Last updated: November 12, 2023
Person
Vandy Hutchinson
Quick Facts
Significance:
Alabama Homesteader
Place of Birth:
Coffee Springs, Coffee County, Alabama
Date of Birth:
ca. 1853
Place of Death:
Urquhart, Early County, Georgia
Date of Death:
November 29, 1931
Cemetery Name:
Saint Mathis Missionary Baptist Church, Blakely, Georgia
Vandy Hutchins was most likely born enslaved in Coffee County, Alabama in the early 1850’s. His siblings and descendants used various spellings of their surname, including Hutchinson, Hutchens, Hutcherson, and Hutchison. On November 13th, 1883, Vandy filed Homestead Application 15029 for 160.11 acres of land in Geneva County, which had been formed out of the southern part of Coffee County in 1868.
He testified that he settled on the land in January of 1879, which was edited to 1880, and that he built a log house and cleared one acre of land so far, all worth fifteen dollars. Vandy was not able to report to make his affidavit at the District Land Office in Montgomery, some one hundred miles away from his homestead. It was signed by Sidney Franklin Latimer, the Clerk of Court for Geneva County. Vandy could not read or write, so he signed with an X. Vandy’s application, as well as a fee of fourteen dollars, reached the Receiver’s Office at Montgomery on November 17th.
Five years later, on December 21st, 1888, Vandy returned to the courthouse in Geneva to swear to his improvement of the land. He testified that the tract was nothing more than “common piney woods farming land”. This time, he stated that he settled on the land in the fall of 1882. He said that he was never absent from his land once he settled on it, and that he voted at beat No. 10 in Geneva County. His family consisted of a wife, the former Elizabeth “Betty” Horn, and four children: Henry, Almaria, Clem, and Tyson. Betty was most likely pregnant with their daughter Daisy at this time, who was followed by Arnold or “Ornt” in 1890 and Cora in 1892. Betty also had a 13 year old daughter named Ella from her previous marriage to Warren Law.
Vandy owned one plow, one hoe, two axes, two beds, three chairs and tables, but no livestock. He had now cleared six acres of land to raise corn and cotton crops, but he did not know how much he produced. Witness testimonies were given by Green Thompson, whose son would later marry Vandy’s great-niece, and Edward Bryant, who was most likely Green’s father-in-law. Green and Edward’s testimonies are nearly identical, naming two of Vandy’s neighbors: John Talley and Christopher Thurman, giving the dimensions of his log house as 14x12 feet, valuing his land at $200, and both claiming to have seen Vandy on the land the night before. All three testimonies differ with regards to the value of the house. Vandy was modest, claiming his house to be worth just ten dollars, while Edward and Green valued it at fifteen and twenty dollars respectively.
On December 27th, 1888, the Land Office at Montgomery received Vandy’s final payment of four dollars and issued him Certificate 7657, proclaiming that he was entitled to a patent for the east half of the northwest quarter and the north half of the northeast quarter of section 33 of township 3N. Vandy’s land was bounded by the current Coffee/Geneva County line. Lake Fox Road in Chancellor, Alabama runs through the land today. The patent was signed by President Benjamin Harrison on June 8th, 1891. At this point, Vandy may have already lived on the land for twelve years.
In 1900, Vandy was living 60 miles east in the Urquhart district of Early County, Georgia with his wife and children. Betty’s birthplace of Lawrenceville, Alabama was in the neighboring Henry County, just over the Chattahoochee River. Vandy and Betty spent the rest of their lives working on the Sawyer-King Farm on Grimsley Mill Road. The farm’s owner, Oswald King, fathered the child of Cora Hutchins, Vandy’s daughter. Vandy and Betty raised their biracial grandson after Cora’s premature death, never returning to Alabama or sharing their homesteading story with their descendants. Betty died on June 1st, 1931, and Vandy died on November 29th of the same year. It has not yet been discovered why they didn’t hold on to their homestead, but their grandson was able to purchase his own farm in 1975, continuing the legacy of land ownership in the Hutchins Family for future generations.
~ Contributed by Orice Jenkins
Orice Jenkins
Photo Credit: Edward LaRose
Orice Jenkins is from Hartford, Connecticut and is the great-great grandson of Vandy Hutchins and Betty Horn. He is a recording artist, genealogist, and educator.