July I, 1911 



391 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Bee-keeper and Publisher. 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



In the galaxy of brilliant bee-keepers who have 

 died within the last few years, none, perhaps, were 

 better known in this country than W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son, editor of the Bee-keepers' liecieic. and for many 

 years special correspondent of this journal. In 

 our last issue, page 3o8, we attempted to give only 

 a brief sketch of his lifework: but the prominence 

 of the man, and the further fact that he was a broth- 

 er-editor, led us to believe that a further write-up 

 of his life and work should be made by some of his 

 old friends — those who had seem him rise from a 

 position of obscurity to one of prominence. We 

 selected among the number. Dr. C. C. Miller, Prof. 

 A. J. Cook, R. L. Taylor, and A. I. Root. His life his- 

 tory as seen froni these various view-points is ex- 

 ceedingly interesting: and we feel sure that our 

 .readers will be glad to review them. The sketches 

 appear in the order in which they were received. — 

 Ed. 



On Decoration day, May 30, 1911, while 

 the thinned ranks of the old soldiers were 

 on their way to lay their floral tributes on 

 the graves of their departed comrades whom 

 the grim reaper, Death, had gathered to 

 himself, that same grim reaper made a gap 

 in the ranks of bee-keepers that can never 

 again be filled, when he gathered to himself 

 the creator oi The Bee-keepers' Revieiv. Al- 

 though Editor Hutchinson had rounded out 

 his threescore years he seemed only to have 

 just reached his prime — just ready best to 

 carry on the work to which he had devoted 

 his life. What his loss means to the inner 

 circle of that home that was so dear to him 

 can be left only to conjecture. 



William Z. Hutchinson was born in Or- 

 leans Co., N. Y., Feb. 17, 18-51, and when he 

 was four years old his parents took him to 

 Genesee C'o., Mich., in which county the re- 

 mainder of his life was spent. He spent his 

 growing years amid the primeval forest, 

 where the ax made a place for a home, and 

 with his father's family experienced the pri- 

 vations and hardships of the early settlers. 

 Along with that, however, there was not 

 lacking the joy of the wild life of the woods, 

 of which the city boy knows nothing, and 

 many a happy hour was spent in trapping, 

 hunting, etc. 



A passion for machinery was turned to 

 good account by his making, on a turning- 

 lathe of his own construction, spinning- 

 wheels and reels, and for a few years of his 

 teens he made quite a business of selling 

 these in the surrounding country. 



At 18 he began teaching winter schools; 

 and at one of the places where he was 

 "boarding around" he found a copy of 

 King's ''Text-book" on bee-keeping, and 

 learned that 50 colonies of bees were down 

 cellar. The reading of that book, the sight 

 of the rows of hives in the cellar, and the 

 examination of an American movable-comb 

 hive, were enough to kindle an interest 

 which was not lessened by a visit to the 

 same place during the next swarming sea- 

 son. Although he did not actually become 

 a bee-keeper for many months, his interest 

 never flagged, and was increased by visits 

 to bee-keepers, and by reading all the bee 

 literature he could get hold of. 



Woolen-mills were established, and he 

 found the market for wheels and reels for 

 home use disappearing. It was on a .Jinie 

 day afternoon when he made his last sale at 

 the house of a farmer 16 miles away, and, 

 instead of starting immediately for home, 

 he solicited the privilege of remaining over 

 night, partly induced thereto by the sight 

 of a neat array of hives. The farmer was 

 Mr. Clark Simpson. Mr. Simpson had an 

 only daughter. Young Hutchinson con- 

 cluded she was the "only" one for him, 

 and in due time she becarne jSIrs. Hutchin- 

 son. 



In 1877 Mr. Hutchinson began to put to 

 l^ractical use the store of bee knowledge he 

 had been gaining by becoming an actual 

 bee-keeper with four colonies of bees. In- 

 creasing these he for some years made a 

 business of producing comb honey. For a 

 time he did quite a business in the commer- 

 cial rearing of queen-bees. In later years, 

 in company with his brother Elmer, he was 

 quite extensively engaged in i)roducing ex- 

 tracted honey, with out-ai)iaries in the rasp- 

 berry and willow-herb regions of Northern 

 Michigan, the increase in numbers being in 

 accord with his well-known slogan of the 

 past few years, " Keep more bees." He win- 

 tered bees in about all the ways that bees 

 are wintered. 



These varied exjieriences were all helps in 

 what he felt was his chief lifework, the edit- 

 ing and publishing of The Bee-keepers' Re- 

 view. This he founded in 1887, at which 

 time he moved to the city of Flint. Other 

 bee journals have been started since that 

 time, 24 years ago, only to be suspended 

 after a longer or shorter time; but The Bee- 

 keepers' Review had elements in it that 

 would not let it die Like his book, "Ad- 

 vanced Bee-keeping," the iJer/ei^' appealed 

 more especially to' experienced bee-keepers, 

 and in some respects filled a ])lace all its 

 own. It was strongly marked with the per- 

 sonality of its editor, and when reading in 

 it of the ])ersonal experiences of Mr. Hutch- 

 inson one could almost imagine he was lis- 

 tening to a face-to-face talk of the writer. 



Mr. Hutchinson had a genius for discover- 

 ing available correspondents, and thus get- 

 ting into print what otherwise would never 

 have come to the light. In typographical 

 make-up the Review was a model. Its edi- 

 tor took more pride in a new set of type than 

 in a new set of clothes for himself. A talent 

 for photography, well developed, was made 

 to yield its tribute to the beloved Review. 

 One picture especially will always be remem- 

 bered, not because it was in any way con- 

 nected with bee-keeping, but as a work of 

 art, and as giving a glimpse of his more in- 

 timate home life. It shows two of his grand- 

 children eagerly listening to "grandpa" 

 telling them stories. One who looks at it 

 will look long. Looking at that picture, 

 and recalling the man it represents, one 

 does not wonder that the stricken wife should 

 say of him, " A better man, I believe, never 

 lived, nor a kinder husband and father." 

 Tall and erect, he was a conspicuous fig- 



