When the Hutchinson Family traveled to New York to the annual meeting of the American Antislavery Society in 1843, one of their companions was Rev. William Weston Patton (1821-1889). During that trip, on Saturday evening, May 13, 1843, Rev. Patton's brother Ludlow attended the Hutchinsons' entertainment at Concert Hall. Ludlow Patton was introduced to the singers, and they quickly became friends.

We know little about the courtship of Ludlow and Abby Hutchinson until the spring of 1848, when news stories reported that they intended to get married. That fall, Ludlow served as the Hutchinsons' business agent. Their tour came unraveled by year's end; and at the last engagement, the Hutchinson Family singers included John Hutchinson, Sister Abby, and Ludlow Patton.

On Wednesday, February 28, 1849, Ludlow and Abby were wed. They made a wonderful couple; but sadly their marriage produced no children. That spring, the Hutchinsons started on a singing trip, with Ludlow acting again as their business agent. After they returned home, Abby became deathly ill. Her health would be her greatest trial for the rest of her life.

In early 1851, the Pattons took up residence in New York; and on February 1st, Ludlow became a partner in the brokerage firm of Tredwell Ketcham. The Pattons had faith then in the healthful effects of hydropathy; and around this time, they visited the Orange Mountain Water Cure in New Jersey. Ludlow bought land nearby and built a house that came to be known as Dawnwood. It was the Pattons' country home until 1865.

On May 1, 1856, he founded Ludlow Patton and Company. Like many Northern investors, Ludlow made a large fortune during the Civil War years. Actually, we know very little about his business dealings. Ludlow spent a tremendous amount of time documenting the Hutchinson family. Rarely did he write or collect materials about himself. He was exceptionally quiet in his efforts to provide financial help to those in need.

Ludlow Patton served as Treasurer of the American Equal Rights Association, from its creation in 1866 evidently until 1869. Abby served on the Association's Executive Committee.

Ludlow liked to play his banjo and sing original songs at the annual dinners of the New York Stock Exchange, bringing his fellow brokers and their most recent speculations into his lyrics.

On Tuesday, April 1, 1873, Ludlow Patton retired from the New York Stock Exchange. After that, he and Abby became world travelers, a pursuit that lasted about ten years. "During that time," wrote Henry Whittemore in his Founders and Builders of the Oranges, "they visited nearly every portion of their own country, including the whole Pacific coast, from San Diego, to Sitka, Alaska; also every country in Europe except Lapland and Portugal, making, also, an extended tour of the whole north coast of Africa and up the river Nile to and above the first cataract, to the island of Philæ. They also visited Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor." The Pattons' most extensive trip to foreign shores ran from May 1874 to June 1876. Then they spent time at the United States Centennial Grounds in Philadelphia. While visiting California in 1879, they took a liking to San Diego and later spent three winters there. "Her [Abby's] husband," wrote artist, author, and friend Frank Carpenter, "was always a great lover of music, with a good tenor voice, and together they often entertained their many friends at their own home, or during their travels, with the old songs." As late as the mid-1890s, Ludlow enjoyed taking a journey, often on short notice.

The Pattons liked spending their summers at the Hutchinson family homestead in Milford, New Hampshire, and Ludlow took an interest in improving the property.

Ludlow thought of Abby as the musician in their little family. And as far as I know, he never called himself one of the Hutchinson Family singers. But I do. In later years, when the Hutchinsons were in great demand to sing at reunions, at various types of memorials and commemorations, and at the funerals of the giants of their day, often the group comprised John, Abby, and Ludlow.

Ludlow began writing newspaper correspondence about finance, social reform, and the Hutchinson Family in the 1840s; and he continued until the end of the century. By the time of his retirement, he was writing about travel for general-circulation papers, particularly New Hampshire's Milford Enterprise. Ludlow liked to use a variety of pseudonyms, such as Brother Jonathan, Traveler, Visitor, and Nottap Woldul - Ludlow Patton spelled backwards.

Abby died in 1892. The following year, Ludlow was converted to spiritualism; and later, he wrote correspondence for spiritualist publications. Marion Patton, Ludlow's second wife, was also a Hutchinson (Rhoda's family). Evidently he adopted Marion's daughter - following her mother's marriage, she was known as Helen Patton. We have much reason to think of Helen as part of Abby's and Ludlow's family.

Information about Ludlow becomes scarce a little after the mid-1890s. His name is missing from the list of participants in several notable Hutchinson family reunions where his presence would have been greatly valued. We are told that, in 1906, he sent his regrets, saying that he could not come on account of illness. A week later, on Thursday, September 6th, Ludlow Patton died at his home in Orange, New Jersey.

Ludlow left Marion a considerable fortune; and one might well imagine that the rest of her life was one of pleasure and plenty. One would be wrong. An outline of her life is starting to emerge, and it was too seldom one of happiness. It does make for an interesting story, though; and perhaps later I can add some details.

Ludlow Patton assembled a wonderful Hutchinson family scrapbook.*  He continued this work until just before his death. Only John was his equal as a Hutchinson family historian.

Alan Lewis

* Ludlow Patton, Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, 1906, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.

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!  which took place right here in Brattleboro, Vermont: