Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Hutton, Levi 1846 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 7, 2006, 10:30 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) LEVI HUTTON. Levi Hutton, a prominent and successful farmer of Winfield township, is a business man and agriculturist of broad experience and training, and has done well at various occupations in the course of his fifty-eight years of life. He began early to achieve a place in the world, and from early years spent in an industrial establishment of the east he later branched out into farming and commercial pursuits in the middle west. He is held in high esteem throughout Winfield township and Lake county, and is reliable and substantial in all his dealings. Mr. Hutton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the part of the city now known as Fairmount Park, on July 26, 1846. His father, also named Levi, was born in Delaware, and began his career to success by working as a driver on the Susequehanna canal, and also acted as cook on a passenger boat. He afterward worked in a mill in Philadelphia, and finally began the manufacture of carpets. He is supposed to have been the first man to succeed in making a shoddy ingrain carpet. He was in the carpet manufacturing business at Philadelphia for some time, and then engaged in the same line and also in farming in Maryland, and in 1861 returned to Philadelphia, where he was superintendent of a woolen factory for four years. In March, 1865, he moved out to Lake county, Indiana, and began farming near Hobart, where he remained until his death, in March, 1872, at the age of forty-five. His wife was Maria Lord, a native of England, but who was reared in America, coming to this country at the age of seven years. She died in Lake county at the age of forty-five. She was of a Quaker family. She and her husband had six children that grew up, their son Levi being the eldest. Mr. Levi Hutton was reared and educated in Philadelphia for the most part, and in 1865 came out to Lake county, where he remained with his parents until he was of age. He then returned to Philadelphia and became foreman in a bobbin room of a cotton factory, in the "Good Intent Mills." He had begun in this factory at an early age, at wages of six dollars a week, and had steadily advanced to a foremanship in another department, learning every detail of the business. He was receiving a salary of eighty-five dollars a month when he left. On his return to Lake county he began farming near Hobart, but in 1871 sold out and went to Chicago, where he was employed as a helper in the carpenter trade. At his father's death he returned to Hobart and was appointed administrator to settle up the estate, after the completion of which task he returned to Chicago and engaged in the saloon business, continuing it for eight months. His next enterprise was the buying of milch cows and disposing of them in Chicago, being thus engaged for two years. He then rented a farm near Hobart for two years, and in 1877 bought a small farm in Winfield township. In 1886 he bought the farm of one hundred and eighty acres where he still resides, and all the fine improvements and excellent features of this farmstead are the result of Mr. Hutton's own industry and management. From 1894 to 1901 he was engaged in the grocery business at East Chicago, in partnership with W. R. Diamond, and their monthly sales ran up to a high figure. Mr. Hutton is one of the influential Republicans of his township, and is the present nominee for the trusteeship of Winfield township. He has served as road supervisor of this township. He was treasurer of the East Chicago Republican committee, and has been delegate to various Republican conventions. Mr. Hutton married, in 1868, Miss Gertrude R. Fieler, a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Schrage) Fieler. She was born in Germany and came to America when seven years old. Her brother, Christian Fieler, is sketched elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Hutton lost three children in childhood, and the three living are: Ida C, wife of L. A. Phillips, of Porter county, Indiana; Lydia M., wife of Albert Lewis, of East Chicago; and James P., at home. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/hutton412gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 4.9 Kb