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 "greater than" symbols ( >> ).   We recommend doing it once the page is loaded. If clearing the ads loses your place on the page, scroll up.

In Chicago, John and Henry sang before a crowd of 50,000 in the square on either side of the court house.  "In each place,"  said John,  "was a platform.  We would sing on one side, and then the speakers would take our places, and we would go to the other."  By this time John and Henry were performing a song called  "The People's Advent."

"The People's Advent" was a popular poem by Gerald Massey.   In 1864, Hutchinson Family friend James G. Clark published a musical setting.  But evidently it did not find its audience until it came to John's attention.

Clark is known to have sent John copies of his new songs.   So, when John arrived at High Rock in 1865, after a very long tour, it is likely that a copy of "The People's Advent" was there in a stack of mail.  Evidently, though, it was November 1867 when one of John's fellow passengers on a train in Missouri was reading Massey's poems and suggested that "The People's Advent" would make a great song.  One can easily picture John, once he got back home, rifling through a pile of sheet music to find James G. Clark's score.  John and Henry then arranged  "The People's Advent"  as a duet.

Page 10

Over the next four decades, John's singing of "The People's Advent" was praised often by journalists, fans, and members of the family.  "The grandeur of the poetry, and the corresponding grandeur of the music,"  wrote Joshua,  "have called forth the admiration of thousands."  Judson's daughter Kate called it "soul inspiring" to hear John and Henry sing this song.  "It was Henry's magnificent bass solo in 'The People's Advent'," said his proud father, " . . . that made his reputation."

John and Henry continued touring through Illinois, giving concerts and singing at rallies on behalf of Grant.  They met with Robert G. Ingersoll to plan a series of joint appearances.  It must have seemed odd for the deeply religious Hutchinsons to be such close coworkers with Ingersoll, who was becoming well known for his agnosticism.  "Partly from principle,"  said John,  "and partly because of the warning furnished by Governor Yates, I made it my way, besides having many talks on the Bible with Ingersoll during our tour, to give him numerous earnest temperance lectures."  The Hutchinsons kept campaigning until October 27, when they made their last appearance in Chicago.

John and Henry reached Hutchinson at noon on November 3 and sang in the streets.  Lizzie Hutchinson and a Mrs. Alexander went to the polls and asked to vote, but were refused.

Asa and his family were busy on Hassan Farm.   They had nearly 100 acres under cultivation.  John and Henry visited the day after the election; then they gave concerts in various Minnesota communities.  On the 26th, they sang at Minneapolis.  Following the show, they learned that Brother Joshua had been sitting in their audience.  He was on his way to Hutchinson for the first time.  "Hearing that brother John and son were in the city,"  he wrote,  "I hurried to the concert, at Pence Opera House, where they were greeted with the elite of the city, and with his usual enthusiasm, and some new songs, won their approval."

Joshua had left for Minnesota back on November 16, making concert stops along the way.  After reaching Minneapolis, he stayed for three days with John and Henry, appearing in concert one evening.  Then he left on the train, transferred to a stagecoach, switched again to an ox sled, and traveled the last five miles or more on foot.

While Joshua was visiting family and making friends in Minnesota, his occasional singing partner,  Kate Hutchinson, "Queen of Song,"  and John's former harpist,  Jack Whitcomb,  were performing in the New York area with the  Peak Family Bell Ringers.

Abby spent the winter of 1868-1869 keeping warm in Florida.   Meanwhile,  Viola was enjoying a stay at High Rock.

Page 11

Thus  Cleaveland John Campbell  came sledding into the world.

John was home for the birth of his first grandchild; but he was probably anxious to return to Chicago, before Henry could make another career change.  When John got back on January 22, he and his son immediately began rehearsing for a series of concerts.  They made the rounds of churches and missions.

At this time, evangelist Dwight L. Moody was active in Chicago.   He engaged John and Henry to sing at his mass meetings on Sunday evenings at Farwell Hall.  Often he would draw 2,000 people.  John and Henry lodged at the Y.M.C.A., where they stayed for free.  This continued into the Spring, and many of the Hutchinsons' concerts took place at Moody's missions.

On February 25, the Hutchinsons lost a dear friend, with the death of Dr. Edward A. Kittredge in Newton, Massachusetts, at the age of 58.  His funeral was held at the First Universalist Church of Lynn, and he was interred at the Eastern Burial Ground, very near the Hutchinson family graves.

A Salem native, Kittredge was a died-in-the-wool eccentric, so he fit in nicely with the Hutchinsons.  Trained in allopathic medicine, Kittredge traveled to Europe to study hydropathy and was there when the quartet toured the United Kingdom.  A practicing physician and a serious advocate of the water cure system, nonetheless as a public speaker he was hilarious.  Some thought that Dr. Kittredge saved Abby's life, at the time of her 1849 illness.  Dr. Edward Kittredge was a significant contributor to Hutchinson Family history, mostly through his newspaper writings under the pen name "Noggs."

John had accepted invitations to sing in New York at the May anniversaries; and on the train, he completed work on a new song for the occasion, "Unite, Unite, To Battle for Right."

Abby was reelected to the Executive Committee of the Equal Rights Association; but Ludlow stepped down from his duties as treasurer and was replaced by John J. Merritt.

At Steinway Hall on May 13, the second day of the meetings, Frederick Douglass argued that a Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, recognizing the right of African-American men to vote, was the most important reform of the day.  It should be seen as a step toward the goal of woman suffrage.  Reformers were divided over this idea, which was by no means unique to Douglass, as they were divided over the involvement of George Francis Train in the suffrage cause.

Page 12

The thorny matter of free love was debated.   "The third resolution,"  said the New York Times,  "declaring that the Convention has no desire to lessen the sanctity of the marriage relation, created some discussion.  Mrs. Livermore wanted it put in stronger language.  At the West,  she said,  this woman's movement had to contend against the obloquy of being in favor of the free-love doctrine; she wanted this resolution to rebut that false charge to the fullest extent."

John said it was then that he and Henry arrived.   "We came from the train just as the debate was at its hottest point, went on the stage and sung the song.  Lucy Stone assumed a pacific attitude toward the people who were attacked and [ she ] deprecated the broaching of the subject.  The Burleighs agreed with her.  Mrs. Livermore was firm, however, and our song was needed to assist in bringing the warring elements together."

"It hardly seems possible,"  said John,  "that it is only a quarter of a century since these questions, which do not now enter to the slightest extent into the question of equal suffrage, were considered of so much importance."

While still in New York, John walked into the offices of the American Literary Bureau out of curiosity.  The result of this visit was that soon that operation was booking many of his concerts.

John and Henry were long associated with the Morning Star Sunday School of New York, through their dentist-friend, Dr. R. P. Perry, its Superintendent.  On the 16th they sang in the public exercises of that organization.  Probably this is the event John had in mind when he wrote about Sister Abby joining his company in song.  "She was greeted with hearty cheers, it being her first appearance on the concert platform in many years."

The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed at this time, and John and Henry promptly joined.  But in November at a convention in Cleveland, another national organization  -  the American Woman Suffrage Association  -  was created.  The woman's rights movement was now effectively split in two.

After the Civil War, there was much interest in the cause of peace.  In June 1869, Patrick S. Gilmore's great Peace Jubilee took place in Boston.  The orchestra was composed of 1,100 players, and the chorus was made up of 10,000 singers  -  Henry being one.  The Hutchinsons attended many Jubilee concerts at the Coliseum near the Public Garden; but they were also bold enough to put on their own shows at the Bromfield Street Church.  Gilmore's 1869 Peace Jubilee is said to have been the initial event that started luring the Tribe of Asa back into the business of giving concert tours.  As we will see, it was by no means the only one.

Page 13

Asa no longer needed to be on the road all the time.   He enjoyed and thought well of farming.  Yet it didn't take much to lure him back into the music business.  This time, the attraction was a reunion of the Hutchinson Family quartet, with Joshua taking the place long held by Judson.  On June 19, they gave a concert at St. Paul's Methodist-Episcopal Church in Lynn.  They appeared again on July 3 at Milford.  "The pieces,"  said the Farmers' Cabinet,  "were rendered with that effect which the Hutchinsons only can give, and were received with much satisfaction and enthusiasm.  All that need be said is  -  their old pieces were the favorites."

Asa gave concerts around Cape Cod; then, with his wife and daughter, he went to Nantucket to visit family.  By coincidence, Henry went to Nantucket with another party.  And John was not going to be left out.  He and Asa agreed to sing for a while with their combined companies.  While at Nantucket, they met Samuel B. Spinning, a fine bass singer, and his friend Frank L. Benjamin, a high tenor.  Each brother saw these two as possible additions to his company.  Evidently John offered them more money, putting at risk his long-standing reputation for thrift; and they both joined his troupe.  The combined ensemble filled a series of engagements in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and then separated at Providence.

John's all-male quartet made a tour through parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  They sang at the Temperance Alliance Convention in Providence.  Then Henry hopped a freight train for Hartford, while the others rested for the night and followed in the morning.

John's troupe reached New York on November 18, with high hopes for the winter season.   Around this time, Frank Benjamin let it be known that he would need a higher salary.  So John let him go.  This is John's official version of the story, and it is probably accurate as far as it goes.  But it seems likely that Benjamin, a graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris, was seeking an expanded role in John's company.  Later, in the early 1870s, Benjamin shipped to California with the heavily-traveled Alleghanians.  He served as the tenor voice and music director of that ensemble, which was then larger and much more musically varied than the Tribe of John.   A March 28, 1874, note from the Alleghanians manager, which appeared on a poster advertising upcoming Toronto-area concerts, said that Benjamin  "is lying quite ill, having been under the physician's care since our last concerts here."  Some references to Frank Benjamin's death were made in connection with his Alleghanians membership, so it seems likely the 1874 note reported his final illness.

Page 14

John's company was in New York to fill engagements made by the American Literary Bureau.  The group received $100 a night and gave a number of shows in the city, then sang in the larger towns along the Hudson River.  But earlier that year, James Redpath, of the Boston Lyceum Bureau, proposed arranging concerts for John.  Through some misunderstanding, Redpath began making engagements for him through the same period covered by the agreement with the American Literary Bureau.  "Between the two,"  said John,  "I was kept pretty busy, and we had to do a good deal more travelling than formerly to meet dates in different sections."

Abby,  having had an active year,  celebrated the new one by leaving New York for Florida on  Saturday, January 1, 1870.

Now,  back in 1869,  the Committee of the Vermont Council of Censors reported in favor of amending the state constitution to recognize the right of women to vote.

"This subject is one that promises to engross the thoughts of this generation,  and it will be agitated till in the progress of events the right of woman to vote will not be questioned."

The American Woman Suffrage Association was founded by those who emphasized campaigning for their cause state-by-state.  So in 1870 the A.W.S.A. attempted to raise support for amending the state constitution to allow women to vote.  The campaign got off to a promising start.  On February 2,  Abby sang in Montpelier for the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association.  "The Convention,"  said the Vermont Phoenix,  "was undeniably a success.  The audiences were large and grew to be enthusiastic.  The exercises were conducted with admirable tact, being relieved from all tediousness by short, pleasant little speeches by Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Stone, and by frequent songs by the Hutchinsons."  It did not take long, though, for strong opposition to surface.

As in Kansas, many opponents of woman suffrage were afraid of unwholesome elements in the movement; and they feared this reform would weaken the family.  It must have puzzled American Woman Suffrage Association leaders such as Mary Livermore, who had deliberately tried to distance their organization from  -  and even repudiate  -  the controversial doctrine of "free love."  Possibly the strongest and most prevalent argument against woman suffrage in Vermont was that most women did not want to vote.

Page 15

Vermonters elected delegates to a Constitutional Convention.   When it met,  discussion of woman suffrage was not permitted.  Only one delegate,  Harvey Howes of West Haven,  voted to amend the state constitution to provide for woman suffrage.  He did not cast this vote,  he admitted,  because it was what voters wanted.  He did it,  instead,  because it was the right thing to do.