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HISTORY OF THE HUTTO COMMUNITY
A special thanks to Mike Fowler for letting WCHM
post
this first person story - from
the book.
"A Century of Community Faith - Hutto
Lutheran Church: 1892 to 1992"
Prior to Hutto being settled, the first two stores in Williamson County were
located on Brushy Creek in the Shiloh and Rice's Crossing communities, just
southeast of present day Hutto. Many of Hutto's early settlers came from that
area.
Historically, Hutto was not really established until 1876 when the International
& Great Northern Railroad passed through land owned by one James Emory Hutto and
the fledgling town was named for him. The railroad officials designated the stop
Hutto Station and the town of Hutto was born. James Hutto was born in Alabama on
June 8, 1824, he came to Texas in 1847 and moved his family into Williamson
County in 1855. It was in 1876 that Hutto sold fifty acres to the Texas Land
Company of New York for a townsite and railroad right of way. Cheap prison labor
was used to build the railroad tracks under the Texas prison lease system that
was in effect at that time. Hutto had became a wealthy cattleman in Williamson
County; however, in 1885 he left Hutto and moved to Waco and entered the
hardware business. No direct descendants of the Hutto family live here today. A
freed slave, Adam Orgain, was probably the first settler in the immediate
vicinity and had homesteaded earlier on 1854. Indians still abounded in the
area. Other early settlers in the area were the Carpenter, Davis, Evans, Farley,
Goodwin, Highsmith, Johnson, Magle, Payne, Saul, Weight, Womack, and Wright
families. Other people living in Hutto during the 1890s included the the Bub
Arrnstrongs, the Dahlbergs, M.B. Kennedy, the Hugh Kimbro family, William
McCutcheon, Green Randolph, J.B. Ross, and the Tisdales. Soon a great many more
people, primarily Swedish and German immigrants came to this area to farm and
ranch and begin new lives in America.
A depot was built in 1877 with W.H. Farley, Sr. as the railroad agent and the
business area of Hutto was originally located on the south side of the railroad
tracks. When Mr. Farley retired, he was succeeded by his son, W.H. Farley, Jr.
In 1900, Mrs. W.H. Farley, Jr. was successful in securing funds to build a new
depot, which served Hutto until it burned down in 1945. At that time a new depot
was built and has since been removed.
The first store owner for the south side business center was Mr. Lloyd, followed
by Davis, Blanton, Hudson and Robinson who built various kinds of stores. Sam
Monday operated Hutto's first saloon and Mr. Scott later owned a similar
business.
On June 19, 1886 a severe storm hit the small town and wiped out the south side
business district including the first school (built in 1882) and the Baptist
Church (built in 1883).
It was not until 1890 that a real rebuilding effort took place, this time on the
north side of the railroad tracks, and by 1892 two rows of store buildings
surrounded East Street, the new main street of downtown Hutto. During the early
1890s as Hutto prospered and grew due to the fertile blackland soil that
permitted tremendous cotton production on the surrounding farms; establishment
of cotton gins and community activity abounded. The soil in the Hutto vicinity
was described as "mainly a deep, dark hog-wallow," which grew excellent crops.
One of the earliest gins was owned by a Mr. Brown and a Mr. Aten about 1890; Mr.
Cato owned another gin, John R. Hutto and John Flinn owned a gin together and
Mr. Holman and Mr. Short built their gin soon after these other gins were
established. Saturdays were an extremely active time in downtown Hutto with
people and horse drawn vehicles everywhere. The comment was made by an observant
citizen that; "No one had better get in a hurry in Hutto on a Saturday because
you just couldn't move fast through all the crowd in town. It was reported that
a merchant once took in $5,000 on a Saturday in his Hutto store.
On
July 21,1894 a tornado destroyed the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Hutto (built in 1892) and other structures.
PHOTOGRAPH OF DOWNTOWN HUTTO IN EARLY 1890s:
Saturday shopping on Main Street (later named East Street) was, as previously
described, a very busy activity in the early days of Hutto. Look at the number
of business establishments at this time.
By
1898 thanks to the industry of its people and its strong agricultural base, the
town of Hutto was bustling and had grown to support six churches, one school,
one photography gallery, one confectionery store, one hotel, two drug stores,
seven dry good stores, one bank, one tailor shop, one shoe shop, four
blacksmiths, eight grocery stores including one meat market, one livery stable,
one millinery shop, one lumber yard, one newspaper, two hardware stores, two
cotton gins, one grist mill and five doctors. The first bank was a private
institution owned by Woolsey and Carpenter, It was later bought by E.P. Wilborn
and became the Farmer and Merchants State Bank. Later the Hutto National Bank
was established and the Hutto community had two banks. Harry Mauritz, a member
of Hutto Lutheran Church, was a banker at this time. Early business enterprises
were Hutto Hardware owned by J.T. McCutcheon and W.E. Chapman; Oatts and
Christian Hardware; Jim Holman, Will May and Carl Hanson furniture store; Bland
and Will Harrison dry goods and grocery store; Will Tompkins and Frank Dahlberg
general merchandise store; J.P. Saul, Sr. general store; and Neils Larsen
blacksmith shop. The doctors in Hutto in the 1890s included Drs. Percy, Harper,
Nowlin, Howze and McCowan. An earlier practitioner in Hutto had been Dr. Flinn.
There was also a dentist in the 1890s named George Bruce. In 1902 a fire
destroyed almost all of the east side the businesses on East Street in the
downtown area.
AFTERMATH OF THE FIRE IN 1902: This fire
decimated much of the business of downtown Hutto as the north half of the east
side on Main Street was destroyed. The fire started when a gasoline stove
exploded in the Jackson Restaurant.
Later in Hutto history there were interesting enterprises such as the Good Luck
Potato Chip Company, a funeral parlor, the Hutto Bottling Company, an outdoor
theater, and a variety of both everyday and unusual businesses. At the turn of
the century, one of the young Juvenal men of Swedish heritage who lived in the
Hutto area became a professional boxer, he changed his name to Billy Ryan and
became the world light heavy weight boxing champion.
On July 17, 1911 the town was officially incorporated and W.D. Holman, a member
of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church, served as the first mayor of the
City of Hutto. Another Swede, Charles E. Hanstrom, Sr. played an extremely vital
role in the development of early Hutto. Hutto might not have incorporated had
Hanstrom, along with J.D. Tinning, not installed the Hanstrom & Tinning Water
Works in 1910 through his purchase of a drilling rig with which he drilled the
first deep water well in our town. This was a phenomenal year for Charles
Hanstrom, for in 1910 he also built the first power plant for Hutto installing
wires and poles and placing wiring in homes, additionally he started the first
ice factory for our community and was also partners with Mr. Tinning in a cotton
gin. It was this same James D. Tinning that had invented a better cotton planter
in 1897 for which he received patent No. 591,613 from the United States Patent
Office.
HUTTO AS A COTTON COMMUNITY: This photograph of the Hanstrom and
Tinning Gin owned by James D. Tinning and Charles E. Hanstrorn, Sr. shows cotton
bales in the wagon and on the dock. Cotton is still a primary cash crop in the
Hutto community and Williamson County.
In
spite of World War I , the City of Hutto and surrounding community had a bright
future-cotton was still king- until 1929 and the collapse of the stock market. A
long, hard depression had begun. The two banks at that time; Farmers and
Merchants State Bank and Hutto National Bank, both closed during the Great
Depression as did most of the other businesses in the city. Hutto, as a town and
community, never fully recovered from this and struggled to the outbreak of and
through World War II.
On
November 23, 1953 the Hutto Lions Club was chartered and Mr. Noel Grisham served
as its first president. Charter members that are still active in the club are
Anton Franzen, Charles Hanstrom, Edmund Schmidt and Hugh Davenport. Numerous
members of Hutto Lutheran Church have been Lions in Hutto since its beginnings.
In 1938 the Hutto Cooperative Gin Company was organized and continues to this
day to be a major business and agricultural service to our community. Many of
our Church members have been highly involved with the Hutto CoOp; notably Victor
Stern, who served as manager for many years.
In 1954, Jim H. Holman, the son of Hutto's first mayor, served as mayor for four
years and during his term of office in 1956 the city purchased the water works
and a sanitary sewer system was installed.
The 1980s and early 1990s resulted in a number of positive changes for the Hutto
community. The Hutto Volunteer Fire Department dedicated the newly built fire
hall and community meeting facility in October of 1983. In 1986 the new Hutto
Elementary School was completed and has shined as a star of excellence and
symbol of pride for our community. Beginning in August through the fall of 1986
the first meetings of the Chamber of Commerce took place in downtown Hutto. In
just a few short years the Chamber of Commerce has become a vibrant force in our
community and the sponsor of Hutto Olde Tyme Days as well as numerous other
community projects. On April 24,1990 the new Hutto Post Office was opened to the
public and on May 6, 1990 it was officially dedicated. In December of 1990 the
Hutto community received optional local telephone service to and from the Austin
metro area. In early 1990 a new water tower was erected by the City of Hutto and
in 1992 Hutto was able to buy a new City Hall.
While many people and many events in Hutto's history have not been included
here, I believe that it is apparent that a flavor of our community, its people
and its history have been presented. An entire book could easily be written on
the history of Hutto; however, this purpose is to provide background for the
history of Hutto Lutheran Church.
Members of Hutto Lutheran Church have long been committed to and involved in the
Hutto community. Nothing bears this out more than thirty-one years of continuous
service in the office of Mayor of the City of Hutto by a member of Hutto
Lutheran Church. This started with the election of Carl Stern to the position in
May of 1961, followed by the twenty year long period of mayoral service by
Edmund Schmidt and more recently the service of Jeff Phillips. All three of
these fine individuals have also served on the Church Council and various other
community organizations. Many other members of the Hutto City Council and other
organizations have been and are members of Hutto Lutheran Church. Pat Stromberg
has served on the School Board in Hutto. Carl Lidell served for many years as a
Williamson County Commissioner for our area. This same level of involvement has
been and is true of the Board of Directors for the Hutto Independent School
District, the Hutto Chamber of Commerce, the Hutto Lions Club, businesses in
town and virtually every fabric of the Hutto community. Lutherans have long
demonstrated our care and involvement where we live and work. It is in hope for
a better tomorrow that we, as Lutherans and citizens of Hutto, must continue to
make positive contributions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Again, special thanks must be given to Johanna Wimberley and Ron Whitfield who
gave so much of their time and resources to help make this book possible.
Sponsorship thanks are gratefully extended to Carl and Marie Lidell and Carl and
Lois Stern for each of their extremely generous contributions. Additional
financial thanks are given to Aid Association for Lutherans, City National Bank
of Taylor, Mike and Donna Fowler, Anna Viviette Fowler, Noel and Helen Grisham,
the Hutto Cooperative Gin Company, Edmund and Julia Schmidt, Taylor Motor
Company, Ron and Mary Ann Whitfield who have provided contributions of $100 or
more towards this 100th Anniversary publication. Without their heir this book
would not have been published.
Additional thanks to Marie Lidell for proof reading this work several times and
to Su (Holmstrom and Olga Pearson for their previous work on Hutto Lutheran
Church history Information provided by Mary Jane Hopkins, the Church Council and
all of the members of the 100th Anniversary Committee and of our Church towards
the assembly of this publication was greatly appreciated.
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