Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Hutchinson, Perry 1831 - 1914
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Author: B. F. Bowen

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 early
development of this part of the state. During the fifty-five years in which
Captain Hutchinson lived at Marysville he commanded 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. As 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 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 comforts 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 happiness, 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 Governor 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 following
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 Northwest and bought a farm near
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he engaged in farming. He married in 1855 and in 1857
built a combined flour- and saw-mill at Vinton, Iowa, 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, 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 children drove through to Kansas, which then was
beginning to offer inducements 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 following year he entered a claim to a tract of land seven miles east of
Marysville, 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 proposition, 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 Hutchinson'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 sawmill 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 east as Lawrence, wheat being
brought by farmers in the territory 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 mill 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 personally 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 management 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 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 Iowa; 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.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)

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