About 1860, father traded for a farm on Rock Creek and we moved on to it. We helped Dudley's get a sawmill started... This winter I went to school to James Dudley at the Walnut Grove School house. I got well acquainted with the young folks of which there was Thomas, Milton and Mary Catherine for whom I formed an attachment and within a year we was engaged. ... In the fall Robert Dudley, C. Smalley and myself went to Cedar Rapids and bought a Canton Sweepstaker thrashing machine and we thrashed all the grain grown on the west side of the River and along Rock Creek from about 1 mile below where the creek goes into the Cedar to the upper grave on mires or Lovejoys as it was called taking till near the spring. ... this spring I put in quite a crop then F. Dudley and I built a school house to be called the Dudley Schoolhouse.

In 1866, when I got to Thomas Conley's (returning from service in Civil War) I stopped and was invited to stay for dinner, while eating, Thomas Dudley came, he had been to Watertown to meet me, he had my trunk on his cutter so I went home with him. I built a house for James Conner and broke 20 acres of my land and some for Tom and Milt Dudley. Sam Skinner and I commenced my building and quarried some rock, dug a cellar and built a wall. Mary Catherine Dudley and I was married by Professor Bush in Osage the last of December 1866. We moved into our house, this was seven years after we was engaged. ... I had no team, Robert Dudley let me use his team some. ... (1869) I now rented my 40 acres to Sam Skinner and went in with Wm. and Milt Dudley. We build a gristmill on the old sawmill site at Dudleysville.

About this time (1870) I traded my ¬ interest in the mill to Will Dudley for 80 acres of land in Worth County northeast of Northwood about four miles. Sam Skinner and I went off to find some Government land. We took homesteads in Martin County, Minn. about ten miles east of Jackson. (Spring 1870) then son and I took our 4 mules and went to our homesteads to do some brakerey. Sam built him a sod house while I broke. The next spring I was down with rheumatism and hired Sam's boy to do my braking in June.

June 6, 1939,
FLOYD COUNTY'S LAST VETERAN OF CIVIL WAR TO BE 101 YEARS OLD WEDNESDAY.
Nora Springs Man Descendant of Founder of Rhode Island Colony.

Nora Springs, Ia. -- Eli Hutchinson, Nora Springs last surviving Civil War veteran of Floyd County, will be 101 years old Wednesday. He is Nora Springs oldest resident. Born in St. Lawrence county, New York, in June 1838, he began the trek westward with his family when he was 17, crossing the Mississippi at Dubuque and ending the journey at Cedar Rapids in 1854.

The elder Hutchinson was a carpenter and the son took the trade of his father. But a carpenter in 1855 was not so specialized as he is today. He had to handle all wood cutting tools. Mr. Hutchinson could build a log cabin, a saw mill and even a grist mill was not beyond him.

Frontier His Teacher.

The frontier was a great educator. The broadax, the drawshave and the plane did, laboriously, what is now bought ready made.

The Hutchinsons began to move out to the frontier and up the country along the Cedar river until they came to Mitchell county in 1856, which was a beautiful country with plenty of timber and small streams. The lands were peopled by many citizens from New York and New England.

Mr. Hutchinson is a direct descendant of Anne Hutchinson, the religious leader who founded Rhode Island colony in 1638. She was later killed in a massacre near Stamford, Conn. Enlists In 1863.

By the time Eli had reached manhood the agitation about slavery was on and he enlisted in 1863, serving two years. Home again and at the carpenter trade, he put a mill at Rock Creek and afterwards built a schoolhouse, still called the Dudley schoolhouse. This school was later taught by Miss Mary Dudley, who some years later, in 1866, became Mrs. Eli M. Hutchinson.

Then he essayed farming and bought a piece of raw prairie and turned over the original sod and seeded it to wheat as all farmers did. But he reverted to carpenter work.

Gets Rural Route.

About 1900 the rural delivery of mail came along and climbing buildings and working on scaffolds was getting a little strenuous for a man over 70, so Mr. Hutchinson applied for and got a rural mail route. He drove a team of broncos of clay color for many years, and it was an awful day and frightful roads, if Eli did not make the round.

In the coldest weather he carried a lighted lantern between his feet and covered up with a robe to keep himself warm. The automobile came after his delivery days, but he drove a car for years, even on long trips out to Dakota when he was about 90. He can read without spectacles, but is a little deaf. He has been a member of the Christian church of Nora Springs for many years and is often referred to as Elder Hutchinson. His wife died two and a half years ago at 93 years of age.

Locate on Farm.

Asked what he would do if he were living his life again he said: "I'd locate on a farm. I'd keep out of debt as much as possible. I would not spend any money on liquor or tobacco. I would mix with people to keep myself young if possible. If I had a young family to raise, I'd want the moving pictures better censored than they are now. I'd try to be of use to the community in which I lived."

Mr. Hutchinson has five living children, Mrs. H. S. Morphew, with whom he now lives, Mrs. L. H. Bishop, Rudd; Mrs. L. E. Hyatt, Swink, Colo.; Mrs. A. D. Hostettler, Dunseith, N. D.; and Dr. F. M. Hutchinson, Tiskilwa, Ill.

One daughter, Mrs. Harriet Steer, of Maxbas, North Dakota died in 1912.

ELI HUTCHINSON, NORA SPRINGS,
IS DEAD AT AGE 102.
Enlisted for Civil War In Osage;
23 Years Old When War Began.

Mrs. M. M. Blandin, of Orchard, received word that her uncle, Eli Hutchinson, died at his home in Nora Springs Tuesday evening, where his daughter had been taking care of him. He would have been 102 years old had he lived until the 7th of June, 1940.

Enlisted at 23 for Civil War

Mr. Hutchinson was born in upper New York state June 7, 1838, and came to North Iowa in 1854. He was 23 years old when the Civil war began and he enlisted at Osage to see action at Vicksburg, Pleasant Hill, the Red River Valley campaign and several other outstanding engagements.

After leaving the army when he was mustered out at Davenport in December, 1865, Mr. Hutchinson did some farming, later turning to carpentry for a trade. Many of the homes in Nora Springs were built or partly built by him.

He built a mill at Rock Creek and later built a schoolhouse. The school was later taught by Miss Mary Dudley, who in 1866 became Mr. Hutchinson's wife.

An Early Mail Carrier

About 1900, the rural delivery of mail came along and, although he was 70 years old, he got a route. He drove a team of broncos of clay color for many years.

In later years, the old gentleman drove a Ford car. He drove the car for several years, even taking long trips to Dakota when he was about 90 years old. However, there came a time when he began to doubt his ability to manage the ancient Ford, and he gave it away. He had been a member of the Christian church of Nora Springs for several years as was often referred to as Elder Hutchinson.

Mrs. Hutchinson died two and a half years ago at the age of 93.

Funeral service for Mr. Hutchinson is being held this afternoon (Thursday) at Christian church, Nora Springs.

From The Baptist Church Records of Rev. Dan Reagen
(probably written in the 1920's):

Eli Merritt Hutchinson ...was reared on a farm and educated in the country schools. he came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1854 (age 16), and to Mitchell County in 1855, where farmed near the Floyd Co. line until 1873. He built a mill on Rock Creek in 1867. He came to this township in 1873 (Rock Grove Township); owns 160 acres for fine land, besides timber....He served one year and a half in Company K, twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry and eight months in Twelfth Iowa Infantry; was in the battle of Fort De Rossa, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana; Old Oak and Others; was ninety days under fire at Pleasant Hill..."

A BOOK BY CLARK MORPHEW
(great grandson of Eli)

If you're a student of the Civil War or if you simply have an interest in American history, the book Never Repulsed - Never Defeated should be in your personal library. It's the story of one man's pilgrimage through three years of fighting in Louisiana and Alabama during the War Between the States.

These are the battles that time forgot - obscure conflicts that happened during the days when Grant and Lee were fighting for control of the war in Pennsylvania and Virginia. For the most part historians have concentrated on the great battle of Gettysburg, the siege of Petersburg and the infamous march to the sea that devastated Georgia and much of South Carolina. But now the battles of Fort De Russey, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Nashville, and Fort Blakely are documented for all time.

There is more to this book than war to interest the true historian. The main character of the book is Eli M. Hutchinson, an Iowa farmer and carpenter who volunteered for the war in 1863 and served until 1866.

Eli M. Hutchinson

During the 1850's Hutchinson and his family migrated from northern New York to northern Iowa, settled in Mitchell County, established farms and built houses and buildings across the expanding frontier. Even though Eli's officers sent him home in 1863 to recover from heat exhaustion and a possible malarial infection, he returned to the 6th Army Corps in 1864, traveling more than a thousand miles by foot and favor to complete his tour of duty and fulfill his promises to the government and his fellow man. Eli Hutchinson lived to be 101 years old.

Hutchinson At 101 Years Of Age

Hutchinson was once bedridden in Adams Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee. For seventeen days he was unable to eat. Then suddenly, a concerned nurse and a pickle rejuvenated his desire for food. The following quote from Never Repulsed - Never Defeated reveals how Eli recalled those days. "To get rid of her I told her to get me a pickle. She said the Dr. would not allow it, so every time she asked me I would say pickle. At last she fetched me one and I ate it and after that I had more appetite than they would give me victuals to appease.''

Hutchinson's comrades were rough men, unsophisticated and accustomed to few luxuries. Only Hutchinson was able to sign his name on the regiment roster. The rest signed with an X. But these Iowa soldiers quickly adjusted to military life and the daily marching and fighting. Among them were committed soldiers who believed in the epic struggle before them. After the war these men returned to their homes prepared to build a new and better world.

Hutchinson's officers distinguished themselves not only in battle but also as businessmen, civic leaders and men of letters.