"Spokane and the Spokane Country, Pictorial and Biographical, De Luxe
Supplement."  Vol. 1.  Spokane, Chicago, Philadelphia:  The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company, 1912. p. 206.

RICHARD ASHTON HUTCHINSON

     is well known in Spokane through the real-estate business which he has
conducted, but is perhaps more widely known throughout the state as the senator
from the Spokane district. He has been almost continuously in office since 1882
when, at the first election held in Spokane county, he was chosen assessor.
Consecutive progress has brought him to a position of prominence and individual
ability has made him a leader in public thought and action.
     Mr. Hutchinson was born in Grand Gulf, Mississippi, February 14, 1853, a
son of William Dean and Margaret (Murray) Hutchinson. The father, who was born
in Kentucky in 1798, was a cousin of Andrew Jackson, whose mother belonged to
the Hutchinson family.  In 1836 William Dean Hutchinson removed from Kentucky
to Illinois and afterward went to Havana, Cuba, where he was engaged in business
until the outbreak of the Mexican war, when he returned to the United States and
volunteered for service with the Mississippi troops.  He also went to California
in 1849 with the argonauts in search of the golden fleece, but after a brief
period spent on the coast returned to Mississippi. His opposition to slavery
caused him to join John Brown in his famous campaign in Kansas and during the
Civil war he served as guide on General Sigel's staff in Missouri but became
disabled and left the army. In the winter of 1862 he went to Colorado but
returned to Kansas and was the builder of the first house in Hays City, that
state. He became a resident of eastern Washington, and he and his sons became
the first settlers in what is now Mondovi, Lincoln county, where his death
occurred on the 8th of November, 1884.  There have been few men whose lives have
been more closely connected with a greater number of events of national
importance than William Dean Hutchinson. Enterprising in spirit, fearless in
action, he was the champion of his country's interest in the Mexican war, the
friend of the oppressed when slavery marred the fair name of the nation and he
met with valorous spirit the hardships and privation incident to pioneer life in
California and Washington.  His wife was of Irish and Scotch descent. Her father
was a lieutenant in the Scotch Grays of the British army during the Napoleonic
wars and fought under Wellington throughout the Peninsular campaign and at
Waterloo.
     Richard Ashton Hutchinson was with his father in Missouri in 1857 when a
lad of four years and afterward in Colorado and Kansas. While in the former
state he served as a page in the legislature and also worked for a time in the
Denver mint. During his residence in Kansas he was for seven years engaged in
driving cattle and in conducting a store as well as in fighting Indians, for the
settlers had to contest their right to the territory against the red men. In
1872 with the others of the family he became a pioneer of Quillayute county on
the Pacific coast where he improved and developed land. About that time his
father met with reverses and the support of the family fell upon Richard A.
Hutchinson, then twenty-two years of age. From 1873 until 1879 he worked in the
coal mines at Newcastle, King county, but while there became crippled and also
lost his health. On the 1st of May, 1879, he started on foot for eastern
Washington with his younger brother William Hutchinson. They arrived at Spokane
on the 20th day of May, finding here a hamlet of fifty people. The brothers took
up land thirty-five miles west of the city which they developed and cultivated,
transforming it into a valuable tract which they still own. Almost from the
beginning of his residence in Spokane county Mr. Hutchinson has been prominent
as a factor in its public life.  At its first election held in 1882 the
district, then comprising the present counties of Spokane, Lincoln, Adams,
Douglas and Franklin, he was elected assessor. In 1883 the division of
the county was changed so that his property was beyond the borders of Spokane
county and as he wished to be with his father he resigned his office but was
elected assessor of Lincoln county. In June, 1886, he grubstaked the halfbreeds
who discovered the mines at Ruby camp, Okanogan county when the reservation was
first opened. He has always been interested there and still retains a working
property in that district. When Joseph's band of Nez Perce Indians were brought
to Spokane in 1886 he received them as prisoners of war and  took them to the
Nespelem valley on the Colville reservations where he lived with them until
July, 1889, teaching them farming. During the first year and a half Mr.
Hutchinson and his wife were the only white residents with those Indians, his
nearest neighbor being a horseman fifteen miles distant, on the south side of
the Columbia river.
     From time to time Mr. Hutchinson was called to public office and has done
not a little in shaping the policy of the country during its formative period.
In 1890 he had charge of the United States census in Lincoln county and was
elected a member of the house of representatives for the fifteenth district. In
1892 he was chosen senator from Okanogan and Lincoln counties representing the
first district, and thus he was actively concerned with framing the laws of the
state, giving careful consideration to every important question which came up
for settlement.
     Reverses overtook Mr. Hutchinson in 1893, for during the panic of that year
he lost all of his property and was in debt fifteen thousand dollars, but with
resolute spirit he looked to the future to retrieve his losses and in 1895 came
to Spokane, where with a borrowed capital of five hundred dollars he embarked in
the real-estate business. Such was the sound judgment that he displayed in his
purchases and sales of property that within a short time he was able to regain
possession of his old home in Lincoln county and discharge all of his
indebtedness. Since that time he has continued not only to engage in the
real-estate business but also in mining and he is one of the most extensive
individual wheat raisers in the state, having over ten thousand acres in
Lincoln, Adams, Douglas and Spokane counties. His mining interests are in the
Coeur d' Alene, British Columbia and in Okanogan and Stevens counties.
Recognizing the possibilities for the country especially when water can be
secured to aid in its development, Mr. Hutchinson became the promoter of the
Opportunity irrigation district east of Spokane. The National Country Life
Commission, appointed by President Roosevelt, said of Opportunity: "It is
the most ideal place for Rural Homes that we have seen." Since disposing of his
interests in Opportunity Mr. Hutchinson has been actively engaged in real-estate
dealing in Spokane, especially handling that district of the city known as the
Hutchinson addition. His fitness for office as indicated by his public-spirited
citizenship and his devotion to all that works for the welfare of the locality
and the common-wealth led to his election in 1906 to the house of
representatives from Spokane county and in 1908 he was elected from the fourth
district to the state senate, wherein his term of office will continue until
1912.
     Senator Hutchinson has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Amelia
Johnson, a native of Washington. They were married in 1883. Three children were
born to bless this union: Margaret Elizabeth, wife of J. B. Haves: Ida A.. and
William Dean. Mrs. Hutchinson died April 10, 1893. On the 9th of February, 1895,
he was united in marriage to Marguerite Wright, a native of Virginia and a
daughter of Weitzel A. and Sarah Ann (Taylor) Wright. Mrs. Hutchinson taught the
first school in Wenatchee in 1885, being then only sixteen years of age. Three
children were born of this union, Marita, Rachael and Richard Ashton, Jr. The
parents are members of the Episcopal church and are interested in all those
features which contribute to the material, intellectual, social and moral
welfare of the community. The life record of Mr. Hutchinson if written in detail
would present many thrilling and unusual chapters because of his life on the
frontier and his experience with the red men, as well as his efforts to attain
advancement in a business way, efforts that have ultimately been crowned with a
substantial measure of success.
     
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Transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project in August 2007 by Diana
Smith.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individuals featured in the biographies.