History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 41

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1276

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Heltham was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: Mrs. Jane Love, who is now living at Taft, California; William, of Hubbell. Nebraska: Cyrus M .. who died at his home in Barrett, where his widow and family are still living, and Mrs. George Van Vliet, of Barrett.

Mrs. Holtham has been a resident of this county since the days of her childhood, having been but six years of age when her parents established their home here. She grew up at Barrett and was a student of the first school taught there by Doctor Blackburn, who was the first physician in Marshall county. For some years after her marriage to Mr. Holtman she lived in California. but since returning to Frankfort in 1882 has continued to make that place her home and is very comfortably situated there. Mrs. Holtham is a member of the Presbyterian church and has ever taken a warm interest in church work. She is a member of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and is one of the charter members of the local organization of the Woman's Relief Corps, in the affairs of both of which organizations she takes an active interest. To . Mr. and Mrs. Holtham one child was born, a son, Charles Albert, who died in California. They later adopted two chil- dren, Samuel, who died at the age of twenty years, and Jennie Barrett, who married R. M. Emery, Ir., of Seneca, Kansas.

CAPT. PERRY HUTCHINSON.

In the memorial annals of Marshall county no name occupies a higher place than that of the late Capt. Perry Hutchinson, who, from the days of the very beginning of a social order hereabout to the time of his death in 1914, was one of the leading factors in the development of this now highly favored region. An honored veteran of the Civil War, Captain Hutchinson brought to all his relations with the community interest here a steadfastness of purpose and a sturdiness of character that made him from the beginning a leader of men and of affairs and it is undoubted that he did much to give direction to the carly development of this part of the state. During the fifty-five years in which Captain Hutchinson lived at Marysville he com- manded the highest respect and esteem of the entire community and he was highly honored by the community, his services in the several civic offices to which he was called ever having been exerted in behalf of the common good. Is state senator he gained a wide acquaintance among the leading men of the state, in which he even before that time had attained a high position, and

PERRY HUTCHINSON.

MRS. LYDIA J. HUTCHINSON.

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as pioneer stockman, miller and banker he, from the beginning of things in Marshall county, occupied a position of influence that left the definite imprint of his sturdy character upon every enterprise he touched. One of the local newspapers very aptly commented in the following terms at the time of Captain Hutchinson's death: "From the day of the redman to the com- forts of civilization; from the boundless prairies, teeming with herds of wild buffaloes, to the modern farm stocked with thoroughbred cattle and horses and hogs; from the dangers of frontier life to the contentment of peaceful and prosperous homes ; from the pioneer days to the present time, the development of Marshall county passed like a panorama during the fifty- five years that Captain Hutchinson lived in Marysville. And inch by inch, step by step, and year by year that sturdy pioneer walked along the pathway of development, always doing his full share in the work incumbent upon those who transformed the desert into a land of peace, prosperity and happi- ness, until his very existence among us was woven into the warp and woof of every phase of the history of Marshall county for the past half century."

Captain Hutchinson was a native of the Empire state, born at Fredonia. Chautauqua county, New York, December 2, 1831, a son of Calvin and Sophia (Perry ) Hutchinson, both representatives of old colonial families. Calvin Hutchinson was born in Chenango county, New York, a son of Elijah Hutchinson, one of the pioneer settlers of that region and a cousin of Gov- ernor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts. Sophia Perry was a daughter of Col. Sullivan Perry, a first-cousin of Commodore Perry, the hero of the battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, and himself a naval commander of distinction, having been in command of a war vessel that sank a British vessel off the coast of Dunkirk, New York, during that war. Captain Hutchinson was reared at Fredonia and upon reaching his majority he turned his face toward the great Northwest. which then was beginning to offer such boundless promises of development, and on his arrival in Wisconsin secured employment with the logging firm of McAdoo & Schuter, one of the leaders in the timber industry of that region in that day. That was in the spring of 1852 and he put in his time until the close of the river navigation in the fol- lowing winter, in charge of the crews that drove several large rafts of logs from the Wisconsin river down the Mississippi to St. Louis. He then returned to New York, but in the following spring returned to the North- west and bought a farm near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he engaged in farm- ing. He married in 1855 and in 1857 built a combined flour- and saw-mill at Vinton, lowa, and was engaged in operating the same for two years, at the end of which time, through the defalcation of a partner whom he trusted.

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he was forced to give up his entire property to satisfy creditors. Though thus stripped of material possessions, this sturdy pioneer retained a stout heart, an undaunted spirit and an eager willingness to begin over again. He bought on credit a span of horses and a wagon and with his wife and chil- dren drove through to Kansas, which then was beginning to offer induce- ments as a place of settlement. During the first year of his residence in this state. Perry Hutchinson found employment as a farm hand while he was looking around and "getting his bearings" in the new land, and in the fol- lowing year he entered a claim to a tract of land seven miles east of Marys- ville, erected a small cabin on the same and there established his home, one of the real pioneers of Marshall county. His place was on the old stage route and his humble cabin was early utilized as a tavern and stage station.

While thus engaged Captain Hutchinson one night saved Superintendent Lewis, of the Holliday stage line, from freezing to death and thus cemented a friendship which resulted in creating what was perhaps the real turning point in the career of the pioneer, for when the American Hotel (later known as the Tremont House) was erected Mr. Lewis advised Captain Hutchinson to rent the same. guaranteeing him all the patronage from the Holliday stage line. A. G. Barrett, the owner of the hotel. however, rejected the propo- sition, declaring that he was "not leasing his hotel to paupers." When this remark was conveyed to Gen. Frank J. Marshall, after whom Marshall county takes its name, the General did not take the same view of Perry Hutchin- son's status as that entertained by Barrett and he promptly agreed to sign the lease, as surety for Hutchinson, and then and there was executed what has been referred to as probably the most iron-clad contract ever drawn up in this county, and Hutchinson entered upon the management of the hotel as well as upon a new stage of his career. . At the end of six months acting as landlord of the hotel he had cleared the sum of eighteen hundred dollars and with that money bought a tract of eighty acres adjoining the village of Marysville upon which he presently erected the first flour-mill built in the state of Kansas and established the business that is now carried on under modern methods and which has from the first been known as the Excelsior mill. It was in the spring of 1864 that Captain Hutchinson secured the water-power rights on the Big Blue river, west of Marysville, and built a saw- mill on the east banks of the stream. In that mill the lumber used by the Holliday stage line between Marysville and Denver was sawed. On August 15. 1867. Hutchinson built on the west side of the stream the first flour-mill to be erected west of the Missouri river, his product quickly finding a market as far cast as Lawrence, wheat being brought by farmers in the territory

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within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles, the mill always paying a little in advance of the market price for grain. Step by step the Hutchinson mills have been kept up-to-date, modern machinery always replacing the obsolete equipment of bygone days, and the reputation of the firm has been maintained throughout the half century and more that it has been doing business. Not only was Captain Hutchinson the first flour-miller in Kansas, but he milled the first roller-process flour in the state. When on February 5. 1905, the Excelsior inill was destroyed by fire, the Captain, though then past seventy-five years of age, was undismayed and at once began laying the plans which resulted in the erection of a new and better mill on the site of the old.

In July, 1862, Perry Hutchinson responded to the call to arms in defense of the nation during the Civil War and organized Company E of the Thirteenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, and was elected captain of the same. Company E was mustered into service at Atchison in August of that year and Captain Hutchinson served until the fall of 1863, when he received his honorable discharge on account of illness. He ever afterward took a warm interest in the veterans of the war and was an active member of Lyon Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Besides his milling business, Captain Hutchinson found time to engage in other lines of industry and per- sonally superintended his extensive farming interests, as well as being rated one of the largest stockfeeders in the state. He was also engaged in the banking business, and the same business care that characterized the manage- ment of his personal affairs was always exercised in the administration of such affairs as came under his jurisdiction as a banker. When the Marshall County Bank was organized back in pioneer days, Captain Hutchinson was one of the chief factors in the organization of that institution, which was succeeded by the First National Bank in 1882. In 1894 Captain Hutchinson was elected president of the bank and held that position the rest of his life. He ever took a leading part in local political affairs and for many years was one of the leaders in the Republican party in this district. In 1880 he was elected to the state Senate and served with distinction in that body. In 1876 Captain Hutchinson was appointed one of a committee of three to represent Kansas in the Centennial Jubilee held in New York City. He was a delegate to the national conventions that nominated James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine for the Presidency and was for many years one of the most familiar figures at the state and local conventions of his party. As noted above, Captain Hutchinson was an active member of the Grand Army of the

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Republic. He also was a Mason, in which ancient order he had attained to the York Rite, and ever took a warm interest in Masonic affairs.

In December. 1855, Perry Hutchinson was united in marriage to Lydia Jennette Barber, daughter of Champlin Barber and wife, of Chautauqua county, New York, and to that union were born four children. F. W. and Delia ( deceased ). were born in lowa : W. W. Hutchinson, of Marysville, and Mrs. Etta Hutchinson-Kotsch. of Sturgis, South Dakota, three of whom. with their mother, survive the death of Captain Hutchinson, which occurred on December 29. 1914. he then being past eighty-three years of age.

FRANK W. HUTCHINSON.

Frank W. Hutchinson, well-known grocer, of Marysville, is a native of the state of lowa, but has been a resident of Marysville practically all the time since the days of his childhood and has thus witnessed the growth of the city and the development of this region since pioneer days. He was born at Palo, Iowa. August 2. 1857. son of Perry and Jeannette L. (Barber ) Hutchinson, natives of New York state, who became prominent and inthuen- tial pioneers of this county, active in promoting the interests of Marysville in the early days, and the latter of whom is still living in that city at a ripe old age.

Perry Hutchinson was born at Fredonia, New York, December 2, 1831. son of Calvin Hutchinson, a native of England, and was reared on a dairy farm. in his youth helping to milk one hundred cows. At Fredonia, in 1853. he married Jeannette L. Barber, who was born at that place in February. 1837. and immediately after their marriage he and his wife came West. settling in Iowa. For some time Perry Hutchinson worked in the timber woods in Wisconsin, rafting logs and then went to Jowa, where. at Palo, he engaged in the cattle business and in the milling business, remaining there

until 1850, when he came down into Kansas and pre-empted a quarter of a section of land in Balderson township. this county. He built a log cabin on his claim and put up a shack to shelter his horses and the first winter he was there worked with his team, receiving for his labor daily one bushel of corn, worth twenty cents a bushel. The next spring, when the tide of immigration out this way began to flow past his door, he was able to sell that twenty-cent corn for two dollars and fifty cents a bushel. His place was along the line of the old stage route and one morning about two o'clock

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he heard sounds of distress proceeding from the trail. On investigating he found the mail-stage and the six-horse team stuck in the ice and the driver nearly frozen to death. The driver was made comfortable for the night at Mr. Hutchinson's house and upon asking the next morning what the charge for the accommodation was, was informed that there was no charge. To show his appreciation for the favor the superintendent of the mail gave Mr. Hutchinson a "tip", which was to go to the then new village of Marysville and lease the hotel that had been started there. Mr. Hutchinson recognized the value of the tip, for travel through this part of the country was then beginning to become quite brisk, but he told the superintendent that it would be impossible for him to enter upon such an undertaking, that all his equip- ment in the way of housekeeping consisted of a table that he had made out of dry-goods boxes, three dilapidated chairs and a few old knives and forks. He picked up courage, however, and determined to investigate the "tip." With that end in view he drove over to Marysville, his sole cash possession at the time being twenty-five cents, and proposed to A. G. Barrett, the owner of the hotel, to rent the same and operate it. Barrett informed him that he would not rent the place to "a pauper" and coolly dismissed the proposition. Mr. Hutchinson laid the matter before Frank Marshall, who was then con- ducting a store in a log building at Marysville and after whom Marshall county later came to be named, and Marshall offered to "go his security" for any reasonable amount sufficient to swing the hotel proposition. On that basis Mr. Hutchinson secured a lease on the hotel and in eight months made a clear profit of eighteen hundred dollars operating the same. By the way. the site of the log store above referred to is the present site of the First National Bank, of which Mr. Hutchinson was president for many years and until the time of his death. With the money earned in his hotel deal, Perry Hutchinson bought an eighty-acre tract of land adjoining the village and there erected a flour-mill, in a building twenty by eighty feet, said to have been the first flour-mill in the state of Kansas, settlers coming from distances · as far away as two hundred miles to get their grist ground at that pioneer mill. Mr. Hutchinson was engaged in milling when the Civil War broke out and he dropped everything and enlisted a company of men to fight in behalf of the Union, that company from Marysville going to the front as a part of the Thirteenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry. Near the close of the war, Captain Hutchinson was taken ill and was mustered out. Upon his return home he resumed his milling business and in 1867 erected a new mill on the west side of the river, which old mill is still standing. In 1881 Captain Hutchinson was elected state senator from this district, on the Repub-

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lican ticket. About 1878 he engaged in the banking business and was a director of the First National Bank until the death of S. A. Fulton, the presi- dent, when he was elected president and continued to serve in that capacity until his death on December 27. 1914. Hle was an active and earnest mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic and was a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar. His widow is still living in the old home erected by her husband in 1868. She is a member of the Presbyterian church and was among the most active workers in behalf of all good causes hereabout in pioneer days. To her and her husband four children were born, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being Dilla, now deceased : Mrs. Etta Kotsch, of Sturgis, South Dakota, and Wallace W., the well-known retired miller, of Marysville.

Frank W. Hutchinson was but a child when his parents moved to Marys- ville and he grew to manhood there. a valued assistant to his father in the mill, remaining thus engaged for four or five years. In the early seventies he was severely injured by being caught beneath a freight train and while recuperating from those injuries took a trip to the mountains and on the train was robbed of what money he had. He stopped at Canon City, Colo- rado, where he remained a year or two working for a time in a hotel and then in a wholesale grocery house. Upon his return to Marysville he was put in charge of his father's lumber yard and was thus engaged until 1882. when he went to Beattie and there started a grocery store. A little more than sixty days later his store was destroyed by fire, but he rebuilt and restocked the place and continued in business there until 1892. when he sold the store and returned to Marysville to take charge of his father's mill. In 1894 he bought a grocery stock at Marysville and presently bought the site of his present place of business and erected his present commodious store room, into which he moved in 1895 and where he ever since has been engaged in business, long having been recognized as one of the substantial merchants of his home town. Mr. Hutchinson also is the owner of a farm of eighty- three acres in Wells township. He is a Republican, but has not been a . secker after office.

In 1884 Frank W. Hutchinson was united in marriage to Emma Brum- baugh, who was born at Valparaiso, Indiana, March 17. 1864, a daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth ( Hawthorn ) Brumbaugh, the parents of eight children, three sons and five daughters, who came to Marshall county about 1889, some time after the marriage of their daughter Emma, and settled on a farm near Beattie, where Mr. Brumbaugh died and where Mrs. Brumbaugh is living in the northeast part of Marysville, now being in the eighty-seventh

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year of her age. Mrs. Hutchinson received an excellent education in her girlhood and after her graduation came to Kansas in response to a call sent out for school teachers and was teaching school in Marshall county at the time of her marriage. To that union no children have been born. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson are members of the Presbyterian church and have for years taken a warm interest in the various beneficences of the same.

NICHOLAS S. KERSCHEN.

The Hon. Nicholas S. Kerschen, former representative in the Legislature from this district, manager of the farmers elevator at Marysville and one of the extensive landowners of Marshall county, making his home on his fine farm in Marysville township, is a native of Europe, but has been a resident of this county since he was five years of age. He was born in the grand duchy of Luxemburg on April 29, 1868, son of Charles and Mary (Klein) Kerschen, native Luxemburgers, who came to this country in 1873 and set- tled on homestead farm in section 18 of Marysville township, this county, becoming substantial and influential pioneer residents of that community.

Nicholas S. Kerschen was reared on that pioneer farm and received his schooling in the neighboring district school. He remained on the home farm, a valuable assistant to his father in the labor of developing and improving the same. Upon his marriage in 1890 he assumed charge of the home farm of two hundred acres and upon the death of his father inherited the home place. As his affairs prospered, Mr. Kerschen added to his land holdings until he now is the owner of five hundred and fifty-three acres, to the farming of three hundred and twenty acres of which he is giving his personal attention and there makes his home, having one of the best-developed farms and most up-to-date farm plants in the county. Mr. Kerschen has been a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company at Marysville ever since the organization of the same and on June 16, 1915. was made manager of the same, a position he ever since has filled in a manner highly satisfactory to both shareholders and patrons of that admirable institution. Mr. Kerschen has ever given his thoughtful and intelligent attention to local civic affairs and in 1912, as the nominee of the Republican party, was elected representative from this dis- trict to the lower house of the Kansas Legislature, his services in the House during the session of 1913 being regarded as of much value not only to his district, but to the state at large.

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On July 2. 1890. Nicholas S. Kerschen was united in marriage to Mar- guerite Koppes, who was born on a pioneer farm in section 17 of Marysville township, this county, October 15, 1871, daughter of Nicholas S. and Helen ( Klass ) Koppes, natives of Luxemburg and pioneer residents of Marshall county. Nicholas Koppes was an honored veteran of the Civil War, a mem- ber of the Thirteenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, To Mr. and Mrs. Kerschen two sons have been born, Carl N., born on August 8, 1894. who is farming the home place, and Arthur P., August 7, 1897, who is now a student of the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, taking the law course. The Kerschens are members of the Catholic church and take a warm interest in the various beneficences of the same, as well as in the gen- eral social activities of the community. Mr. Kerschen is a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the Modern Woodmen of America and takes a proper interest in the affairs of both these organizations. He has ever given his close attention to the general development of the best interests of his home county and is looked upon as one of the active factors in all worthy move- ments designed to advance the common welfare hereabout.

WALLACE WALTER HUTCHINSON.

Wallace Walter Hutchinson, well-known retired miller, banker and land- owner, of Marysville, is a native son of that city and has lived there all his life, one of the most active factors in the development of the interests of that thriving county-seat town during the past quarter of a century, an able repre- sentative, in the second generation, of one of the most prominent and influen- tial pioneer families in this part of the state. He was born at Marysville on November 6. 1871, son of Capt. Perry and Lydia ( Barber) Hutchinson, the former of whom died at his home in Marysville on December 29, 1914, and the latter of whom is still living there, one of the most honored and respected pioneers of Marshall county. In a biographical sketch relating to the late Captain Hutchinson, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out at considerable detail the history of this pioneer family in this county and to that sketch the reader is referred for further details regarding the genealogy of the subject of this sketch.

W. W. Hutchinson was reared at Marysville, receiving his schooling in the local schools, and early took an interest in his father's flour-mill at that place, the first flour-mill erected in the state of Kansas ; and upon completing

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school was installed June 11, 1889, as bookkeeper and office manager of the mill, continuing thus connected with his father in the milling business until his father's death in 1914, when he became owner of the mill, which he con- tinued to operate until August 1, 1916, when he sold the mill; since which time he has been giving his attention to his extensive land and banking inter- ests. Mr. Hutchinson has an interest in seven hundred acres of land and is a stockholder in and a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Marysville. During his many years of active connection with the old Excelsior mills he gave his whole time to the direction of the affairs of that pioneer industry and, as he recalls now, on many occasions worked practically day and night and on Sundays, it being no unusual thing for him to be occupied at the mill for twenty hours at a stretch for considerable periods of time during the busy season.

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History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions, Part 41

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1276

Author: Foster, Emma Elizabeth Calderhead, 1857-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1276