Go West, Young Man, All the Way From Worcester

On May 25, 1885 ten men from Worcester joined sixty-six others from central Vermont headed out west by train to seek a new beginning by founding a colony in the Dakota Territory. There has always existed a desire among Americans of any era to seek a better life, a greener pasture, and most often the eyes of the seeker turned westward. Worcester resident and Civil War veteran, L. M. Hutchinson, (who lived with his wife and three children in the Cliff Mullen place) became a leading advocate of the endeavor. He served as a member of the “Vermont colony” location committee which had earlier selected a section of land in Edmunds County, not far from present day Ipswich, South Dakota. Those men from Worcester who were aboard the first train to the new settlement were L. M. Hutchinson, Saul Cameron, Henry Hunt, Eugene Templeton, J. W. Brown, Frank King, George Lovell, Harvey Willey and son, and Will Ward.

The Vermont Watchman published reports from Hutchinson who appeared to be acting as the general agent, recruiting new settlers from Vermont.

We arrived at Loyalton May 31, with nothing but shelter tents to protect us from the storm. Some of the younger portion of the colony thought it a little rough, but the old soldiers could put up with it and smile. The weather was rather against us, for it was very rainy and wet nearly all of the week; but, notwithstanding the weather, the boys took hold with a will and began erecting homes on their claims and breaking the vast prairie. The most of them have broken up two or three acres of land and put in some potatoes and vegetables for winter use. You will see by the heading of my letter that the town is named Loyalton, which, I think, is very appropriate; the colony being composed mostly of old soldiers. The members of the colony are well pleased with the location. A very few have returned to Vermont, as might be expected from the number that came out, the colony numbering seventy-seven. We have started a town – have one store built, twenty-two by thirty-two feet, and another is ready to put up. Two other buildings have been put up, one being a stable, and several more dwellings will be erected this summer. It begins to look like business here, and I cannot see why the colony will not be a success.  Crops are looking finely in the territory. Rain has been abundant and everything seems promising. Our town is twenty miles from Ipswich, the terminus of one branch of the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, eleven miles from Roscoe, with a railway survey right through town and a good surrounding country to back it up. The climate is very healthy, the atmosphere being bracing. All of the members of the colony are well. We held religious services today, there being some thirty-seven out to church. We now hold our meetings in a store, but the sturdy Vermonters will soon erect churches and school houses.

Hutchinson returned to Worcester from the new settlement in July but was ready to take another group out in early November. He reports the colony well satisfied with their location and doing well. His report was very encouraging:

When we arrived at Loyalton, I was surprised to see the progress that the colony had made during my absence. Most of them have raised vegetables enough for their use. Crops were fine, wheat averaging twenty-nine bushels to the acre and oats from fifty to sixty bushels on greensward. All of the colony are in fine spirits and well satisfied with the country, notwithstanding the weather has been unfavorable. The following is a list of the party from Worcester: L. M. Hutchinson, wife and three children, D. G. K. Hunt, Frank T. Hutchinson, Harry D. Hutchinson, and M. Templeton and wife. The colony has voted to bond the town to build a school-house, and are making preparations to put up a two story structuring this fall. There are already over thirty scholars in town.

In spite of the  good beginning, the village of Loyalton was too distant and the weather too severe for long-term success. The last report from Hutchinson followed the historical blizzard of January 12, 1888, when an unexpected storm swept across the prairies and claimed 235 lives, most of them children.

The storm struck us about nine o’clock A.M. and it was one of the most severe storms that I have ever experienced. A person could not see objects ten feet away. The air was completely filled with snow, which was perfectly blinding. It was not safe for anyone to go ten feet from their dwelling. It was fortunate for us that it struck so early in the day, as our people had not left their homes. Edmunds county was very fortunate, for but one man was frozen to death in this county. The death rate has been greatly exaggerated in the East. The southern portion of the territory suffered a great deal more than the middle and northern portions, as the storm struck them later in the day. A great many lost their lives by carelessness. There were no lives lost here. The Colony is prospering and the people have comfortable homes to live in. The weather has been fine since the blizzard and the snow is pretty much off of the prairies, with the exception of some drifts. For the last ten days we have had warm, pleasant days like April weather in Vermont, and it makes us think of spring, although we expect to see more cold weather. Our winters here are shorter by far than they are East. Next month we shall be preparing our ground for wheat. We have a population here of some two hundred. We have two mails per day – one east and one south. Our township is the best settled township in Edmunds county, and we have plenty to eat and drink. Provisions are not so high here as they are East. Probably more vegetables were lost here last fall by being frost-bitten than were raised in Vermont. I see by eastern papers that people think that we are suffering for the comforts of life, but such is not the fact, for Dakota has plenty and a good deal to spare.

There is no indication how the colony faired after this report, but by 1900 the village of Loyalton was a ghost town. Droughts, prairie fires, blizzards, illnesses and hardships overcame the Vermonters and most returned home. Interestingly enough, you will find the place identified on a current map of South Dakota. As for L. M. Hutchinson, at some point he returned to Worcester where he died January 16, 1910, and is buried in the Village Cemetery.