hit, and we saw it too, after singing it once or twice. By the time we had sung it through Great Britain, we had ceased to think of it in the light of egotism. The song was somewhat changed by the addition of new verses on our trip to England. . . .

John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 2 Pages 297-298

^THE Hutchinson Family Homestead

Those who heard Judson, John and Asa and their angelic sister Abby sing, heard much, but heard nothing in comparison to what I heard in their home. I was permitted to hear the whole "Tribe of Jesse" sing in their old family mansion, where thirteen of the family poured out their souls together in pious song, till it appeared as if the very roof were rising skyward. The scene of that hour has been present to me during all these fifty years, and I still recall it as one of the most sublime and glorious hours I ever experienced.

I saw this family in all the vicissitudes of its career, covering a period of more than half a century. I saw it in times that tried men's souls. I saw it in peace and I saw it in war; but I never saw one of its members falter or flinch before any duty, whether social or patriotic; and it is a source of more satisfaction than I can express, to have lived, as I have now done, to bear this high testimony to the character of the Hutchinsons, especially now that only one of them has survived to write this book in perpetuation of their precious memory.

Frederick Douglass, in John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 1 page xviii

This may refer to a June 1843 visit to the Milford homestead. The Hutchinsons were such close friends with Frederick Douglass, though, so that incident could have happened at many other times.

Hutchinson Family Homestead Community 1843-1845

For some time the old home in Milford was a family Brook Farm. Cheerfully did we take up the labor necessary, according to the season of the year and the different departments of the farm work, with one common aim and interest. We met all impediments with a determination to prove to all our surrounding neighbors that we were honest believers in the faith that we had embraced - the true community. In the cause of labor and progress we were united, each preferring one another. Our labors were joyous, and we were temporarily prosperous, for we were truly a band of brothers and sisters of one common interest. There were no differences or competitions in trafficking with one another, for we were genuinely interested in the welfare of all. Music was the theme that filled our hearts and souls as we went singing forth to the different departments of labor on the home farm, for we earnestly believed in this manner of life.

John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 1 page 85-86

The demise of these our brothers [Isaac Bartlett and Benjamin Hutchinson] led to the dissolution of the community. As has previously been stated, the home with its eight large rooms, eighteen by sixteen feet square, and the farm of one hundred and sixty acres were given to the six younger children - Benjamin, Judson, John, Asa, Rhoda and Abby, on condition that they should take care of mother. Father had a great idea of doing missionary work as a preacher. He had the farm where all the children but Abby and Elizabeth were born, and also a house in the village, and to his mind there could be no reason why he should not deed the house to us. As a matter of fact, it may be stated, he did not preach, and it was very rare indeed that he was away from home over a night.

Then the older brothers began to hint that it was not quite fair to deprive them of their interest in the farm. The death of Isaac made no difference in Rhoda's status, of course, and the death of Benjamin, as his father was his only legal heir, should have made none. But it brought matters to a head in such a way that after many conferences it was deemed best to make a division, and give the community plan up. So far as the house and farm were concerned, the deed had never been recorded, so that all that was necessary was to destroy it, but there had been such an increase in personal property that an auction was necessary before there could be a division of that.

However, we did not separate at once. Judson went to housekeeping in the "milk room," Fanny and I in the sitting-room, while the rest of the children kept house with the old folks. Our lives were very quiet for a couple of months. Domestic cares occupied most of our time.

John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 1 page 135-137

I have written so far, and have not yet mentioned my brothers, or told you where they are. I must tell you that Asa has purchased the "home-farm" from father, and Judson has one adjoining it. John is about a mile and a quarter from us, in a little cottage, among the elms. . . .

Abby Hutchinson to Mary Howitt, Plymouth, Massachusetts, May 5, 1847

[an early sketch of the Milford homestead]

Again I remember of going to the Old Homestead to see Grandmother. Dressed in my best "bib and tucker," and, always busy, I was playing around the big watering trough which was placed near the highway, fed by an old-time wooden pump, where horses could stop for a drink, when (as usual) something happened to me. I fell in, clothes and all, and such a sight as I was! Of course, I had to be stripped and kept in for the rest of the visit, but escaped a spanking (which I richly deserved), for being a very conscientious little thing, I always felt worse about my mishaps than mother did, so I was forgiven, and, though the same sort of thing happened again and again, the same sorrow was felt, and the same forgiveness granted, even unto "seventy times seven."

Viola Hutchinson Campbell, Memories of a Busy Life (Plymouth, Massachusetts: Rogers Printing, 1926), pages 14-15

During a tour of Great Britain the Hutchinson Family Singers met the Barnum and Bailey Circus. They became friends with Captain Tom Thumb. Both groups performed for Queen Victoria in London. Tom Thumb married Lavinia, another midget in Bridgeport, CT the home base for Barnum and Bailey Circus. They traveled to Milford, NH in their miniature carriage [on display at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT].

Legend has it that Tom Thumb drove his carriage and bride through the huge front door of this house [The Hutchinson Home] down the hall which is 12 feet wide and 46 feet long and out the huge back door. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon here - sleeping in the front southwest bedroom which has a fireplace and elaborate moldings.

Margaret Gorman, November 14, 2002

Harold and Margaret Gorman have lived in the Hutchinson family homestead in Milford, New Hampshire, since 1986. Margaret once told me the great story of Tom Thumb's stop, and I asked if she would re-tell the tale, as she understood it, for visitors to this site. What I found particularly interesting is that more people would ask her about Tom Thumb, who may have stopped there, than about the Hutchinson family, who definitely grew up there.

It was Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., who had an encounter of some sort with Queen Victoria. We're given no details, and no contemporary documentation has been found so far. Yet, this tale reached the American shore before the Hutchinson Family singers did. John W. Hutchinson reported that, upon reaching Milford, the singers were asked, "How did you like the queen?" And the tale has endured for more than a century and a half. In another version, the story has it that Victoria gave the Hutchinsons a shawl as a token of appreciation. The shawl was divided in two at some point, and at least one half still exists.

The part of this legend that might be easiest to check has to do with Tom Thumb's visit to the Milford homestead. On February 10, 1863, General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) married Lavinia Warren (Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump) at Grace Episcopal Church in New York City. Their wedding trip followed, and that would seem to be the occasion for the stop at the Milford homestead.

Alan Lewis, November 15, 2002

Mr. Ludlow Patton has been improving the Hutchinson homestead by grading the grounds, having drawn in over 1000 loads of gravel this season and made other improvements, and it would be hard to find a pleasanter summer retreat than the old family mansion, for nearly sixty years past occupied by this family; with its great square rooms, nearly every one of which has an old fashioned fire place and other evidences of the times in which it was built.

This 1886 but otherwise unidentified news clipping is one of the relatively few items, about himself or his own family, that Ludlow Patton included in his Hutchinson family scrapbook. Ludlow and Sister Abby were greatly interested in the Hutchinson family homestead in Milford and its upkeep. They summered there, late in life - a practice that Ludlow continued for years after Abby's death.

Late in his own life, John W. Hutchinson worked hard to commemorate the lives of his brother Jesse and his sister Abby. Annual Hutchinson family reunions were held on Abby's birthday, August 29, usually at the Milford homestead. It would be interesting to know whether a similar gathering of the clan continued after John's death. The last one I have recorded took place at High Rock in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1906 - two years before John's death.

If you are aware of later Hutchinson family reunions, particularly in the next few years after John's death in 1908, I'd love to hear about it. For one thing, it would be great to learn who attended.

So many Hutchinson descendants have written lately that we're having something like a Hutchinson family reunion by e-mail.

Alan Lewis, April 26, 2004

We are having good times at the Homestead, playing, working, reading, singing, and the piano is going from morn till dewy eve. Already I call this great house a conservatory of music. It ought to be, for in no other house does music ring out as it does here.

This old house is worthy of being preserved for centuries after we are gone.

Abby Hutchinson Patton, Milford, New Hampshire, September 8, 1891, in John W. Hutchinson, Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896), Volume 2 pages 382-383

A Hutchinson descendant (Rhoda's family), in 1976 and 1977, tried to raise money to buy back the Milford homestead. He owned a half-interest in one of Ludlow Patton's old investments and thought income from it might be enough to cover such a purchase. Whether that plan failed or he lost interest we're not told. He had a sense of mission which was never fully explained as far as we know, but it would not be unlike moving Arthur's family back into Camelot. The story had a happy ending. A decade later (1986), the Gormans bought the North River Road homestead, and they have treated it with loving care ever since.

The descendant I've mentioned loved the book, Singin' Yankees by Philip D. Jordan, and he took particular interest in several passages, one of which (pp. vii-viii) he quoted in his letters as also apropos to himself and his own generation of the family. It goes like this:

They exemplified the romantic period in their individualism, humanitarianism, ideas of progress, reform notions, optimism, and assertive nationalism. Yet, like many individuals of volatile temperament, the Hutchinsons could manifest canny sense and sound business judgment. Always the battle was between the ideal and the practical. The result for the five was lives of extremes, lives that were paradoxical, lives that teetered between success and failure.

The five, of course, refers to Brothers Jesse, Judson, John, & Asa, and to Sister Abby. I would make the number six, adding Brother Joshua. Even my expanded list is but the public face of a very large, private family that had many important though less-well-known branches.

In the fall of 2004, The Revels, an acclaimed Boston musical and theatrical organization (best known for its annual Christmas Revels), started giving public performances of its latest and quite wonderful production, There's a Meeting Here Tonight!, which is based on the lives and careers of the Hutchinson Family singers. Follow this link for a review of the second-ever public staging of There's a Meeting Here Tonight! right here in Brattleboro, Vermont:

www.oocities.org/unclesamsfarm/mainarticletwo.htm#tr

Much of the dialogue and narration is drawn directly from the writings of the Hutchinsons. Part of the beauty of this new show is that it's setting is a fictional Hutchinson family reunion at the homestead in Milford sometime after the Civil War. Two of the Revels characters - Jesse and Judson - were already deceased by this time; so as you can see, the script doesn't always set out to stick too closely to the facts of the case. It doesn't matter. This is a fantastic program and is not to be missed.

Harriet E. Wilson's book, Our Nig, is thought to be the first published novel by an African-American woman and the first novel by any African American - man or woman - that was published in the United States. Milford, New Hampshire, was home for Harriet Wilson, and it is generally supposed that members of the Hutchinson family were acquainted with her. If she went to school, it seems most likely that she would have been educated in the same north district school house in Milford where the younger Hutchinson children studied. And if Professor R.J. Ellis is correct in dating her birth to the second half of the 1820s, then age-wise she would have fallen between Asa B. Hutchinson and Abby Hutchinson Patton. It would be interesting to think of Asa and Abby knowing Harriet Adams (her birthname) from school. There's also a supposed Harriet Wilson connection to David Hutchinson, the oldest of the Hutchinson children. It is thought that the young Harriet Adams was something akin to an indentured servant of David's in-laws, the Haywards.

While I wouldn't want to put too fine a point on it at this time, it's true that Mary Leavitt Hutchinson, the mother of the Hutchinson Family singers, had a sister named Hannah Leavitt Adams. It is known that Abby Hutchinson Patton was close to the Adams family from materials in the Hutchinson Family Scrapbook. And it is known that Asa B. Hutchinson was close to the Adams family from a letter written by Asa's son, Oliver Dennett Hutchinson. Asa's children stayed in the Adams home during their terms of schooling in Milford. The coincidence of Harriet and Aunt Hannah's in-laws both having the same family name, Adams, may be just that - mere coincidence. But for the time, I've flagged it as a matter that's worthy of future consideration.

I've been researching the Hutchinson Family for decades and I've gotten to know them fairly well. As strictly a matter of personal opinion, I can't imagine that the Hutchinsons were anything but close acquaintances of this historic writer. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Asa, Abby or another member of the family helped finance the publication of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig. On the contrary, I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

I'm mentioning Harriet Wilson here for several reasons. First, at the moment there's no better place for it on this Web site. Second, the location of the Milford homestead is quite important to any speculation about a relationship between the Hutchinson children and Harriet Adams-Wilson. Third, and more concretely, the same sketch that I've posted at the top of this page graces the cover of R.J. Ellis' fascinating new book, Harriet Wilson's Our Nig. I'm hoping to write something about Ellis' book, perhaps on this site's bibliography page. [Let me add that the Penguin publishing house has a new edition of Our Nig, with an introduction by Gabrielle Foreman and Reg Pitts which I imagine will spark much academic debate. - A.L., December 8, 2004]

It's worth noting, in closing, that the very little that is known about Harriet Wilson is at the core of a research topic that is very hot at the moment. For instance, Milford, New Hampshire, is the home for an organization called the Harriet Wilson Project, which has received a good deal of publicity lately. Finally, it seems important to mention the scholar who pioneered this line of research, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University.

Harriet Wilson. Our Nig; or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black in a Two-Story White House, North. Showing That Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. By "Our Nig." Boston: Geo. C. Rand and Avery, 1859.

A little song, a little story,

A little fame, a little glory;

And man moves forward in the race,

To let another fill his place.

Abby Hutchinson Patton

The Hutchinson family homestead on North River Road in Milford, New Hampshire, is a wonderful place and is drenched in history. It was a particular thrill for me to stand in the room where the entire Hutchinson family gave a concert for Frederick Douglass and imagine what he heard. I call it the new homestead, because fourteen of the sixteen children of Jesse and Mary Hutchinson were actually born at the old place in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. For most of them, the Mont Vernon farm would have been home; and to them, it was certainly the old homestead. (See the quote from Joshua Hutchinson near the top of this page.) But the younger children formed the main concert group, and they grew up on the new farm. It is the site of Judson, John, and Asa's early fiddle follies. These are major reasons why, when we think of the Hutchinson family, we think of the Milford homestead first. It's also there that Brother Jesse taught his new song, "The Old Granite State," to his brothers and sisters. It is where Sister Abby was born and where Jesse and Mary died. The main family burying ground is next door.

Not long after the end of World War Two, the Mason family bought the Milford homestead. I know practically nothing about the Masons. Do you know their given names or anything else about them?
Not far above here on this page is a general account of an attempt in the 1970s to purchase the Milford homestead and restore it to Hutchinson family ownership and occupancy. If you know anything about this, would you send us an e-mail? Contact links appear in several spots on this page.

Alan Lewis, May 26, 2004

[earliest Hutchinson Family publicity likeness]

A navigation bar appears at or near the bottoms of pages.

New England Music Scrapbook