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Story of the Hutchinsons,  Vol. 1:   Chapter 2,  "Beginnings of Song,"  pp. 35-69.

All through my boyhood, while engaged in labors on the farm, I had prophetic dreams or visions of scenes representing experiences, which in after years proved real. I saw our company standing and singing to numerous audiences, heard the plaudits and compliments as they dispersed, and witnessed the gathering-in of piles of money  -  gold, silver and quantities of paper.

We early manifested dramatic talent, and readily acquired a knowledge of elocution. The old North school-house entertainments became so popular that we soon had requests to exhibit in the village academy. We could sing our songs, play our several instruments, act as prompters, stage managers, costumers.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1839, the Hutchinson Family appeared together in public for the first time. Jesse had come up from Lynn, and Andrew from Boston, to celebrate the day. The plan of a free concert in the Baptist Church originated with Joshua and Jesse, each a choir-leader and music-teacher. Andrew demurred,

As exhaustive as John W. Hutchinson's book may seem  -  Story of the Hutchinsons is over 900 pages in length  -  there's actually a lot of Hutchinson Family history that it touches on only lightly or that it doesn't cover at all. By far the most complete treatment of this pivotal period, from the quartet's 1842 grand start through the 1845-1846 United Kingdom tour, is to be found in Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1989). Excelsior is still in print and is available from the publisher and from Amazon.com. Recommended reading.

"We early manifested dramatic talent":   Many New Englanders in the 1830s and well beyond had a sense that there was something unwholesome about actors and the theater. Professor Philip D. Jordan, who in the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s almost singlehandedly restored interest in the Hutchinson Family singers, depicted a young Asa B. Hutchinson as saying of his father, "He thinks our singin' is gettin' too close to worldly theatricals, I guess." [Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 9.]  The Hutchinsons rarely spoke of appearing on stage, referring instead to being on a platform  -  as in a speakers' platform. So it surprises me to no end to read about the Hutchinson brothers and, one would suppose, Abby getting their start in entertainment by way of neighborhood musical and theatrical events  -  school sponsored or otherwise.

"On Thanksgiving Day, 1839":   Actually, this event took place on Friday, November 6, 1840. John gave the date very concretely as Thanksgiving 1839. Joshua thought this concert might have happened in 1842. From available Tribe of Asa concert programs decades later, we could infer that Asa remembered the Hutchinson Family debut as occurring in 1840. That would be right. The date of the first Hutchinson Family concert was the discovery of Dale Cockrell, and it's a huge first step toward clarifying the early chronology of Judson, John, and Asa Hutchinson as public entertainers. The earliest-known Hutchinson Family biography explained in this way how the 1840 entertainment came about:  "The first attempts at anything like regular concerts, were musical re-unions in the family circle. These were given on Thanksgiving and Fast Days; and on one memorable occasion four Hutchinsonian generations assembled beneath the paternal roof. The old minister of the village church became interested, and invited the young musicians to give their first Public Concert in the Baptist meeting house. The offer was accepted. . . . " [The Book of Brothers: History of the Hutchinson Family (New York: Hutchinson Family, 1852), 14.]

"The plan of a free concert":   It should come as a surprise to no one that Joshua and Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. were behind this pivotal event and the next one, which we'll talk about later. If not for Jesse and his remarkable degree of originality, the history of the Hutchinson Family singers would have been entirely different. If not for Joshua, the original nurturer, it might not have happened at all. This annotated reprinting of Story of the Hutchinsons is dedicated to the memories of Brothers Joshua and Jesse.

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on the ground that he could not spare the time from his business, but was told by Joshua that he must stay, and rehearsing immediately commenced. The advertising consisted of two slips of paper, one posted on the old Town House, and the other at the bridge:

It was an anxious time for us all, but the older brothers secured "Squire" S. K. Livermore to speak on "Music," and the minister, Rev. J. G. Richardson, so that the concert might be interspersed with speakers and not fall through. Grandfather Leavitt, with father and mother were present, and sang with us on the old chorals. The church was packed with sympathetic listeners, and our hymns, anthems and glees were enthusiastically received. The next day Brother Joshua went to Ezekiel Mills, the sexton, to pay for the use of the church. He pushed him away, saying, "The people of Milford owe you."  The minister wrote the concert up for the Farmer's Cabinet, and after father's decease, the notice was found carefully preserved among his choice papers.

[1841]

After our band was organized we began to discuss with earnestness the plan of giving public concerts, and by the time the school term of that year, 1841, closed, our plans were all made. Previous to this we had heard words from father that never were spoken to us before. Asa and I were the two youngest boys, and not being able to do our usual chores about the farm, owing to our attention to studies, he said, "After the school term closes, I want you boys to provide for yourselves"; which acted as a spur toward independent

"The eleven sons and two daughters":   It would be interesting to know if the concert announcement read in just this way.

"The minister wrote the concert up":   "A Family Meeting and Concert," Amherst, NH, Farmers' Cabinet, November 13, 1840, p. 3 col. 3. A copy of this notice, probably once belonging to Jesse Hutchinson, Sr., is included as an undated clipping in Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook. Dale Cockrell learned its publication date and saved us all a lot of puzzlement.

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action. We notified father of our intention to leave the work on the farm and seek our fortunes in some other vocation. Getting his consent, he giving us our time, we packed the sparsely-filled trunks and bags of clothing in the one-horse sleigh, and he drove Asa and me to Lynn, where we arrived after a fifteen-hours' drive of fifty miles.

Arriving in Lynn, we met three of our brothers who had preceded us. Jesse, who had left home several years before, was established there, manufacturing and selling stoves, and doing a successful business in tin and hardware. He was also the inventor of improvements in the manufacture of air-tight stoves. Joshua had come from Milford, and Judson from Boston.

On consultation with our brothers, we decided to give a public concert, and the old Sagamore Hall was secured. (This was one of the old landmarks of the city, and remained standing until burned in the great fire which desolated Lynn, November 26, 1889.)

With a degree of timidity and embarrassment we started in on our first number, before a respectable audience, which had assembled to see what Jesse's brothers could do as singers. Jesse was very solicitous for our success. We were comparative strangers, while he had mingled with them all and was well acquainted. The concert was a great success, as evinced by the frequent applause throughout the programme to the final strains.

I said to my brothers, "We need more discipline and more culture." We therefore went to Boston, feeling that if we were to follow the business of giving concerts, we must have more practice, and that if we could get into some good business to earn our living, and still practice at the same time, we should be better able to please the public and ourselves.

"We notified father of our intention":   The phrase, "giving us our time," refers to Jesse Hutchinson, Sr., releasing John and Asa, his youngest sons, from parental authority before they reached the age of majority. Among other things, it gave Jesse Sr.'s sons the right to keep whatever money they might earn.

"Jesse, who had left home":   Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., married Susan W. Hartshorn and moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1836. Susan's given name is variously reported as either Susanna or Susannah. It appears, though, that family and friends consistently called her Susan; so that's the name I use for her. Do you have a good-quality picture of one of Jesse Jr.'s stoves that you could scan and share with us? I think I've seen a picture  -  maybe in Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook  -  but I don't have a copy.

"With a degree of timidity":   The Hutchinson brothers gave a concert at Sagamore Hall in Lynn, Massachusetts on Saturday, February 13, 1841. [Dale Cockrell, ed., Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1989), 388).

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We made a call on Dr. Lowell Mason, the great musical composer and teacher, then in the height of his fame. He hurriedly gave us, in reply to our request for advice in regard to vocal culture, a recommendation to use his recent publication, a new singing-book called the 'Academy of Music,' and expressing no further interest in our welfare, resumed his labors writing music. Saying no more, we departed with no material satisfaction. The urgent necessity he was under to fulfil the great obligation to the public resting upon him we deemed sufficient excuse for his action. Since then we have had our own experience with intruders. As time passed on, Dr. Mason spoke before his class in high terms of the Hutchinson Family's manner of singing, the great harmony they made, and the best manner of proceeding with public concerting, style of music, etc., as illustrated by our career.

We then waited upon Prof. George James Webb, who received us most courteously; and when the suggestion was made of our joining the Handel and Haydn Society, he desired to hear us sing. He selected a new piece of music and sat at the piano to accompany us while we sang, each taking his different part according to the rule. At the conclusion he arose and approvingly said, "I should be pleased to propose you to the society."  He gave us a notice of a meeting they were to have the next week. My brother Judson and I accepted the invitation and were present at one evening's rehearsal. We retired from the meeting with a feeling that it would not be to our advantage to join them. Subsequently, after an absence from our boarding-house on Purchase Street, we learned that Mr. Webb had called and inquired for us, with the expressed purpose of soliciting our patronage as members of the society. We

"We debated some time" (pp. 38-39):   There was a history of doubts, at various times, as to whether the Hutchinsons' voices would carry to the far reaches of particularly big and/or heavily crowded rooms, only for the singers subsequently to be heard quite well in all parts of the building. It's a bit of a mystery; but it came up often enough over a period of decades that it's a phenomenon not to be denied. John Hutchinson's reference to himself and his brothers having "somewhat light voices" is worth remembering. I've never seen a thing to suggest that Jesse Jr. had a light voice, and the same may be true for Sister Abby.

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debated some time before giving an answer, but finally considered that by becoming members we should lose our identity (as we had somewhat light voices, which would be drowned by their style of chorus singing), and declined the offer.

We hired a capacious room on Purchase Street, Boston, where we did our own cooking and kept a bachelor's hall.

Jesse was engaged as a compositor in the Advertiser office on Court Street; and thinking I might like the business, I went with him to look for a job. Jesse still kept his store in Lynn, but came to Boston to keep us company. The Advertiser office was up in the top of a five-story building, and to reach it we had to climb the long stairs (the luxury of elevators was not then known), through dark hall-ways. Before we reached the top, I said I guessed I would not go any farther, turned around, and so retired and left him in his glory. I then tried sawing wood and peddling, but felt all the time that I was out of my element. One young coxcomb offered to loan me twenty dollars to buy a handcart.

I finally engaged myself to a grocer for eight dollars a month and board. Part of my duty was to tend bar and sell liquor by the glass, which was very repugnant to me. This was immediately before the Temperance Reformation, and it was customary to keep a bar in all grocery stores.

All this time we kept up our practising and rehearsing, meeting each week in a hall at the corner of Pearl and Purchase Streets, over the store of Brother Andrew, who had been in Boston ten years or more. Here the Universalist Society held their services, and Judson was leader of the choir. Rev. Mr. Spier supplied the pulpit.

"This was immediately before the Temperance Reformation":   Washingtonians came from Baltimore to Boston in April 1841. [George Faber Clark, History of the Temperance Reform in Massachusetts, 1813-1883 (Boston: Clarke and Carruth, 1888), 49.] There's reason to believe that Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., was already interested in the temperance reform in the 1830s; so this 1841 date, with respect to the temperance cause, may pertain to Judson, John, and Asa but not to Jesse. That would certainly be my first thought.

"Rev. Mr. Spier supplied":   For some reason, other researchers have taken this as a reference to Rev. John Murray Spear; but I've never seen a thing that places his home base in Boston around this time, and I believe John Hutchinson was referring, instead, to John M. Spear's older brother, Rev. Charles Spear. The Hutchinsons were connected with both men, according to clippings in Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook.

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Across on the opposite corner, the Rev. George Ripley preached Unitarianism, advocated the doctrine of Fourierism, and taught the brotherhood of man. He later established the Brook Farm experiment, and was afterwards for many years literary editor of the New York Tribune.

Finding, as we thought, that we could not make any further progress in Boston, we decided to retreat to Lynn. How glad I was to escape that fiendish liquor business, as it looked to me! Availing myself of an honorable discharge from my employer, I felt lighthearted and encouraged, believing that I could once more enjoy freedom of conscience, dancing and shouting for joy that I was out of rum-selling.

Asa joined Jesse in his stove business, tin and plumbing, and Judson and I started a small grocery store of our own. The stores of the four brothers were side by side, where the Sagamore Hotel now stands on Union Street, in Lynn, and we went on with success, for the business was not then overdone. The little grocery store that we occupied is still in existence, having been moved to Pearl Street; and as I recently purchased some goods at this store of the grocer, I reminded him that fifty years had elapsed since my brother and myself kept that store, occupying the room above as our sleeping and singing apartment. We still continued our economical habits, cooking our own food and retiring aloft to partake of the menu.

To facilitate our business, I purchased a horse for seven dollars, a superannuated harness and wagon for seven dollars, and with my fourteen-dollar team started an express route in conjunction with the grocery store. Several times a week we brought goods from Boston from the store of Brother Andrew, who kept a wholesale concern.

"The stores of the four brothers":   More people than I would have ever imagined have misinterpreted this passage, thus taking nearly everyone named Hutchinson in Lynn at the time or even later as being one of the store-keeping Hutchinson brothers. This passage refers to Jesse Jr., Judson, John, and Asa only; and with the exception of Jesse, it refers only to the year 1841.

"The little grocery store that we occupied":   There's potential confusion here between this room over the store kept by Judson and John, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, "the room over Oliver Porter's store," which is mentioned in a footnote on page 41.

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Though we labored diligently at our business, we still kept up our musical practice, and chartered a hall at the corner of Union and Silsbee Streets, where we went into systematic training.

We provided ourselves with the best music published in Boston  -  'The Kingsley Social Choir,' 'The Æolian Lyre'; and I sent by express the last dollar I had to Oliver Ditson's publishing house in Boston, for the cantata, 'The Maniac,' paying twelve and a half cents express.

On Sunday we joined our voices with the choir of the First Universalist church, where Jesse was chorister; and with instrumental music, two violins and a 'cello, we made the welkin ring, and enjoyed it as much as the listeners. Some slight momentary altercation occurred between the brothers, and to Jesse's criticism we took exception; and as some singers have been known to do before, we absented ourselves one Sunday from the orchestra.

Sitting in the body of the church, I was deeply impressed with the singing of the choir. Towering above the noise of the instruments, their voices pealed forth clarion notes that thrilled me, as it did the congregation with delightful surprise. I was especially charmed with the sweet trumpet voice of my brother Jesse. It was most captivating to hear, and I felt proud of him. I said in my heart, 'No feud shall more disturb us.' Union and harmony was restored, and the brothers Judson, Asa and I, were again invited to take our positions in the choir on the following Sunday.

During this period, Hawkins, the reformed drunkard, came to Boston and inaugurated the great Washingtonian movement. We at once allied ourselves with the temperance cause, took the pledge, and on

"Though we labored diligently at our business":   It would be my first thought that the "hall at the corner of Union and Silsbee Streets" is the same location which Charles Buffum spoke of in an 1890 letter to John Hutchinson:  "[Y]our family of brothers met for practice in the room over Oliver Porter's store, you occupying one part of the floor and we boys the other end. . . . " [Charles Buffum to John W. Hutchinson, December 30, 1890, in John Hutchinson (1896, 2:362).]   Perhaps a Lynn, Massachusetts, local historian could help us out with this question. A contact link is included in the navigation bar near the bottoms of these pages.

"I was especially charmed":   Note John Hutchinson's reference to Jesse Jr.'s "trumpet voice."

"Some slight momentary altercation occurred":   Unfortunately, we're given no details about this spat. We have no idea who was at fault, if the finger of blame could be pointed at anyone in particular. A decade later, a much more important split occurred between Jesse, on the one hand, and John and Asa, on the other. We're given no details in that instance, either.

"During this period, Hawkins":   During this period, Washingtonian speakers and organizers were in Boston beginning on Wednesday, April 14, 1841. [George Faber Clark, History of the Temperance Reform in Massachusetts, 1813-1883 (Boston: Clarke and Carruth, 1888), 49.]

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all public occasions we sang, "We are all Washingtonians."

During the early stages of the reform, the Old Deacon Giles distillery, of Salem, Mass., was converted into a temperance hall, and here [on Friday, May 5, 1843], at a grand temperance rally, we first sang the trio composed by Brother Jesse, called --

Then came into the arena the immortal John B. Gough, with whom we fully sympathized. Such advocates should have gained a great victory. Half a century has elapsed, and the great doctrines of temperance have been promulgated and advocated by thousands of reformers. Still the drink habit continues the deep curse of mankind.

In the autumn of 1841 I hired a suitable carriage, packed it full of such wares as I thought would be salable  -  confectionery, gingerbread and other eatables  -  and invited two of the members of the Lynn Band, Mr. Fisher, cornet, and Frank Lydston, portrait painter and

"During the early stages of the reform":   This Deacon Giles gathering seems to mark the first public performance of the Hutchinson Family theme song, "The Old Granite State."

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trombone player, to go with me. We left Lynn for New Hampshire, fearless of the consequences. We drove all night, reaching the homestead in New Hampshire the next noon, where I had the congratulations of parents and neighbors. My sister Rhoda, who was noted for her palatable apple pies, supplied us with a dozen or two of this delicious food and packed us off. We started for the muster-field at Goffstown, N.H. Here my comrades sought for an engagement to play with the military band, and were successful in obtaining a small one, enough to pay their way.

I made a display of my wares, and hung a sign over my carriage which read thus:  "Walk up, gentlemen! Here is your fine gingerbread and apple pies, mead and other palatable drinks."   I secured a sufficient amount to pay my expenses. In addition to my confectionery, etc., I had a portfolio of prints, which I endeavored to peddle around the grounds. One was a picture of the steamer Elections, the first on the Sound. Some fellows came up pretending to purchase, and one took hold of the side of the portfolio and suddenly let go, and my pictures were at the mercy of the wind while they hurried away, and I had the mortification of picking the prints out of the dust.

Fully disgusted with such experiences, I was convinced that my forte was something other than catering to the promiscuous crowd, and after one unsuccessful attempt at Woburn, a week later, I returned to Lynn.

Owing to our irregularities of living, lack of proper diet and exposures over the marshes, driving a slow team from Boston to Lynn, I took a severe cold and was obliged to go to bed, having been pronounced by the doctor, sick with a bilious fever. I was fortunate

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in securing an interesting and sympathizing nurse, who with magnetic tact and wisdom, diligently watched over me for three weeks, until I was fully restored. This gentleman, now threescore years and ten, or more, still survives, and is no less a man than the Lynn caterer, Mr. Warwick Palfray.

Settling his bill, which was two dollars a day  -  and that for twenty-four hours daily  -  and paying the doctor, who was a proficient and expert practitioner, I had left out of my earnings and savings but seventy-five cents with which to commence business anew.

This was a season of misfortunes, and having passed through the whooping-cough, measles and bilious fever, I began to think that I was a sinner above all others.

During my most dangerous condition father, being solicitous on account of my sickness, came down from New Hampshire to see me and pray with me; but whether it was the prayer, or the laying on of hands, or the nurse that cured me, the spirits of the air may decide.

Autumn came, and we returned to Milford and gave our first concert in East Wilton. Deacon Bales, an old friend of the early years of the Hutchinson Family, made arrangements for our convenience and was present at the concert. The arrangements for a stage were the bare floor on a level with the audience, with a wide, rough pine board laid across on the heads of three barrels. On this board were six half-candles supposed to last till the end of the concert, and they stood in their own grease.

The deacon was considered an old-fashioned-mannered man, enjoying psalmody, playing his 'cello or bass-viol in a systematic manner. In directing and pitching the tune for the choir, he would place his fingers upon

"Autumn came, and we returned to Milford":   Possibly a Wilton, New Hampshire, local historian could help us date this East Wilton concert. A contact link is included in the navigation bar near the bottoms of these pages.

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his nose, press the tone up into the nasal organ to first take the pitch of the tune which he was to sing "la fawd la!"  This man spoke approving words of our concert, as we were bidding him good-by. In this and subsequent concerts for some time, we adopted the name of the "Æolian Vocalists." This concert netted six and a quarter cents after paying expenses.

In these first concerts, we sang from note and not by rote, having all our pieces arranged according to the programme in sheet music. In after years we found this was distracting to us; so we committed to memory all the songs we were to sing, and sang them with perfect freedom.

Being somewhat affected with hoarseness for several days, learning that pickles were good, at the next concert we procured some, about six or eight inches long; and between the songs we would stoop down and take a bite and pass it to the next. On one occasion we came pretty near strangling with the vinegar.

We gave concerts at East Wilton, West Wilton, Wilton, Wilton Centre, New Ipswich, Hancock and Peterborough. Returning, we found that the expenses had taken all except a dime, not leaving us enough to pay for the sleigh that we had hired at twenty cents a week of Brother Ben. This made Judson blue, and he said, "If we don't do better than this next week, I'll relinquish it, and give up the whole thing as a failure."   "Better luck next week," said I, "in a better neighborhood."

Then came a week's concert tour through several of the towns in Hillsborough County. Small profits, but lots of praise. We divided some twelve or fifteen dollars.

[1842-ish]

Returning to Lynn, we took with us our youngest

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sister, Abby, then eleven years of age, and hired Lyceum Hall, on Market Street, for a [Wednesday, January 19, 1842] concert. Friends gathered around and arrayed her in a peculiar style, with a Swiss bodice or Tyrolean costume, giving her rather a foreign air, and she took her parts with the rest of us and sang songs at some of our country exhibitions. Thus far we had done very little singing as a quartet, but we soon found that adding her as making up the quartet, served to help in winning our way, and perfected the picture as we stood before the public. In the New York Home Journal in after years, N. P. Willis spoke of us as "a nest of brothers with a sister in it." The Lynn concert proved a grand success.

Then we went East, stopping at the towns of Beverly, Salem, Ipswich, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Kennebunk and Saco.

We headed our programmes with these lines, by Judson:

In all of these places a lively interest was awakened in our favor. In Portsmouth we held three concerts, audiences increasing on each occasion. We sang in the hall attached to the American Hotel, kept by Barnabee, the home of Henry C. Barnabee, the singer, son of the landlord, whose musical laurels were won in after years.

Arriving in Saco we made the acquaintance of a musical person, Mr. Priest, who was considered then a leader among the singers of the town. He attended our concerts and spoke in complimentary words of them. We stopped at the Temperance Hotel, kept by Mr. Tufts. A grand temperance rally was held during our stay at

"Thus far we had done very little singing as a quartet":   Saying that the Hutchinsons had done little singing as a quartet is a far cry from saying that they had done no singing as a quartet. Late in life, John W. Hutchinson told a reporter that, in this period, Sister Rhoda "went with us when we sang near home." ["He Sang for Suffrage," New York Times, November 17, 1895, p. 25 col. 5.] It seems to me, then, that the Hutchinsons' fledgling attempts at forming a quartet may have involved Rhoda.

"In the New York Home Journal in after years":   While this may be true, as far as it goes, Willis coined the "nest of brothers" phrase by 1845, well before the Home Journal began publishing in the fall of 1846.

"In Portsmouth we held three concerts":   My Hutchinson Family timeline is currently around 1,200 typewritten pages in length. While I have dates for many, many of the Hutchinsons' concerts and other events, peppering these notes with data of that sort would be well beyond the scope of this project and could make for very tedious reading. If you need a particular date  -  or other details, for that matter  -  please e-mail me. A contact link is included in the navigation bar near the bottoms of these pages.

"A grand temperance rally was held during our stay":   One could easily infer from this passage that the Hutchinsons sang at the Saco temperance rally. If so, it would be the earliest-known instance of them publicly singing for a cause. It is worth remembering that, of the sisterhood of reforms of the 1840s, temperance was the Hutchinsons' first cause.

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this hotel, and we joined with the people. It awoke considerable interest among them. Fifty-three years later, at a banquet of the board of trade in Portland where I sang, the mayor remarked that he was a son-in-law of Mr. Priest, whose daughter, his wife, well remembered our singing at the time of which I speak.

Many friendships were made during this down-east campaign, which were lasting and renewed often in after visits with great pleasure. In each town was a cluster of sympathizing hearts, almost all young in years, who served to awake sweet memories in later days.

We repeated our concerts in the several towns on our return back to Lynn, starting late in December. Returning to Lynn in February, singing about in the region for awhile, we received a beseeching letter from our father, expressing an earnest solicitude for our welfare, and desiring that we relinquish our interest in public life. He expressed a longing for us to return home and help him on the farm, promising to give a deed of the home farm to the six youngest children. The deed was written, the conditions, that we were to give up our itinerant life, take care and provide for the wants of our mother as long as she lived, and continue a peaceful mode of living. He advised us to abandon aspirations for a matrimonial life, which advice we accepted with mental reservations, and entered into our vineyard of labor.

For some time we lived together, sharing all things in common, and father looked on with a degree of satisfaction. Many improvements were inaugurated. Buildings were moved, and some were torn down. The old hop-house, where we used to dry our hundreds of weight of hops annually, had become obsolete, and was

"In each town was a cluster of sympathizing hearts":   Hutchinson Family biographer Carol Brink saw a youth movement in the temperance cause of this period. She wrote, "The young people of the early 1800's who turned to idealism, religious fanaticism, and passionate hopes for a better world were as much in revolt against an easygoing older generation as our 'flaming youth' of the 1920's were in revolt against the prudishness of their elders. It is in the nature of young people to revolt against what is established, and to wish to build their own world to different specifications." [Carol Brink, Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 24.].

"We repeated our concerts in the several towns":   Notice that John has worked his way backward through time, to December 1841. This is a fairly common feature of Story of the Hutchinsons. We'll have to work at keeping matters straight. John dictated most of this book from memory, using his diaries as a rough guide. It's about a miracle that he made as few errors as he did.

"Returning to Lynn in February":   Family considerations often altered the Hutchinsons' career path. Notice that John again has us back up to 1842.

"He expressed a longing":   The deed mentioned in this sentence, which we are told was never officially registered, became a part of the Hutchinson Family story for quite some time to come. It's worth remembering.

"For some time we lived together":   Compare this passage to the Acts of the Apostles 2:44.

"The old hop-house, where we used to dry":   Tangible signs of hop-raising were still in evidence around the Milford homestead well after this, suggesting that the timing in John's narration may be open to question.

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also moved away; that business had been abandoned on account of our temperance principles years before. The old homestead and farm was put in thorough repair; new fertilizers were brought into requisition; and our labors were delightful, as all our interests were merged into one harmonious relation. The goods from the grocery store in Lynn we had freighted to a store on the farm.

It was a pleasure indeed to have our father so relieved from the burden of his great cares. That year he celebrated his [Sunday, August 7, 1842] golden wedding simply by giving mother an outing. But the musical charm was by no means broken. Happy as was that spring with us young bachelors, and strong as our domestic feelings naturally were, we determined to try once again music as a means of living. Perhaps our musical impulses were a little excited by a circumstance which occurred about this time. Three young ladies of great personal loveliness came to our village from Lyndeboro and Bedford, for the purpose of attending the Female Academy. Being invited, they willingly became members of the choir, and very probably inspired the sensitive vocalists, for the music of the sanctuary so vastly improved that crowds flocked to hear it, and the minister, Rev. Abner B. Warner, exclaimed, "How much better I can preach now!"

How well I remember the singing of these girls! Our hearts and souls were kindled with a flame of sacred love; we worshipped at these shrines, and the associations ripened into harmony. At last we unitedly resolved to make propositions for engagement; and on Saturday night each repaired to the home of his sweetheart, and asked the question, "Will you be mine?" The answers were to be announced at our meeting the

"That year he celebrated his golden wedding":   It's not at all clear how this wedding anniversary, the couple's 42nd, gets to be called "golden," though no doubt it was very nice.

"Three young ladies of great personal loveliness":   These three were Jane French, Sarah French, and Tryphena Tupper. According to John W. Hutchinson, Jane French remained in Milford or, as further research shows, returned there. He gave her name as Jane R. French, though the same document got Nathaniel Peabody Rogers' name as H. P. Rogers; so I put little stock in Jane's supposed middle initial. In fact, I'm quite certain it's wrong. One of Jane's family connections took part in an early-twentieth-century Hutchinson family reunion; and for all we know, Jane may have been in attendance, as well. I don't recall seeing anything further about Sarah French (evidently Jane's cousin), outside those sources that are quite commonly known. There are two young women named Sarah French who I am checking to see whether either matches what is known about Judson J. Hutchinson's sweetheart. The one who is looking most likely at the moment, I'm afraid, did not survive far into the middle years of life. Of the third young woman, Asa B. Hutchinson gave her name as Tryphena H. Tupper. Many years later, John gave it as Tryphenia Tupper. If my tentative identification of her proves true  -  and I'm reasonably certain of it  -  she died just a few years after this.

"Being invited, they willingly became members of the choir":   According to John, his brother Judson J. Hutchinson led the Baptist Church choir that year. [John W. Hutchinson, in William B. Rotch, compiler, Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Milford, New Hampshire, June 26, 1894 (Milford, NH: Cabinet Print [Shop], 1894), 50-51.]  So, it seems likely that Judson did the inviting.

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following day; but as the course of love never does run smooth, the order was put in abeyance, and we were obliged to abide on probation:

So affairs went on,  -  now giving a concert, now getting in a crop. While thus unsettled, a gentleman visited us, and observed, after hearing us sing, "Why, if you managed rightly, you might make as much in some places in one night as you do here in a year." This stimulated us anew, and, as soon as the summer came, once more we commenced preparations for a new tour.

Judson went to Boston, where he purchased a second-hand family carryall. From Brother Ben we secured a white mare which he had taken in part-payment of a debt. This, with the seven-dollar bay horse which I bought in Lynn, put us in a good condition for our venture. Judson took my horse  -  which we always called our "Old John" horse  -  to Boston to bring the carryall. In the excess of his enthusiasm, anxiety and humanity, he almost entailed upon himself and brothers a considerable loss. Of a warm and generous disposition and possessed of much feeling for animals, he determined to treat the old horse in magnificent style. Arriving at a hotel some miles out of Boston on the road to New Hampshire, and imagining a hearty feed would put him in good condition and enable him to get home all the faster, Judson gave the steed a half-bushel of oats, a peck of Indian meal and a large cribful of hay, all in one repast. The horse, unaccustomed to such plenty, devoured it all, and, of course, suffered from the banquet. The result was that Judson had to leave the animal behind to digest the monstrous meal, and procure

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another horse to take the carryall from Boston to Milford. Prior to the grand start, we  -  Judson, Asa, Abby and myself  -  gave a Fourth-of-July concert at Nashua, which was very successful, in connection with Mr. Lyman Heath, from whom we received some admirable songs of his own composition. The friendly advice of this gentleman was of much service. After this we set out on our northern tour, "sublime of hope and confident of fame."

As we passed on our way, David happened to be working in his fields, and hearing us, he paused, leaned over his fence and shouted, "Remember, boys, noise is not music!"

Having no travelling agent, we sent our bills by mail or by friends.

Our personal property was thus disposed of: a bag with our clothing was placed in the carryall; the violins, without cases, were hung inside; and the bass-viol was strapped on the top; the little hair trunk, containing Abby's simple wardrobe, was on the rack.

Many a night did we travel to meet engagements  -  often sleepy and cold, and longing for the luxury of a bed. Nor were we exempt from perils during some of these midnight excursions. The roads were strange, and whenever a guide-post was found, Judson, the tallest of the party, was deputed to examine and report thereon. Once we had a narrow escape. During a very dark night the horses stopped all of a sudden. Judson, who was ever on the watch, instantly jumped from the carriage; we were on the verge of a precipice; and had not the animals instinctively stopped, our progress might have ended in a "Dead March."

Arriving at Concord, we gave concerts and were very favorably received. Here we became acquainted with

"Prior to the grand start, we - Judson, Asa, Abby and myself - gave":   Thanks to John W. Hutchinson, I have just made an interesting discovery about Lyman Heath - quite interesting, at least, from a Hutchinson Family point of view.   If you are a Heath family genealogist and may be interested in this find, please use the contact link toward the bottom of the page to e-mail us.

"As we passed on our way, David":   Starting at about this point and running through the Hutchinsons' trip to the United Kingdom, Dale Cockrell's book, Excelsior, is the source for further information.

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N. P. Rogers, editor of the Herald of Freedom, who in his journal devoted a column to a criticism of our performances. Mr. Rogers was always a warm and judicious friend of the Hutchinsons. He wrote admirable critiques on our performances, and repeatedly urged us to sing the thrilling songs of liberty and humanity; some of Burns' patriotic songs he also recommended. It was his ardent desire that we should not be mere birds of passage, but that we should cultivate home affections. At the time when this good friend was lying on his death-bed the Hutchinsons, then popular, happened to be in Concord. Mr. Rogers sent for us to sing him to sleep. One of us [Judson J. Hutchinson] immediately repaired to the house but while waiting for admittance to his room the last sleep had commenced. This was October 16, 1846. One of the daughters, by his request, sang the "Angel's Invitation." All of Mr. Rogers' family evinced great musical talent, and were excellent teachers of the art.

I insert one of his notices as copied from the Herald of Freedom, December 9, 1842.

These Canary birds have been here again, charming the ear of our Northern winter with their wood-note melody. Four of them are here out of a nest of fourteen. All of them, I understand, are to flock together to warble at Nashua at our coming Thanksgiving, though one has to come from Illinois. The concert will be worth the long flight, and well worth a journey from here [to] there to listen to. I had rather keep Thanksgiving (if at all) on the melody of these birds than on a whole poultry-yard full of dead turkeys and goslins, which make up the usual Thanksgiving feast, as well as the usual gratitude.

These "New Hampshire Rainers" sung here two evenings to rather small audiences. One night they were at an out-of-the-way hall, and the other night there was a sharp snow-storm. It would not have kept the people from the Baptist meeting to hear the brimstone melody of Jacob Knapp, but it kept them from hearing the simple, heart-touching strains of the "Æolian Vocalists."

"He wrote admirable critiques":   John W. Hutchinson says here that Nathaniel Peabody Rogers "repeatedly urged us to sing the thrilling songs of liberty and humanity." It was Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., and Nathaniel P. Rogers who encouraged members of the Hutchinson Family quartet to sing antislavery songs in the group's paid concerts. Doing so later dramatically shifted the course of Hutchinson Family history.

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Perhaps I am partial to the Hutchinsons, for they are abolitionists. It need not affright them to have it announced. It won't  -  if it would scare away their listeners it would not scare away themselves. But it won't. Human nature will go and hearken and be charmed at their lays; and the time is coming, if it has not come already, when the public conscience will feel quieted at the thought of having heard music from the friends of the slave and having patrionized it. How natural for music as well as poetry to be on the side of humanity and the captive. And how gloriously employed it would be in humanity's special service. I wish the Hutchinsons had a series of anti-slavery melodies to sing at their concerts. "A Marseilles Anti-Slavery Hymn," for instance, with a Swiss "Rans de Vasche"; an English "Rule Britannia"; a Scotch "Scots wha ha'e"; an Irish "Battle of the Boyne"; or a poor American anti-slavery "Yankee Doodle."

"Give me a ballad-making for a revolution," said some one of the sages, "and you may have all the law-making." What an agitation might the fourteen Hutchinsons sing up in the land with all their voices and instruments strung to the deliverance of the bondman! Would the South send on for our General Court to have them beheaded? The General Court would not touch a feather in their crests if they could only hear one of their strains.

A word of the music here the other night. Among the songs sung was "The Maniac." I have heard it recited with great talent, but I was not prepared to hear it sung. The younger of the brothers, John, performed it with appalling power. It was made to be sung, I think, rather than be recited or acted. Music alone seems capable of giving it its wild and maniac expression. A poor maniac is imprisoned, and starts the song at the glance of the jailer's light entering his cell. The despairing lament and the hopeless implorations for release, accompanied with the protestations that he is not mad, are enough to break the heart. It ought to have been heard by every asylum superintendent, though they have grown less of the jailer than formerly.

The airs were modern, most or all of them; and though very sweet, were less interesting to me than if they had been songs I knew. If they had had some of the old songs intermingled, I think it would better please everybody  -  some of Burns' "Bonny Doon" or "Highland Mary," for instance. Few professed vocalists, however, could touch either of these without profanation. I think the Hutchinsons might, for they are simple and natural in their music. I should love to hear them warble:

Their woodland tone, their clear enunciation and their fine appreciation of the poetry, together with their perfect freedom from all affectation

"Perhaps I am partial to the Hutchinsons":   This is the earliest-known published reference to Hutchinson Family members as abolitionists, though Jesse Jr. may have been an exception as seems likely. We are not told what the singers thought of Rogers' announcement.

"I wish the Hutchinsons had a series":   Jesse Jr. wrote topical verses and parodies, evidently going back at least as far as the mid-1830s. Not much later than the publication of this notice  -  which, incidentally, is placed well out of chronological order in Story of the Hutchinsons  -  comes a published reference to Jesse writing lyrics for his brothers and sister to sing. So it seems at least possible that Jesse may have acted on Rogers' suggestion. On the other hand, originality was one of Jesse's most outstanding qualities; and he was quite capable of coming up with this idea on his own.

"The younger of the brothers, John": From the earliest days of the Hutchinson Family touring group, press notices praised John W. Hutchinson for his acting ability.

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and stage grimace, would enable them to do justice to the great Scottish songster; and it would do the people good to hear them sing him.

Will they take the suggestion, and when they sing next, at least as far north as here, will they sprinkle their catalogue (in the singing, if not in the handbill) with a strain or two from the glens of the Scotch Highlands? And "Rans de Vasche," too; I would venture to mention to them the "Battle Chorus"; "The Lowing of the Cows upon the Alps," that makes the Swiss exile mad when he hears it in a foreign land. Their spirited imitation would tell in that in grand effect.

Oh, this music is one of God's dearest gifts! I do wish men would make more of it. How humanizing it is; and how purifying, elevating and ennobling to the spirit. And how it has been prostituted and perverted. That accursed drum and fife, how they have maddened mankind! And the deep bass boom of the cannon, chiming in, in the chorus of the battle; that trumpet and wild, charging bugle, how they set the military devil into a man and make him into a soldier! Think of the human family falling upon one another at the inspiration of music! How must God feel at it, to see those harp-strings he meant should be waked to a love bordering on divine, strung and swept to mortal hate and butchery! And the perversion is scarcely less when music is profaned to the superstitious service of sect  -  its bloody-minded worship, its mercenary and bigot offerings. How horribly it echoes from the heartless and priest-led meeting-house! But it will all come right by-and-by. The world is out of tune now; but it will be tuned again, and all discord become harmony. When slavery and war are abolished, and hanging and imprisoning, and all hatred and distrust; when the strife of humanity shall be who will love most and help the readiest; when the tyrant steeple shall no longer tower in sky, inspiring contempt of humanities, covering dwellings about its base; when pulpits and hangmen and generals, gibbets and jails, shall have vanished from the surface of the delivered earth,  -  then shall be heard music here where they used to stand. The hills shall then break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.

Notes by Alan Lewis