Robert Hutcheson (1884 - 1955)

john begat robert...with a little help from martha findley.  robert, or "rob", was 3rd born of 8 and, like his father, did not stray far from his birthplace, which was loango, alabama.  rob married stella sellers and they had 4 children, wjh was the 3rd born in 1919. 

circa 1930. rob and brothers

rob is seated in the center front, eyes in shadow, hands in lap. standing behind are babe, bluford, early and albert. to rob's right is liston and to his left brother-in-law david mitchell.  all farmers.

rob was a farmer that lost everything in the southern farm depression of the 1920's that was a preface to the great depression of the 1930's.  the sourthern small farmer was the victim of two large back-to-back economic cataclysms.  however, in rob's case, there were also more local and personal forces. 


the story
rob's grew testy over growing traffic that used a road through his loango farm to reach a cousin's moonshining operation and rob let his cousin know about it.  it's been said that rob was a teetotaler...did not sip at the jug. he also happened to have a father-in-law who was a deputy officer of the law.  the cousin thought that rob had snitched on him and in retaliation torched rob's barn. barn-burning is an old southern tradition of revenge, faulkner wrote a short story called barn burning.  rob lost the corn harvest, his mule, cow and tools.  he could not make payment on the mortgage after that and he lost his farm.  this was during prohibition and the local bootleggers protected their territory with violence and terror; they were nightriders, thugs that used the cloak of night to attack anyone who complained and shoot up their houses. wjh could recall the barn burning, so i  date it around 1926, give or take a year. 

ca 1935. rob and stella and children

in the back from the left: wjh, ina mae and winston

in the front from the left: stella, rob and eloise

the family moved from the farm community of loango to the town of andalusia about 10 miles away. stella worked in a garment factory, rob took a job in a sawmill and did some sharecropping on the side.  the family moved and lived in many houses during their years in town. after the children grew and left home. rob and stella separated. she moved to the city...finding better jobs in birmingham and montgomery, while rob stayed behind and ran a truck farm for awhile with a cousin.  his health was not good for the last 10 years of his life and stella nursed him towards the end of his days.  

rob never owned a car or truck.  he never used a tractor.  he did not drink or smoke, but he chewed and spit tobacco and he could knock a grasshopper off a fencepost at 20 paces. he was quiet, gentle, and, as his brother babe told me, "he did not have much health."

i never met rob.  i was born in 1953 in california and he died  in 1955 in alabama.  no chance to bridge time and distance.    i'll come back around to stella  later. let's just say for now that she had moxy.