Early
Memories of
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company;
HENRY HUDSON
HUTCHINS
The third child of
Harrison and Laura Hutchins, Henry Hudson Hutchins was born in 1854 and with
his older brothers attended the Veeder school in the
first schoolhouse in what is now the Fennville district; he studied at
Kalamazoo college for a time and in 1877 was united in marriage to Miss Hattie
Robertson.
Mr. Hutchins is of a literary
turn of mind and has produced a series of historical sketches of west Allegan
county which are of value as they pertain to early settlement, pioneers and
landmarks which today's generation know so little regarding those facts.
His one hobby is family
genealogy in which line he has traced back into the tenth and eleventh
centuries in some families, and to a nearer date, but well back, in others. The
object being to establish original nationality and date of migration to this
country, as well as place of landing on arrival here, and movements from that
point to present location.
He yet has his home on
the same farm, in Ganges, upon which he began in 1873, having gone through all
the episodes of the fruit culture, including peach yellows, little peach and
loss by frost of entire orchards, as well as other pests which harass the fruit
culturist. He passed through the evolutionary period of lumbering, cord wood,
bark, clearing the land for agricultural purposes and making good roads where
there had been naught but mud, sand, roots and ruts, as is common to an
entirely new country.
Four children were born
to this union: Ethel, who died in infancy; Harrison A., who has his A. B. from
Purdue university and was captain in the Ordinance Department during the World
War; Lora, having her degree from U. of M., and Cornell, and Lee M., has his
degree from M. S. C. and U. of Montpeliar, southern
France and Johns Hopkins granting him his last Ph. D. and now in the Dept. of
Agriculture, Washington.
Mrs. Hutchins died in
1922 but Mr. Hutchins continues living at the old farm home in comfort and
enjoying his studies.