Penobscot celebrates William Hutchings Day with DAR

PENOBSCOT – Celia McCafferty Gray looked all around the one-room schoolhouse where she attended “all eight grades” with teacher Mrs. Perkins. “The third row over,” she said when a friend asked her which desk had been hers all those years ago. The school is now on the grounds of the Penobscot Historical Society.

Gray, who lives in Hampden belongs to Frances Dighton Williams Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR on Saturday led the celebration of William Hutchings Day to remember the last living Revolutionary War veteran in New England. He died in 1866.

In a small cemetery on property owned by Susan MacNair and Nathan Cooper, the new granite monument stands next to the old one marking the graves of William and Mercy (Wardwell) Hutchings. The marker was engraved by DAR member Darlene Springer of H.W. Dunn & Son in Ellsworth.

An oversized photograph of the monument was unveiled at Penobscot Community Elementary School by DAR State Regent Donna Dunbar Hoffmann of Orland, a Hutchings descendant, and Chaplain Barbara Maloy. Hoffmann has written a booklet about the Hutchings-Wardwell family.

The color bearers were DAR member Heidi Hoffmann Coghill and Boy Scouts Aiden Bothwell and Justin Willis, the boys being pupils at the school. Music was provided by DAR members Lynn Hall and Theo Walker, with taps played by past state regent Polly Bartow.

Principal Allen Cole brought greetings, and state Rep. James Schatz presented a legislative sentiment and a proclamation from Gov. John E. Baldacci.

DAR officers taking part, many of them in colonial dress, included past vice president general Ann Thomas, past state regents Valdine Atwood and Susan Tukey, state historian Martha Hamilton, local event coordinator Elizabeth Ashe Howe of Ramassoc Chapter, and several state officers and chairmen.

Hutchings was a youth when his family left Penobscot after the British siege in 1779. They stayed for a time in Newcastle, where he enlisted in the Army and served near the mouth of the Kennebec River. He returned to Penobscot and raised a large family.

“From a historical point of view, we certainly all have a great appreciation for this day,” said third selectman Paul Bowen. The town of Penobscot proclaimed June 18 as William Hutchings Day each year.

One by one, Hutchings-Wardwell descendants stood and told how they were related to the soldier. His offspring are numerous – even the road commissioner in town is named William Hutchins. The event closed with a flag-waving rendition of “God Bless America.”

Participants also attended a craft fair, purchased first-day postage cancellations at the historical society and were served lunch by the society and the Penobscot Fire Department.

In the society building, they viewed a working fireplace, a historic organ, a 1923 photo of the graduating class at the town’s Clark High School, and a rocking chair that had belonged to William’s father Charles Hutchings and is still in the Dunbar family.

The Penobscot Historical Society is open 12:30-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday during July and August.