Life Sketch of Orson Hutchinson

[Note: The spelling in this document is as Vivian wrote it. She always spelled her brother's name and her grandfather's middle name with an 'i' rather than a 'y'.]

Orson Hutchinson was born Dec. 9, 1865 in Springville, Utah. He was the second child of Jacob Flinn Hutchinson and Alice Penniston Wasden. At the time of his birth his parents were living in the fort, which was near the present City Hall park on Main Street.

Grandfather Hutchinson took an active part in the Black Hawk War in Central Utah. Grandmother was the second wife of Jacob Flinn Hutchinson and was considerably younger than he was. They had 3 children Joseph, Orson, and Aurilla, who was known to us as Lillie.

One day while shoeing a mean horse, grandfather was kicked by the horse and as a result of this injury he died of blood poisoning on May 7, 1867. At this time the Indians were causing trouble by making raids on the cattle, and riding through town shooting and yelling. This was one of the earliest recollections of my father and his brother, and they would hide under the bed until the Indians had gone. Another early recollection was the time a man was struck by lightening, which also frightened the children very much.

Soon after the death of my grandfather, grandmother took her 3 small children and went to Scipio to be with her people. Father was about 5 years old at this time. In Scipio Uncle Joe and father helped to herd cattle, some of which were quite wild as they had just been brought in from Texas. Indians made raids on the cattle there, too.

While in Scipio grandmother met and married John Thueson. They were married on June 14, 1869 and lived in Scipio until 1876 when they moved to Brooklyn, in Sevier county, Utah. Father was baptized while in Scipio, on Sept. 20, 1874. His schooling was very limited and consisted of only 4 or 5 winters.

Father's first school was in a room in the north part of Monroe. Here they had rough benches made from trees which had been sawed through the center and put on legs. There were few books, and a few slates to write on; however, he had always attended Sunday School and was active in the priesthood and mutual organizations.

Father told of going into the hills to get wood when he and his brother were about 12 and 14 years old. They had many narrow escapes in loading and driving down the hills. There were scarcely any roads to follow at that time.

During father's youth he sang in the choir and took part in home dramatics. I remember Hill saying that he would rather do that than eat. He also belonged to a glee club made up of some of his friends who shared his love for singing.

One of father's girl friends was a girl by the name of Lyde Hunt. He was very fond of her, but her parents objected to their thoughts of marriage as they felt the young couple should wait until father had accumulated more property, father stopped going with this girl and began going with Martha Maria Sorenson, who later became his wife.

While courting, father would take a sack of candy, which would cost about 15 cents. This was his treat to his girl. My father and mother [pictured at the left] were married in the Manti Temple on Dec. 5, 1888.

After their marriage, they returned to Monroe. My mother's parents gave the newlyweds a wedding supper and dance, which was the custom at that time. I well remember the top layer of their wedding cake, which was kept for years. I still have the crystal cake stand which held their wedding cake.

Father took his young bride to his own home, where they began 7 happy years. Their house was a 3 room adobe home with a big bay window which was filled with flowers. There was a fire place in the front room. The bed was high and made from nice dark walnut. My mother made the bed tick, which was filled with corn husks. They were better than straw and lasted much longer. I well remember some big square bed shams which my mother had made. There was homemade carpet on the floors, and father bought an organ which my mother was learning to play. Both of my parents sang in the ward choir.

Their first child, Orson Flinn [pictured here at the age of 6] was born Nov. 16, 1889. On Oct. 23, 1891, father was ordained a Seventy by Michael Hansen at Monroe, Utah.

I was born on Mar. 30, 1892 and named Vivian Christina. [Vivian is pictured here at the age of 4.]

Flinn and I [pictured here at about 3 and 1 respectively] were the first grandchildren on my mother's side, and her family made quite a fuss over us. On Oct. 19, 1894 another little girl came to this home. She was named Lavern. My mother didn't have the proper medical care at this birth, as there was not a doctor in Monroe. Complications set in and she died on Oct. 22, 1894. Grandmother Sorenson took the new baby and cared for her for about a year.

In the meantime my father had several housekeepers and relatives who helped with the children. He was able to keep us all at home, and he later told me that he hardly knew what was the best thing to do. Later he decided to remarry in order to provide a mother for his little children. He married Mary Johnson Potts, who had been divorced from her first husband.

They were married in July and in the early fall father brought our baby sister home; however it was only a few months until she contracted whooping cough and measles. As a result of these diseases she died Dec. 14, 1895.

For several years father had a young boy living with them. We knew him as 'Little Joe'. He had run away from his home in Richfield because his father had been so mean to him. He helped father with the chores and was company for my mother while father was away on freighting trips. My father hauled freight to Peoche, Nevada, which was a mining town. This 'Little Joe', who is now an elderly man, told my uncle Nels Sorenson that my father's home was the only real home he had as a child, and that my father and mother were very good to him. He left soon after my father's second marriage.

Hazel was the first child born to father and Mary, on Mar. 26, 1896. (I have never known just why but we were taught to call our stepmother 'Mary' from the very first.) This same year on Oct. 21, 1896, father took his wife and child to the Manti temple to be sealed to him. He also adopted two little girls from Mary's first marriage, and had them sealed to them. The first was Sarah Elizabeth, born and died Oct. 4, 1888. The second child was Myrtle May, born and died on Nov. 14, 1889.

On Oct. 17, 1897 a little boy was born and named August. He died the same day. I well remember the tiny casket and the little baby who looked like he was asleep. On Oct. 2, 1898 Manfred was born.

It was just one year later that our father was called to serve as a missionary in the California mission. I was only 6 and 1/2 years old, but I clearly recall how we all cried and how hard it was for father to leave his family. We all knelt in prayer just before father left for the train. I still have the Missionary blessing given to him by Joseph W. McMurrin on Oct. 10, 1899 when he was set apart for his mission.

Soon after father left, my brother Flinn was sent to live with my mother's brother Abraham Sorenson, and I went to live with my father's mother, Alice Thueson.

Father's letters told of his companions and their experiences in their travels. One companion, Harvey Ross, a fine looking young man who was very particular about his appearance, had a good voice, and he and father were able to attract many people to their street meetings.

Father traveled over most of the state of California and often commented upon what a wonderful and happy 2 years they were. His mission president was Joseph E. Robinson. All missionaries wore prince Albert style coats, and father wore a mustache in his younger years.

While father was gone the farms were rented to maintain him on his mission. He had 1 farm of 25 acres north west of Monroe which was called the old field, and another of 10 acres south and west, called the new field.

During the Christmas holiday season Mary rented a small place down town where she served supper to the holiday dancing crowds. She was a good cook and made a considerable amount of money with this project, which helped out with the finances. As I remember, it cost $20.00 a month for father's mission expenses, but they tracted a lot in the country without purse or script. It was in the fall of 1901 when he was released and returned home. Again we were all reunited as a family and we were so glad to have father with us.

It was long, perhaps a year, when father decided his home was getting too small for his growing family. Harvey was the last child to be born in the old home. He was born Dec. 6, 1902.

In preparing to build another home, father went south of Monroe to a rock quarry and hewed the blocks of rock for the foundation. Then he went to the brick kiln and made the clay bricks and burned or fired them for 3 weeks, as I remember it. After this the bricks were each dipped in a red mineral solution to make them uniform in color. Next he hired a carpenter from Elsinore, who contracted to build the house for $1000 dollars. Our old home was torn down and the adobes were used to line the new house. This new home was almost on the same spot where the old one stood.

While this home was under construction we lived for a while in the summer kitchen and the granery. When fall came along, we moved into some rooms in the Swerine Andreason home. Later we moved into a part of the Art Washburn home, where we stayed until the new house could be occupied.

The new home consisted of 6 rooms. Kitchen, bedroom, living room, pantry and front entrance hall, with a stairway leading to the three upstairs bedrooms, and a front and back porch. The house was of brick to the square with frame gables. It was an attractive home and convenient for those times. There was city water piped to each home and we had an outside hydrant. Before this time there had been no water system and all culinary and irrigation water had to be taken from a small ditch which ran through each street of the town.

This same ditch was also used for watering the animals, which was done 5 times a day. I remember father would get up early to get the days supply of water for drinking before the animals were turned out to drink.

There was no electricity in our town and we used coal oil lamps until I was quite a large girl. Later on the townspeople built a power plant up in the canyon, and I well remember the first night the electricity was turned on for street lights. Soon we had our house wired for electric lights.

Father was always active in church affairs, as well as civic affairs. On Apr. 21, 1904 he was ordained a High Priest by Frances M. Lyman. Monroe had all been one ward until about 1907 or 1908, when it was divided into the North and South wards. And it was at this time father was put in as first counselor to the new Bishop, Heber Swindle of the South Ward. Later on father acted as Bishop while Bishop Swindle fulfilled a 2 year mission.

In civic affairs father acted as justice of the peace for a number of years, and helped in many ways to develop the otter creek reservoir and build the south bend canal, which provided water for the south fields. Father was a successful farmer and we children grew up helping in whatever way we could. We thinned and hoed beets, tromped hay, helped to load grain and did many other chores around home. On trips to and from the farms father taught us to sing, and we learned many songs and were able to harmonize while still quite young. Father had a nice tenor voice.

One time while father was justice of the peace a man by the name of Mart Madsen was taking the Keeley cure for alcoholism and he thought someone was after him. He jumped from a second story hotel window and ran to our home for safety. At this time the family were all sleeping upstairs. When he got to the back door and found it locked he broke it down and was on his way up stairs when father got down there. He pleaded with father to leave the lights off as this imaginary person was going to kill him. Father really wondered if some one was after him as he could feel blood on his hands. He took him in a back room and told him he would be safe there. Then he turned on a light to see where he was hurt. He had cut his hands when he jumped through the hotel window. In a few minutes the man called out "There he is, by that chair! He's after me!" Only then did father realize it was all a terrible nightmare to the man. This affair put our whole family in a nervous state for quite a while.

At harvest time father used to work on the threshing machine and one time he got his jumper sleeve caught in the machinery. It was drawing him into the machine when one of the men by the name of Webb grabbed him and pulled him back. He held father, but all his clothes were torn off and he got quite a long cut on his back. This man saved his life.

On Sept. 9, 1908 Madge was born. She was the only one of father's children to be born in the new home.

It was at April General Conference time in the spring of 1909 when father was on his way home from Conference that he decided to stop off in Springville, Utah to look up his father's grave. He found the grave in the old cemetary and looking around town he was quite impressed. In fact, he was so impressed that he looked at some farms and thought he would like to live there.

When he got home he told us that he had decided to move to Springville. We were all quite upset and the townspeople were shocked. Father put his farms and home up for sale. Heber Swindle bought the home and I believe C. A. Winget got part of the south field. My brother Flinn, now about grown had helped clear much of the south field and wanted to buy 20 acres of father's land. It was agreed to let him have 20 acres, making a payment each year until it was paid, which he did. Flinn didn't want to leave Monroe. This was a sad time for me too...leaving my brother and all my friends that I had grown up with.

I shall never forget the morning we were ready to go....the good byes... And what a procession we made! Hazel and I had thought it would be fun to camp out, help cook the meals, milk the cows, and whatever else needed to be done. Manfred rode horseback, driving the cows ahead of the wagon. The wagon was piled high with furniture and father was driving. Our black topped buggy was trailing the wagon and Hazel and I were riding in the buggy. It was 125 miles from Monroe to Springville and it took us 5 days to make the trip. The camping out proved to be no fun, as we had to camp where there was feed and water for the animals, and the mosquitos nearly ate us alive.

We used what milk we could and each evening we had fresh churned butter in the milk can. The first night out we slept on the ground, but during the night I felt something running over our bed and we wouldn't sleep on the ground again. Father took a sanitary cot off the wagon for Hazel and I to sleep on each night. By the time we reached Springville my face was so swollen I could hardly see out of my eyes.

This move to Springville proved to be quite a hardship on father. Land was so much more expensive, my brother wasn't there to help with the farm work, and the family was growing up and required more as the years went on.

We arrived in Springville in May and moved into quite a nice home in the 4th ward. This home was smaller in every way that what we had left. The yard and garden spot were small. The barn and correls were smaller, too. However, we did have a flowing well for our little garden and some nice flowers.

Father bought a farm on the south east outskirts of town. It was a much smaller farm but the land was good. He raised grain, peas; sugar beets and alfalfa on this farm.

As fall came on there was a terrible epedemic of small pox in Springville. One day Hazel came home from school quite sick and burning up with fever. The doctor thought maybe she had typhoid fever and treated her for that. She was sick about a week or more and seemed to get no better, as they were giving her cold baths to keep down the fever. One night she began to perspire and by morning she started to break out with small pox. Our whole family was exposed and none of us had been vaccinated. It wasn't too long until the rest of the family were down with small pox all at once. Father was so sick I really was afraid he was going to die, but when he broke out you could scarcely put a pin head between the pox on his face. The rest were all sick; but not so bad, I felt miserable for a time but was able to stay up and help wait on the rest of the family. Hazel was getting over it, and we two had to do the chores and care for the family.

As we were new in the community and had not run a grocery bill, we had to pay for our groceries when delivered by putting the money on the gate post and then pouring boiling water over it to disinfect it. Soon the disease was so bad all over town that they wouldn't take money for fear it would infest others, so we had to run a bill for while. I know we had never had to do this to provide for our daily needs.

I think it was about 1 and 1/2 years after we first came to Springville that father traded our home for one near his farm. We were then in the 1st Ward. This home wasn't as nice as the first one, but was convenient for father and had much more room for animals, garden and orchard. The rooms of the house were large and what had been a long kitchen was divided into two small bedrooms and the back porch was made into a kitchen.

Father was continually active in church affairs and tried to teach his children never to turn down a position when asked to work. He always paid his tithing, even though at times he had to borrow money from the bank to do so. There were times when the harvest was all in and bills paid and there was little to go on. He always felt he was blessed by living his religion and his church work came first.

When the flu was so bad in 1918 and so many, people were dying, father never hesitated to go to administer to the sick when called upon, or to comfort those in mourning. He said he had never contracted a contagious disease by going to administer to the sick.

When his family was down with the flu he didn't get it that year. He hired a nurse to help care for them. We older girls were married at that time and had homes of our own. Father was always kind and loving and was always the first one there if any of his children had sickness in their homes.

At one time one of father's neighbors had taken irrigation water out of turn and father went after him about it, which made the man very angry. Not long after this incident the same man had his barn burn down, and father wrote him a check for $75.00 to help rebuild it, when his own family could have used the money for their needs.

During his life time father was always interested in politics and served on the town council and in other civic positions, but he often said he would have liked to be a good lawyer. He was held back from many positions due to his meager education. I believe he served 15 years as justice of the peace in Monroe and Springville. In later years he acted as appraisor of land in and around Springville, along with George Harrison.

When the Springville first ward was being rebuilt father was chosen as the building chairman. Here he put in many months work. At one time he was so interested in the planning and all that he walked all the way home before he realized that he had left his bicycle at the church.

He belonged to the high council of Kolob Stake and this group met each Sunday morning for a prayer circle held in a small room in the church. He was adult class leader in Sunday school for many years. He was very interested in genealogy and did much to get the Hutchinson group organized and the temple work started. I know he hired a trained geneologist for some time to prepare the sheets for ordinance work.

Marie and Dean were the children born in Springville. There were 8 children who grew to be adults, 7 of whom are still living. Our brother Flinn died from a heart condition in 1948. Father wasn't very well during the last years of his life. He had shingles and then ulcers of the stomach. At this time, he lived on a diet of cream and milk with raw eggs whipped in. He seemed to be so much better and was able to eat solid food again after a while, and do his work about the farm.

On Oct. 30, 1950 he got up and did his chores as usual. Then he took the cows to the pasture on his farm. When he arrived he didn't feel very good and told a daughter-in-law that he wouldn't be able to milk their cow that morning. My brother was away working, and father had been doing the milking. He rested a few minutes and another brother who had wanted to see father about something came up to the farm and talked to him. Father told him he didn't feel good. My brother wanted to take father to the doctor, but it was so near time for him to go on to work that father told him to go and that if he didn't feel better soon he would go to the doctor.

Manfred brought father down from the farm and let him out of the car. He walked to the house and almost immediately a terrible pain struck him in the arm and traveled to his heart. Mary got the doctor, but he couldn't help him. His last words were "I can't stand a pain like this very long.", and he passed away.

None of the children were at home at the time. Dean, the youngest boy, had gone to school. It was a terrible shock to all of us but father had set a wonderful example for his children to follow. He was kind and loving and always tried to help his children in any way he could.

I believe his was the first funeral held in the ward he had worked so hard to build. We shall always remember him. At his funeral one of the speakers said to us children that we would have to live very good lives if we expected to go where out father would be.

I am sure that we are all grateful to have had such a fine father.

This photo was taken in 1910.

Front Row (left to right): Mary, Marie, Harvey, Manfred, Madge and Father

Back Row (standing): Hazel, Flinn and Vivian

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Last Updated 27 April 2011