Hutsell

 

Hannss Hutzel - Catharina Dieterlin

The earliest record found for our Hutzel ancestors was the marriage of Hannss Hutzel, son of the elder Hannss Hutzel, and Catharina Dieter, in the Evangelical Pfarramt of Holzgerlingen, Germany, on 27 August 1650. both were residents of Holzgerlingen at the time of their marriage and apparently resided there the remainder of their lives.

They had seven children: Jerg, Anna, Catharina, Margretha, Hanss Jacob, Johannes and Barbara.

Johannes Hutzel - Agnes Maria Knoller

Johannes Hutzel, son of Hannss and Catharina (Dieterlin) Hutzel, was born 5 February 1667, in Holzgerlingen.

He married first, Ihme Agnes, a daughter of Jacob Mogasen on April 29, 1684, in Pfaffenhofen/Wurttemberg, Germany. The marriage record shows Johannes to have been a citizen of Holzgerlingen at the time of his marriage. Johannes evidently became a citizen of Pfaffenhofen after the marriage as this is wheall of his children were born and where he died. Ihme Agnes (Mogasen) Hutzel died 19 May 1697. Their children were: Johannes, Hanss Jakob, Jakob Fredrich and Maria Catharina.

Johannes married 2nd to Agnes Maria, a daughter of Jacob Knoller of Pfaffenhofen. Johannes died on 12 November 1720. They had eight children: Anna Margaretha, Ludwig, Agnes Maria, Johann Michael, Anna Margaretha, Johann Georg, Catharina, and a infant girl.

Johann Georg Hutzel - Anna Maria Magdalena Schweinhardt

Johann was born in Pfaffenhofen Wurttemberg, Germany, on October 4, 1711.

He was nine years old when his father Johannes died. On August 29, 1730, Georg and Ludwig Hutzel, his brother, arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from the Palatinate on the ship "Thistle".

It is possible that the Hutzel brothers left the Palatinate for a more prosperous and peaceful life which was promised by the leaders of "The New World". Wars in the Palatinate had been almost continuous for 100 years and the prospect of freedom must have been more than tempting. Many Germans were immigrating to the Colonies during this era.

Little is known about Johann Georg during the first nine years of his life in America. It is reasonable to assume that he lived near his brother, Ludwig, in eastern Pennsylvania when they first arrived in the new land. In the year 1736, Johann Georg was a found as sponsor to a baptism at Muddy Creek Lutheran Church of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The first record of Johann Georg being in Maryland was found in the records of Rev. John Casper Stoever when George Hutzel of Monocacy, Maryland, married Anna Maria Magdalena Schweinhardt on June 17, 1739. She was born on January 8, 1725, in Pennsylvania.

Johann George was a farmer and appears to have purchased his first land from his father-in-law George Schweinhardt, on March 14, 1747, for the sum of Sixteen Pounds "current Maryland money". This tract of land called "George and Margarett" was in the vicinity of the present day Yellow Springs, Maryland, which is just a few miles northwest of Frederick on the east side of Cotoctin Mountain.

On June 24, 1756, Johann George purchased an additional tract of land called "Markleys Purchase" containing 65 acres adjoining "George and Margarett". He paid one Pound Five Shillings Sterling for this tract and the record shows it to have been uncultivated.

Johann George Hutzel was certified a naturalized citizen in the American colonies at the October 1743 term of the Provencial Court of Maryland. The French and Indian War brought about a new challenge to Johann. As a citizen of the colonies he became quartering soldier under Cpt. Elias Delashmuts in 1757.

Johann Georg and Anna Maria Magdalena Hutzel had twelve children: Margaret, Susanna, George, Johannes, Johann Peter, Johann Matthaus, Ludwig, Jacob, Anna Maria, a daughter, Michael and Gabriel.

Johann Georg died in Frederick County, Maryland, on May 2, 1778, of a stroke while on his way to see a friend whose surname was Ringer. Magdalena died in Frederick County, Maryland on My 21, 1788, of a stroke. Both were buried in the church yard or "God's Acre" of the Evangelical Lutheran church in Frederick, Maryland.

John Hutsell Sr. - Elizabeth Davis

John Hutsell Sr., the son of Johan George and Anna Maria Magdalena Schweinhardt Hutzel, was born on December 4, 1746, in Prince George County (now Frederick County), Maryland.

Johan, along with his brothers, George and Ludwig, migrated to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1770's. All of the records in Virginia with the exception of his marriage and the signature on his will show his name as Johannes Hutsell and John Hutsell. The marriage and will signatures are Hutzel.

The marriage of John Hutzel and Elizabeth Davis on 10 April 1775, was found in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Elizabeth was a daughter of John Davis who apparently accompanied the Hutsells through the Shenandoah Valley to Montgomery County (now Wythe County), Virginia, prior to 1781.

On May 5, 1778, John Hutzel and Elizabeth, wife, of Dunmore County (now Shenandoah County), Virginia, sold one half of Lot 128 in Elizabethtown, Maryland. It is not established how John came into possession of this land, but he evidently purchased it at the time of the original Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown) plat.

By 1781, John and Elizabeth were living in Montgomery County (now Wythe County), Virginia. John is listed on the roster in Capt. James Finley's Company of the Virginia Militia in 1781.

The only land record found in Virginia for John Hutsell was when he purchased 120 acres of land on Cove Creek, Wythe County, on May 8, 1804. John and his family evidently lived on rented lands or on the property of relatives until this date. In his will, John devised his estate to his wife, Elizabeth, and after her death, the real estate was to be divided between his two sons, John and George.

John Hutsell died in Wythe county between March 28, 1820, when he wrote his will, and March 8, 1825, when the will was recorded. Elizabeth probably went to Blount County, Tennessee, with her sons. It is unknown when she died.

John and Elizabeth had four children: Catherine, Susannah, John and George H.

John Hustell, Jr. - Mary Ann Keller

John Hutsell Jr., the son of John and Elizabeth Davis Hutsell, was born in Montgomery County (now Wythe County), Virginia, about 1787. He was married in Wythe County on March 15, 1809 to Mary Ann (Polly) Keller. Mary Ann was born about 1790 in Virginia.

On December 2, 1813, John Hutsell and his brother, George, purchased 300 acres of land in Wythe County. The land is described as extending to the top of Cove Mountain and adjoining the lands of John Hutsell. On October 16, 1826, John Hutsell, his wife, Mary Ann, George Hutsell, and Eliza Ann Hutsell sold this 300 acres of land along with 120 acres in Wythe County which they had inherited from their father, John Hutsell.

John and Mary Ann left Wythe County and settled in Blount County, Tennessee, between July 1827 when their son, John Keller Hutsell, was born and 1830 when the Blount County census was taken. John, however, had purchased land in Blount County shortly after his land in Wythe County was sold.

On November 13, 1826, John purchased his land in Blount County, Tennessee. The land is described as being a tract of 175 acres on the east fork of Pistol Creek. On November 5, 1856, John deeded his land to two of his sons, George and Jacob, with conditions whereby the two sons were to provide certain necessities for John and his wife as long as they lived.

John died in Blount County, Tennessee, about 1865, and Mary died there about 1870.

John and Mary Ann had nine children: George Butler, Jacob, Catherine, Joseph, William, Sarah, Susannah, John Keller and Margaret.

John Keller Hutsell - Nancy A. Willocks

John Keller Hutsell, the son of John and Mary Ann (Keller) Hutsell, was born in Wythe County Virginia and moved to Blount County Tennessee where he met his wife Nancy A. Willocks. The first seven of their children were born in Tennessee: Rankin A., Martha E., Bartley Leonard, Sarah Jane, Mary C., Sophronia Margaret and Nancy Evelyn. About 1855 they left Tennessee and moved to Missouri and settled in Wright County where their son John Keller Jr. was born. They went back to Tennessee for a short time where their daughter Rebecca A. was born in 1859. By 1861 they had returned to Missouri where their last two children were born: Jacob and Caroline I. They lived near Competition in Laclede County, Missouri

His wife Nancy died in about 1880. John Keller was known affectionately as "Uncle Kell". At the age of 62, in 1888 he left Missouri with three of his daughters (Caroline Matthews, Rebecca Ott and Margaret Emmerson) and their families and the John Fincher family in a wagon train for Idaho.

There were 27 people making a five-wagon train. They had some good times and some not so good. Those were days when they had no fuel except buffalo chips with which to cook their food. These were the droppings left by buffaloes and cattle on the desert where wind and sun soon dried them out, making them very useful for fuel when no other kind was available, as they made a quick, hot fire.

There were days when they saw nothing but the ever present tumble weeds rolling restlessly along as homeless and unsettled as they and the never failing prairie dogs.

Once in a while they would see a wild antelope and they drove through great herds of cattle with hundreds and hundreds in a band. These animals belonged to settlers in the desert who turned them out to graze where they soon became wild like the land they inhabited. Knowing they belonged to settlers, they never killed any of them for food.

Sometimes they would drive for miles with not a drop of water in sight but they always carried a supply with them. Lashed on each side of every wagon were large barrels to hold water for the oxen and for cooking purposes. When they came close to water, the stock that was running loose would make a charge ahead of the wagon train as they scented some creek or water hole.

They usually camped early in the evening because there were many mouths to feed, 27 people in the whole train, and they did not have bakeries to fall back upon in case they failed to get their daily baking done. They made good use of Dutch ovens, (large iron utensils like flat kettles with lids.) In these they made light bread, rolls, biscuits and an occasional cake or cobbler. They placed them on hot coals, put the lids on, then heaped the glowing coals around them and also on top. In about 15 minutes their biscuits were brown and fluffy. It took an hour to bake the light bread. The fresh hot bread with sweet fresh butter and milk from the cows which they brought along and meat and potatoes fried in hugh iron kettles and coffee with fresh cream.

The roads were rugged and sometimes being nothing more than a cow's trail with bridges few and far between. When they crossed the Green River in Wyoming it was overflowing. They had to chain the wagon boxes to the running gears of their wagons to keep them from being swept away by the swift current of the water. They drove the ox teams in the river and the men swam their horses and mules on the lower side of the oxen to keep them from going down the river.

They always took the line of least resistance and would have been content to drift with the tide had they not been forced to swim straight across. For persuasion the men had to use a "gore stick," which was a sharp probe made of a long hickory or willow pole with a nail in the end.

The animals were so afraid of these cruel weapons that they usually minded as soon as spoken to. Some of the men stayed in the wagons to help guide the train across until they all got over safely with no accidents. When they came to dry land we corralled our wagons as usual at night when we made camp, but they soon found something was wrong. Their bedding, as well as all of their extra clothing was soaking wet, so they pitched their camp close to the river and built a big camp fire to dry everything out.

That night they experienced the worst storm they had been in since they left Missouri. The wind literally blew the camp to pieces and they had a regular water spout. The gale was so terrific that it blew down one of the tents in which the boys were sleeping. The night was black as ebony. One 12-year-old lad became so frightened and hysterical that he screamed and made a dash for the river. His father, hearing him, hurried after him, catching the boy barely in time to save him from plunging into the boiling current.

In the mornings before they started traveling they would put their cream in a large churn placed in the back of the wagon. The cream would jostle as they jostled along and at night when they'd open up the churn there'd be a nice ball of yellow butter for supper and breakfast.

One evening one of the ladies opened her churn to get her butter and there right on top of the golden ball, sat a very surprised little green frog, stuck fast in his greasy bed.

In spite of the many inconveniences and dangers that beset their journey they had many happy times. When they got supper over and the dishes washed they would gather around the cozy campfire to sing. Everyone from the smallest child to the oldest oldster in the group joined in making those old songs and hymns echo throughout the camp.

Once while traveling along they came to where the road forked, and since there was no sign post, they didn't know which way to go. Two men on horseback were there and they instructed them to take one of the roads saying it was a good road and that it would save several miles of travel. They also assured them that there were good camping grounds along this road, so naturally, they took their advice. When they arrived, however, they found it to be the end of the road instead of one of the main highways. There was a large house that stood close in to the brush and they passed this house. An old woman ran out from the house and grabbed Grandpa Hutsell by the neck and began making over him. Then seeing they had a baby in one wagon, she wanted the child. But of course the mother wouldn't give her up. Then she asked them if they were Christians, and if they would like to have church the next day which was Sunday. They said that would be very nice.

Shortly afterwards the women got out of the wagon and walked on to look around. The first thing they noticed was buzzards and vultures flying overhead above a large hole in the ground which was covered with brush and limbs from trees, and it sounded hollow when they stomped to sound it out. A terrible odor of something dead arose around the hole, and right where they had planned to camp for the night there were parts of burnt wagons and harness and portions of carcasses of some sort.

As soon as the men could slip away they did some exploring, looking for a road to get out and found this to be only a one-way trail where they had been lured down into this small valley and it was now fortified with heavy timbers and guards. There was no way of getting back by the house or to escape any other way. In the darkness of that horrible night they could see small lights like evil eyes, dotting the mountain sides in the many hovels built throughout this little depression. Now they knew they were trapped and they realized that if they could not get out quickly the buzzards would soon be flying over their bodies in that pit too.

Everyone who could shoot a gun got it ready. There was no supper that night but they made a campfire by the wagons where they sat around as though nothing unusual was going on. Two of their newly acquired "neighbors," two hawk eyed villains, came and sat by our fire until midnight and "visited" with our men. They asked questions about the stock and how they corralled them for the night. They told their men how to fix their wagons and where to put the stock, etc. The women all slipped off to the wagons and there they prayed as they had never prayed before, that God would make a way of escape. As soon as those fellows left their camp to return to their huts for the remainder of the night, three of the men got their horses and rode up the step mountain side, trying to find a way out. There was only one way, and that was to make a road where there was none. They had to work stealthily and in inky darkness. Logs had to be rolled, brush cut and rocks moved which required almost super-human effort.

Then they returned to camp and hitched thee yoke of oxen, two spans of mules and one team of horses to one wagon and got it to the top of the precipitous hillside, came back and got another and another until the last one was out, all safe. The sun was just peeping over the horizon when they hauled the last wagon up.

They saw those robbers coming from their various shacks into the camp where they had planned for them to come to "church". As they stood and looked down up that place where buzzards still sailed overhead, and saw those fellows milling around and some of them looking up our way, we all thanked God for delivering us. They heard afterwards that many people were herded into their trap and never heard of again.

They lowered their wagons down the steep mountain on the other side of the abrupt slope into the main highway where the bandits were afraid to attack out in the open.

They journeyed on and one morning another surprise awaited them--twins sons were born to one of John Keller's daughters.

This family and another one remained there for a while, but the rest of them journeyed on. They were traveling one day in a deep canyon and were on a steep hillside, when they met a band of Indians on the war path. The chief raised his hand and said "Stop!"; He held them there for a long time, then as they were leaving the canyon another band of Indians came along and they talked for some time with the first band and finally told us to move on. This was another time when they called upon God to provide a way of escape and He did.

Finally they entered Idaho Territory, followed the black canyon of the Snake, the winding valleys, and the limitless sage of the deserts. When they came to the bench above the site of the little town of Boise-by-the-Fort, the men lowered the wagons with ropes, for there was no road at the rim. The right-of-way for the New York canal was being blasted.

Main street was almost all there was of "Boise City." There were board walks, and a little brick paving. The old railroad depot stood a short way below the sit of the present station. The train (known as the Pony stub from Nampa) came only to the top of the hill. South Boise was mostly a dump heap, but that is where the families camped.

Their journey from Hartsville, Missouri to Boise took four months and four days. The trip for the older folks who had to take thought for provisions, look after the health of the children, care for the horses, the mules, the oxen and old cows, the wagons, etc., had plenty to keep their minds occupied.

John Keller "Kell" died 6 March 1931, of acute dilatation of the heart at the Nampa, Idaho hospital and is buried in the Star Cemetery, Star, Idaho just west of Boise. He was a resident of Long Valley but had been living with his daughter, Caroline Matthews, the last few months.

Bartley Leonard Hutsell - Julia Ann Lipscomb

Bartley Leonard, the son of John Keller and Nancy A. Willocks Hutsell was born on 13 March 1856, in Blount County, Tennessee. He went to Missouri with his parents in 1856.

He married on 8 January 1871, in Crocker, Missouri to Julia Ann Lipscomb, a daughter of Wade and Mary E. (Baker) Lipscomb. Julia was born 12 September 1851.

Bartley Leonard and Julia lived in Crocker, Missouri, where Bartley died on May 13, 1938 and Julia died on 11 May 1940. They were buried in the Antioch Cemetery.

Their children were: Minnie Frances, George Marion, Lou Etta and Ida Belle.

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by Lee Case
Last updated on Sunday, November 10, 2002