Backwoods Blog

HUTCHINSON HOMESTEAD

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

Ada Hutchinson, Malcolm holding his daughter Shirley, Charlie behind Malcolm, Wendell and smallest boy Raymond both Malcolm’s sons, Grandmother Hutch, George, Ella, Grandfather Hutch, John, Larry, Dot, Lottie  (photographer unknown) 

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This (partial) family photo was taken in front of the old Hutchinson farmhouse in the early 1940s which was located on the Fullerton Road (formally known as the Nichols Road) on the north end of Monticello. My grandfather purchased the farm in 1910 after he returned from Leadville, Colorado and it was on this parcel of land that my grandparents raised a family of nine children in the early part of the 20th century. I remember my father saying that when he was growing up the boys slept in the upstairs section of the house that was still unfinished. It was uninsulated and you could see through the cracks between the clapboards in places. More than once he woke up on a winter’s morning and found snow drifted on top of his bed covers. He never seemed to mind as long as there were plenty of blankets and quilts! He said it built character. Dad also reminisced about the family ice house located on the property which they filled with ice blocks hauled from nearby Jewell Lake (please see map). There was a one room school house just down the road that also doubled as the church meeting house. Several generations of Hutchinsons lived and thrived on that rural secondary road, or “side road” as locals called it.

The farmhouse eventually burned in the early seventies (unoccupied at the time). My Uncle Charlie and his son, Carl, continued to plant potatoes on the family farm the rest of the decade. During my high school years in the 1970s the Hutchinson Brothers (Charlie and George) teamed up and helped each other get their crops out. The harvester crew consisted up my twin sister and I and my cousins Carla, Jan, Fran and Jill (Carl’s daughters). There are many stories I could tell, but that will have to wait for another entry. In the fall of 1976 we harvested potatoes on the Hutchinson farm for the last time in my memory. Although the farmhouse was no longer there, the apple orchard still yielded good fruit and the noted family memories of years gone by still lingered. I’d like to thank my cousin Larry Hutchinson for identifying everyone in the family photo.

In the woods,

Dave

October 18, 2023

Photo of Dot, John and Larry Hutchinson taken the same day

Mae Hutchinson and Dot Britton Hutchinson in front of the potato house

Digging potatoes on the Hutchinson homestead looking west (photo submitted by Jill Hutchinson Sewall)

View of the old Hutchinson homestead looking east (photo submitted by Jill Hutchinson Sewall)

Yellow marker is the location of the old Hutchinson homestead