HUTCHINS, WILLIAM   L.
                        Lake Charles, LA



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Source: Southwest Louisiana Historical and Biographical by William Henry Perrin
published in 1891; page 159.
Typed by Margaret Rentrop Moore


William L. Hutchins, Lake Charles - William L. Hutchins, treasuret of Calcasieu
parish, and a prominent merchant of Lake Charles, was born in St. Martin parish,
Louisiana, September 19, 1844.  He is the son of William and Eulalie D.
(Autreuil) Hutchins, the former a native of Sr. Landry, and the latter of St.
Martin parish, Louisiana.  They remived to Lake Charles in 1858,
where Wm. Hutchins died in 1865, his widow surviving him until 1890.
William Hutchins was a journalist, and was editor of the first paper published
in Calcasieu parish - The Calcasieu Gazette.  During the was he was parish
recorder. The subject of this sketch received his education in the schools of
St. Martin parish, and learned the printer's trade with his father, with whom he
was afterward engaged in publishing the Gazette at this place.  At the breaking
out of the war he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Louisiana Infantry,
in which he served until discharged in 1862.  In June of the same year he joined
Company A, Second Louisiana Cavalry, in which he served three years, when he was
transferred to the marine department, on the vessel "Wave", which the
Confederate government had captured.  He was afterward transferred to the
steamer "Cora", which was captured by the Federal gun-boat
"Quaker City", between Rio Grande and Point Isabelle.   He was made prisoner and
taken to New Orleans, He was subsequently engaged in the battle at Franklin,
louisiana, where he was made prisoner and sent to New Orleans and remanded to
prison.  After remaining there for six months he made his escape by boring a
hole through the brick wall of the prison and made his way to
Bayou Sara, on the Steamer ""Empire Parish" as a deck hand.  From there he went
to Tunica Landing where he crossed the river and made his way through the
Atchafalaya Swamps to Morgan's Ferry.  From there he went to Washington,
Louisiana, thence home, on board the gunboat previously mentioned.  At the close
of the war, Mr. Hutchins was engaged as salesman in a mercantile house at Lake
Charles for a period of ten years.   He afterward became the partner of
James Munn in large saw-milling interests at this place.   This partnership was
subsequently dissolved and , in partnership with Mr. John W. O'Neil, continued
business for eleven years in the neighborhood of Lake Charles.  In 1873 he was
appointed treasurer of the parish of Calcasieu, and in this capacity he has
served since that time.  Probably no other man in the State has held this
office for a similar length of time.  
Mr. Hutchins was married, in 1865, to Miss Eugenia Reid, daughter of D.J. Reid. 
She died in 1880, having become the mother of nine children, seven of whom are
living, three sons and four daughters.  In 1883 Mr. Hutchins married again, Miss
Lizzie M. Hennington, of Mississippi. 
They are the parents of three children, one son and two daughters.  Mr.
Hutchinson is Vice
Chancellor of the K. of P. Organization of this place.