"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. ************************ 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.