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8. Nelson Hopkinson

Probably Nelson Hutchinson b. 1849 Mauch Chunk, son of Samuel Baxter Hutchinson (b. 1805) and Diana Shurlock (b. Abt. 1808). There were two families of this name in mid to late 19th century Mauch Chunk. John & Samuel N. Hutchinson were brothers, both natives of Co. Derry, both immigrated at different times in the late 1840s.
I think the "Nelson" I mentioned wasa Samuel N. Hutchinson, grandson of John Hutchinson. However, there was another family, possibly distantly related, in town at the same time. I spell this one "Hutchison" just so as to keep them separated and avoid confusion. Sometimes it works. This family stemmed from Samuel B. Hutchison, who was born in the Mt. Bethel portion of Northampton Co. This would be where the "Hunter Colony" of Scotch Irish had settled, most likely descended from the Five Ships Scotch Irish who got the cold shoulder from the Puritans in early 18th century New England.
Anyway, Samuel B. Hutchison had a son named Nelson Hutchison. He was born and raised in Chunk, but sometime in the mid 1870s he headed west. By the 1880 census he was living with his brother Marshall in Virginia City, Nevada. They were living in the household of Josiah Horn, who was married to their sister Elizabeth Hutchison. The Horn family was one of Mauch Chunk's earliest, having arrived here in 1826 or earlier. It has always interested me, the Hutchisons and Hutchinsons lived very close to each other in Upper Mauch Chunk. Did they ever get together over a pint and discuss their backgrounds? If they were related distantly, did they know it? Impossible for me to say. As to the difference of the name spellings, that is my own device. Both families appear different places under either spelling. Considering there were Samuels in both families (a total of two Samuel B.s and two Samuel N.s), I separated them with the different spellings. (Jack Sterling)

The mention of Virginia City is interesting in that Col. Sam McLean spent time there as well as in Bannack. You may recall that after leaving Chunk (again) in 1859, he went to Denver where he was attorney general for the Jefferson Territory, then in 1862 he went to Montana, settling in Bannack - his silver mine was near Rattlesnake Creek. In 1864, he was elected as the first delegate to Congress from Montana, and I believe Virginia City was the capitol of Montana at the time. He then retired to Burkeville, southwest of Richmond, Virginia in 1872 or 1874 where he bought the plantation "Inverness." He died there in 1878.
Now in 1880, we find more Chunkers in Virginia City. I supposedly have a lost branch of Wilsons that went to Montana - maybe to Virginia City. I wonder how many others were there? How many went with Sam or preceded Sam?
As you probably know, Hutchinson or Hutchison (same name) was a Dunboe name, and even today the "Hutchinson Window" is displayed in the First Dunboe. For what it's worth, my wife's maiden name was Hutchens(on) (with an 'e') and it derives from the same root as Hutchinson - son of Hugh. The name was originally Houcheon, a diminutive form of Hugh. From it we also get MacHoucheon = McHutchen = McCutchen = McHitchen = McKitchen = Kitchen, etc. The Anglicized forms replaced the "Mac" prefix with the "-son" suffix to give Hutchinson, etc. There also are variants such as Hutchins, Hutchens, Hudgens, Huggins, Hutchings and many others. I can't help but laugh at the Hutchings variant. It looks as if someone realized that words such as goin', doin', livin, should all have an '-ing' suffix and so applied it to Hutchin' perhaps thinking it had something to do with a hutch maker.
The link to Mt. Bethel is interesting as well. We suspect that the Hunter group migrated south from Casco Bay where they had settled in 1718 with Rev. Woodside, pastor of the 1st Dunboe. I've been looking for hard evidence of the connection, but so far have not found anything. We do know, however, that a group from the Hunter Settlement migrated again to East Tennessee where they founded the Mt. Bethel Presbyterian Church. I think it was in Knoxville, but I'm not sure. Somewhere I have the name of their Presbytery and the name of the minister. The links are amazing! (Dan Wilson)