HUTCHISON, CRAWFORD MCKEAN (1832-1903)

HUTCHISON, CRAWFORD MCKEAN, principal of the Presbyterian Academy, 1870-73, and Harkins Academy, 1873-82; b. Renfrew, Scotland, Nov 1832; m. 1859, Elizabeth Stewart, of Dalhousie, N.B.; d. Joliet, Ill., 5 Aug, 1903.

Crawford M. Hutchison took a course in moral philosophy from Prof. William Fleming at Glasgow College in 1850-51, at which time he was probably in training at the Established Church Normal School in Glasgow. For the next two years he was the commercial and mathematics master at the grammar school in Renfrew, Scotland. From 1853 to 1856 he was on the teaching staff of St Bernard's Sessional School in Edinburgh, and he later taught for a year at John Watson's Institution there. He was reappointed at Renfrew in 1857. A bound collection of "Testimonials in favor of C. M. Hutchison" contains printed copies of letters from persons knowledgeable about his character and teaching record. A letter written by Matthew Wilson, a headmaster associated with the Glasgow Normal School, describes him as "a good English scholar, a capital penman [and] a first rate arithmetician."

Hutchison came to New Brunswick in 1858 and was appointed head of the grammar school at Dalhousie. In 1867 he took over the Kent County Grammar School at Richibucto. In 1870 he came to the Miramichi as principal of the Presbyterian Academy at Chatham, a school which did not long survive the educational reorganization which occurred under the Common Schools Act of 1871. In the winter of 1873 he succeeded John Sivewright Jr as principal of Harkins Academy and teacher of the high school grades.

In 1870 the school inspector Donald Morrison observed, in reference to Hutchison's classroom work at Richibucto, that he had "few equals in the province." The earlier reports on his academic and administrative work in Newcastle were also positive, but by 1874 it was being rumored that Harkins was no longer up to standard academically. In 1876 it was stated that some students were being sent to schools elsewhere in the province to qualify for university admission. So much criticism was being expressed in letters to the editor of the Union Advocate that the paper was challenged to offer a defense of the principal. The editors replied that it was up to the principal to defend himself, and the fact that he was not doing so spoke for itself.

In 1878, in a transparent attempt to prompt his resignation, the school board reduced Hutchison's salary from $1,000 to $800 a year. In the months that followed, the trustees agonized over the "charges of incompetency" which were being uttered against him. In 1879 they called a meeting of ratepayers, planning to ask if he should be "re-engaged," but many who turned out were angered by the fact that the agenda had not been announced in advance, and the meeting broke up in disorder. By 1881 Hutchison's salary was down to $650. The board finally had its way in 1882, when it closed the high school department because of an alleged shortage of students, thereby eliminating his position.

The fact that Hutchison received favorable reports from school inspectors and examiners raises a doubt concerning the validity of the criticism to which he was subjected by Newcastle parents and trustees. He would seem to have enjoyed the respect and confidence of his colleagues, who elected him to several terms as president of the Teachers' Institute. His services as superintendent of the Sunday school at St James Church were also valued and rewarded.

In 1882-83 Hutchison was principal of the superior school and supervisor of the elementary schools in St Stephen, N.B. He was back on the Miramichi in the fall of 1883, at which time he was named principal of the Wellington Street and other Lower District schools in Chatham, at a salary of $400 a year. He retained this position for four years, but he had long since made a decision to abandon the teaching profession. Before he left Newcastle he began to study pharmacy with Dr Hiram A. Fish, and he continued his studies in Chatham under Dr James McG. Baxter. In 1886 he passed druggists' examinations for the state of Maine, and in 1887, at age fifty-five, he opened a drug store at Milltown in that state. He had been a teacher and principal for nearly thirty years, and he was then a druggist for fifteen years. He retired about two years before his death and moved with his wife, Elizabeth Stewart, to Joliet, Illinois, where one or more of their children were residing.

Hutchison and his wife had ten children who lived to adulthood. Most of them made their homes in the United States, but through their eldest daughter, who married and raised a family on Grand Manan Island, they also left descendants in New Brunswick.