ROBERT HUTCHINSON
Alviso Township
This worthy pioneer and
prominent citizen of Alviso township was born in Winsor, Kennebec
county, Maine, March 6, 1812, and is the eldest son of Robert and Ruth
Hutchinson. At twenty-one years of age he had not received
sufficient of an education to allow him to transact the most ordinary
business, but by close application and diligent attendance at the
Winter schools, besides careful research in private, as well as a three
month's term at the Vassalborough Academy, he found he had absorbed
enough knowledge to permit of his embarking in the tuition of a common
school in the year 1837. After that he followed the art of
teaching as a profession, having taught as many as twelve schools in
eight Winter, contriving to compass this by being present at two
schools during some of the seasons.
In 1840 he was appointed by John Fairfield, Governor of the State
of Maine, Justice of the Peace and Quorum, the jurisdiction of the
former office then extending over the entire county, positions he
occupied for seven years. About this time he was elected one of
the Board of Superintending School Committees, whose duty was the
examination of teachers and visitation of schools; he was also elected
one of the Board of Selectmen and Assessors of his native town which
office he held until his removal to Cherryfield, Washington county, in
1844. In the year 1843 was the Democratic candidate for
Representative to the Main Legislature ,but was defeated by the Whig
nominee, the town having a large majority of that party.
On
arriving at Cherryfield he joined his father and brother in the lumber
business, and there continued until 1849. In that year Mr.
Hutchinson took an active part in the formation of an association
having for its object a voyage to California. It was styled
the Sacramento Navigation and Mining Company, and was organized for two
years. The association comprised forty-eight members who each
owned one share of five hundred dollars. With the capital thus
raised the brand-new Belgrade, then lying on the stocks at Cherryfield, was purchased; she was loaded with provisions enough for a two-year's voyage;[transcribers note- see information on journal of this voyage at bottom of this bio] a number of houses already framed were put aboard, and a quantity of loose lumber. The steamboat Fashion was
bought from Hinkley & Egery of Bangor, taken to pieces, and with
her machinery placed in the bark. Mr. Hutchinson was chosen
Secretary of the company and so continued until its dissolution.
On November 27, 1849, the subject of our sketch sailed for already
far-famed Dorado, having received on taking leave of his native to
he following testimonial, couched in honest language, which he holds
to-day in much esteem:
"The bearer, Robert Hutchinson, Esq., is a
gentleman whom we have known from his boyhood and we can most
cheerfully recommend him as a man of strictly honest principles, correct
moral habits and in every way worthy of implicit confidence. He is
also well qualified by his learning, talent and tact for the
transaction of any common business. Windsor, November 12,
1844. (Signed) Asa Heath, Town Clerk of Windsor; Wm. Hilton,
Justice of the Peace and Quorum; A. S. Coombs. Wm. Perkinds Selectmen
of Windsor."
Having touched at Rio de Janeiro and admired its
renowned harbor; at Juan Fernandez, and pondered over the solitude of De
Foe's hero; and having rounded "The Horn" with its inhospitable coast
and tempestuous winds, he arrived in San Francisco bay, May 27, 1850,
precisely six months from the date of sailing . Here one of the
houses brought out in pieces was erected in the Rincon Point Cove; the
steamboat was landed, its keel relaid and in two months completed,
when the company was dissolved. The property was disposed of to a
new association for the sum of forty thousand dollars, and divided into
forty shares of one thousand dollars each, though any member of the
original company was given his choice, either to receive cash or a
share in the new corporation . Mr. Hutchinson elected to take the
latter,
and received the position of steward on the little boat he had brought
out, at one hundred and fifty dollars per month wages.
On
the 1st of August the first start for Sacramento was made. When
getting as far as Benicia it was found necessary to put back to San
Francisco, the top of the fire-box having burned away. After six
weeks consumed in repairing she was put upon the Stockton route to
take the place of the Sagamore
which had lately been blown up. After Mr. Hutchinson had been
running on this line for two months a combination was formed
between the steamboats Fashion and Governor Dana to take the freight and passengers of the New World and Senator
from Sacramento to Marysville. On her initial voyage on this
mission the Fashion was "snagged," but reached her destination after
undergoing certain temporary repairs. On the return voyage she ran
aground at Hock Farm, where the subject of our memoir was
discharged. Thence he took passage in the Hartford for
San Francisco, where he landed at midnight. He had gone but a few
yards along Long wharf when he was attracted by the cry of "Fire!" he
wheeled around in time to see the flames burst from the steamer Santa Clara, which lay alongside the boat from which he had just landed. The flames were with little delay communicated to the Hartford,
which although not sharing the disaster of her ill-fated sister was all
destroyed but the hull.
At the end of two months the Fashion
arrived at San Francisco and Mr. Hutchinson joined her as cook, but
before she had left the port he took his discharge and became one of an
expedition to proceed to the Klamath river where it was reported gold
had been discovered. Taking a share in the schooner General Lane with
six others the voyage up the coast was commenced, but with what
result Mr. Hutchinson' diary will best explain: He tells us
that the voyage commenced with strong head winds which had so increased
that they were out two weeks, and out-of-sight of land; they were
obliged to lay too, but after three days the wind chopped round in such
a manner that the vessel would not lay with her head to the sea, in
this position the rollers swept over her, and finally shipping one
larger than the rest, it stove in one side of her cabin, swept across
the deck carrying with it the bulwarks and stanchions, stove up the
whaleboat into splinters, knocked the vessel on her beam-ends, shifted
the cargo, and otherwise did much damage. That night the pumps
were kept constantly at work. In the morning it was found that
had the craft been put on the other tack than that on which she was,
nothing could have saved her from sinking, and her passengers and crew
from a watery grave. She drifted towards San Franciso, where Mr.
Hutchinson arrived on or about May 20, 1851.
After remaining here a few days he left for Alviso, Santa Clara county,
where he arrived May 27, 1851, thus completing his first twelve months
in California. On gaining that town he formed a partnership with
A. J. Wilson in a grocery store, a boarding-house and a freighting
business, they having a vessel plying between that point and San
Francisco. At the end of six months the schooner William A. Tarlton was
purchased and J. A. Morgan admitted to a share i in the business, but
Mr. Wilson dying in 1853, the partnership was dissolved, and the
affairs transacted by Mr. Hutchinson alone. In, June, 1854, he
started to pay his native State a visit, there he was married in the
town of Addison, September 4th, and in November, accompanied by his
bride, commenced the return voyage to California, arriving at Alviso on
the 11th December same year. He then engaged in the storage and
lumber business.
In 1856 he joined the Republican party; in the following year was
a republican delegate to the State Convention held at Sacramento that
nominated Judge Stanley, a North Carolinan, for Governor. In this
year, in the month of November, he embarked in agricultural pursuits,
which he gave up at the end of two years and returned to Alviso and
once more engaged in the lumber business, and storing a shipping hay,
occupations he followed until the Spring of 1869, when letting his
warehouses and hay-barns he moved to San Jose and entered upon the
charge of the lumber yard of Chase & Conley. At the end of
one year they stopped this manufacture. Mr. Hutchinson therefore
returned to Alviso, and reentered upon his original business, which he
still continues. He served as a Justice of the Peace for Alviso
township, excepting during the times of his absence, from 1852 till
1869; besides this he was appointed by an Act of the Legislature a
Trustee of the town of Alviso to sell town lots the proceeds of which
were to be paid to the School Trustees for school purposes in the
town. His colleague was Col. A. B. Rowley. Mr. Hutchinson
at the age of tweny-one cast his first political vote for Andrew
Jackson, being convinced that he was right on the "bank question,"
while at an early age he became impressed with the importance of
speaking the truth, knowing that "lies, like chickens, ere bound to
come home to roost." Through a long life he has treasured up
many good and wise saying ,legends and maxims, among them being: "Erros
is unstable and seldom the same. She built her lofty structures
upon a sandy foundation- upon the applause of being every moment liable
to change. But Truth is certain , eternal, and built upon a rock
are the towers of her habitation. She looks to Him only for
applause who is the same yesterday and forever." Dr. Robertson's Lectures
page 562-565
Transcribed by cdf
History of Santa Clara County, California
San Francisco: Alley, Bowen & Co., 1881,
page
RESEARCH NOTE-----------
Hutchinson, Robert. Journal, November 25, 1849-May 17, 1850, of a voyage from Cherryfield, Maine to San Francisco, California in the bark Belgrade under the command of Captain Horatio N. Palmer. California State Library, Sacramento, California. Original typescript copy. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, California, # C-F 72, and
Huntington Library, San Marino, California both have carbon copies of the typescript. List of the fort-eight members of the Sacramento Navigation & Mining Company and ten other passengers who worked their passage are included in the first entry. Journal stopped shortly before their arrival in San Francisco.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY - THE VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT