Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 168 of 894

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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

but once in a lifetime. And so, dear friends,
we gather here to join our weeping with those who
weep, to pour into these stricken souls the unction
of our kindliest sympathy and to unite our praise
to God, heart and spirit, over one who excelled in
virtue. The morning is not far off, when all this
'thick darkness' will disappear from this home
and from all other homes of human woe and bereavement;
the morning when Christ our Lord
will open the graves of the blessed dead and reveal
to us in fuller measure the one hope which now
supports us all, the almighty love of our Father,
out of which all human goodness comes, the tender
mercy of the Son, which to know is eternal life
indeed, and the consolation of the spirit of truth
which the world cannot understand.' "

JOHN H. HUTCHINGS,
GALVESTON.

The business world has its marks no less brilliant
and distinct than those which characterize the eminence
of what are called the learned professions,
made by men who have borne the banners of
progress along the pathways of moral, social and
material development; men who, free from all subserviency
to popular whims and popular delusions,
bed their footprints in the practical affairs and
utilities of life, and know nothing of the influences
prevailing in the race for political or professional
distinction. Theirs is a school of self-denial, of
patience, firmness of purpose, and above all, an
unswerving integrity, and the suppression of those
passions which promote the ignis fatuii of ambition
.and fame. It is here that individual capacity and
action are made the tests of true merit and true
manhood; and it is in this school that true benevolence,
practical philanthropy, and an enlightened
self-interest coincide in the various business and
social relations of husband, father, neighbor and
citizen. Endowed with excellence in all these relations,
the subject of this sketch planted his footsteps
in the pioneer paths of the commerce of a
great State, and led the advance in the development
of the prosperous city of his home and love.
John H. Hutchings, of Galveston, one of the
oldest and wealthiest business men of Texas, and
one of the most prominent and best-known bankers
of the South, was born in North Carolina, on the
2d of February, 1822. His early educational
advantages were very limited, and were, indeed,
confined to a desultory attendance, as opportunities
permitted, at a common country school, in which
reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic
only were taught; and at the age of thirteen or
fourteen, he bade farewell to the school-room and

began mercantile pursuits, as clerk in a dry goods
store.
On attaining the age of maturity he found himself
prepared for the battle of business life;
and his ambitious spirit and enterprising nature
prompted him to seek more promising fields and
more extended opportunities, and he removed to
the city of New Orleans, but soon extended his
adventure to the Republic of Texas, and, in the
winter of 1845, settled in the city of Galveston.
In December, 1847, he removed to Sabine, and
formed a copartnership in mercantile business with
the late John Sealy, which continued as long as Mr.
Sealy lived. They were very successful in their
business at Sabine; and, having accumulated a
considerable fortune at that place, they returned,
in 1854, to Galveston, which Mr. Hutchings during
all that time had considered his home. Here they
formed a copartnership with the late George Ball,
under the well-known firm name of Ball, Hutchings
but in a year or
two they abandoned the dry goods trade and turned
their attention entirely to a combined commission
and banking business, in which they were, from the
beginning, eminently successful.
When, in 1861, the port of Galveston was blockaded
by the Federal fleets, the firm retired to Houston,
and having established their house at that
place, engaged actively and extensively in the importation
of arms and. other war materials into the
State, and became successful blockade runners.
They exported in this way large and frequent
shipments of cotton, and in turn imported large
quantities of military stores much needed by the