Children:
William Marion Hutchison
James Madison Hutchison
George Washington Hutchison
Grizelda Almeda Hutchison
Sarah Elizabeth Hutchison
Benjamin Isaac Hutchison
Obediah Houston Hutchison
Samuel Tison Hutchison
Alfred C. Hutchison
Sebastian Hutchison

Elizabeth Ballard Hutchison Hudson
Contributed By Donna June McCloud · Feb 18, 2014, 6:49 PM ·0 Comments

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My work in family history and genealogy started when I was born, and my mother had her mother and aunt fill in the pedigree chart in my baby book. When I was in Primary, we had pedigree charts to fill in. I always asked who each one was and wanted to know about them.

I was 14 in 1958 when Olive Hutchison, my grandfather’s aunt, the youngest and last surviving of the children of William and Almira (Hudson) Hutchison died. My mother, along with her father and sister, went to Los Angeles for the funeral services. When my mother came home, she had hand-copied pages of family history. She said that others were also there writing as much as they could. I do not know who made the original records, only that they were old, and from the house where Elizabeth Ballard Hutchison, Almira Hudson Hutchison, and Olive Hutchison had lived. She said that she could not copy anything near what she wanted to because they had to leave, but that there were stories of the Civil War, and stories about when the family came to California from Texas. She also brought a quilt that had been made at the time of the Revolutionary War. What happened to all the original records, I do not know. Later, Aunt Nita, my grandfather’s sister-in-law/cousin, Anita Wilson, daughter of Alice Hutchison and granddaughter to William Marion and Almira Hutchison, sent papers she had copied along with stories she could remember.

Through the years as I have looked at the names and pictures, found information, visited the Little Lake Cemetery in 1962, and had other experiences, I have often wondered if I could go back in time and visit one person, who would it be? The more thoughts and questions I have, the more I know that the person I would like to talk with would be Elizabeth Ballard.

Elizabeth Ballard Hutchison Hudson crossed this country from ocean to ocean. She was born in North Carolina on December 7, 1808, and died in Los Angeles County, California (probably in Downey) in 1903 at the age of 94. I know nothing of her early years until she married Samuel W. Hutchison on February 28, 1829, in Roane, Tennessee. Samuel was born in North Carolina in 1805. Samuel and Elizabeth were young, about 20 and 22 years old. They lived in a young country with new lands opening up for settlements. They both could have heard parents and grandparents talk about the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. They knew of and respected the great founders and leaders of this country because two of their sons were named after U. S. Presidents.

When they were married, Tennessee had only been a state for 33 years, and Davy Crocket was in Congress. They were in Tennessee when their first son, William Marion, was born, just in time to be counted on the 1830 Census. Their next two sons were named after U. S. Presidents, James Madison and George Washington. Finally after three sons, a daughter was born, Grizilda Almeda. Almeda needed a sister, so another daughter was born, Sarah Elizabeth, named, of course, in family tradition after her mother and her mother’s sister. When the next two sons, Benjamin Isaac and Obediah Houston were born, the family was living in Alabama. The boys were each named after brothers of each of their parents.

On the 1840 U. S. Census in Madison, Alabama, the whole family is accounted for except one male between the ages of five to nine. James Madison, who would have been nine was not marked. He was also not listed by name on the 1850 U. S. Census with the others. He must have died between the time of his birth in 1831 and the taking of the 1840 U. S. Census. In the next three years, three more sons were born: Samuel Tison, Alfred C., and Sebastian. All were born in Alabama. Elizabeth must have been an extraordinary young woman to be 35 years old with nine children between the ages of newborn to thirteen. She had no electricity, no washer or dryer, no electric stove, no refrigerator, no lights, no electricity for heating or cooling. She had no running water for showers, bath, or dishes nor was there an indoor bathroom. These were hard times. Who did she have for help? Did she have family close by or only Benjamin, one of Samuel’s brothers, listed on the 1840 Census with his family, a wife, and four little girls. In the early 1840’s Alabama banks were in trouble. Many people lost their savings. They were in a drought and crops were ruined. Then the people suffered and died from several epidemics of yellow fever caused by mosquitoes. The year 1844 ended with much grief. On the sixth day of October, Samuel W. Hutchison died leaving Elizabeth and the children alone. Twelve days later on the 18th of October, eleven-year-old Grizilda Almeda died. Again only forty-three days later the nine-year-old daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, died on the 29th of November. The playful laughter and giggles of the girls, their helping hands to their mother with the younger brothers, all gone. Elizabeth had no husband to console her. How quiet and sad the home must have been. I’m sure the boys loved and missed their sisters because in later years they each named their daughters after their sisters. Not only did Samuel’s family suffer losses of children in 1844, but his brother, Benjamin, also suffered the deaths of two young children, a girl and a baby boy. I wonder if they were still living close together, or did it just happen this way? I do not know if they were still living in Alabama as that is where the last boys were born. I wonder if the deaths were due to the yellow fever epidemic?

Six years later in 1850, Elizabeth Hutchison and her sons were no longer in Alabama, but are listed on the 1850 U. S. Census in South Fork, Clark, Arkansas. They were living next to the William Hudson family, his wife Nancy and their children. On the 28th of August 1851, son William Marion Hutchison and Almira Hudson (the girl next door) were married. Elizabeth Hutchison became a grandmother a year later when William Ashley Hutchison was born to William Marion and Almira. Martha Jane Hutchison was born on her mother, Almira’s birthday, September 22, 1853. Another granddaughter was born named Nancy Elizabeth – named after both of her grandmothers. The year of 1856 was again a year of sadness. Nancy (Richardson) Hudson, mother of Almira, died. This left Almira’s father, William Hudson with two teenage daughters and a five-year-old.

Sometime in 1855 or 1856, William and Almira Hutchison moved to Texas where another son, patriotically named Thomas Jefferson, was born. In Arkansas on August 7, 1857, William Hudson and Elizabeth Ballard Hutchison got married. This meant that Almira’s father married Almira’s husband’s mother. So now Almira was Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law as well as her step-daughter! The Hudson and Hutchison families joined other Arkansas families moving to Texas. Elizabeth and William Hudson went to Texas in 1866. New worries and hardships were on the way when in April of 1861 the Civil War began. Both families had sons, son-in-laws, and others who were Texas Rangers and soldiers. After the war was over, life would never be the same. Loved ones had died and people were leaving Texas. In May of 1865, Elizabeth’s son, William Marion Hutchison, and his wife and children moved to California. William’s younger brother, George Washington Hutchison, must have joined them also as he is listed on the 1870 U. S. Census living in Los Nietos, Los Angeles, California. I wonder if Elizabeth ever saw William again because he died in 1876 in Gallitin (now Downey), Los Angeles, California.

From this time on almost every year for the rest of Elizabeth’s life a grandchild or great-grandchild was born, sometimes both. When the 1880 Census was taken, Elizabeth, now 72, and William Hudson, 82, were living in Hill County, Texas. Two houses away was her son O. H. (Obediah) Hutchison and his family. His wife Mary was the youngest daughter of Nancy (Richardson) and William Hudson, she was about four or five when her mother died. Mary was raised by William and Elizabeth. So like with Almira, Elizabeth was both Step-mother and mother-in-law to Mary Minerva Hudson Hutchison (I wonder how it would be to raise your own daughter-in-law?) Elizabeth enjoyed her grandchildren living close to her. The year 1881 brought another time of grief when Elizabeth’s son Obediah died in Prairie Valley, Hill, Texas. Then in 1882, Elizabeth’s second husband, William Hudson, died in Hill County, Texas. Sometime after this, Elizabeth moved to California where she lived with her daughter-in-law/step-daughter Almira Hudson Hutchison, and Almira's children. On February 4, 1900, Elizabeth had a picture taken with Almira, her grandchildren, and great grandchildren. The occasion was the 25th Wedding Anniversary of her grand-daughter, Nancy Elizabeth Hutchison Grider. In the 1900 U. S. Census, Elizabeth was living with Almira and her children William, Tom, and Ollie Hutchison (all three never married). Elizabeth was 92 years old, the mother of 10 children and 1 living. Elizabeth Ballard Hutchison Hudson died in 1903. She crossed this country from North Carolina to California. She had many hardships including the time of many deaths and war. She must have been a very strong woman. She is buried in the Little Lake Cemetery along with her son, William Marion Hutchison, his wife Almira, and many of their children.”

Written by June Stokes McCloud, great-great-great granddaughter of Elizabeth Ballard