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A bill for the Buffalo engagements is quite interesting.  The concerts were to be held at Townsend Hall on July 19 and 21.  Now,  in another context,  John wrote:

This was the  "Good Time Coming,"  and its spirit had entered into the Hutchinson Family's increasingly-eccentric advertising.

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The  Buffalo  bill  was  part  Jesse  and  part  Judson.

This entertainment  would be much more than a diversion.

Toward the middle of the bill  is a program,  written to rhyme  in Judson's whimsical style.   Part of it reads:

This fascinating advertisement also included a recipe,  full of rhythm and rhyme,  for unbolted wheat bread.

This bill was quirky, as Hutchinson Family productions tended to be.  But though it was light-hearted, it addressed themes the brothers thought were important, such as health and dietary reform.  The program included songs of home, family, country, hope, and faith.  There were well-known pieces and new compositions, favoring temperance and universal freedom.  The Hutchinsons were known for giving their time and money to causes they endorsed; and they came to use their advertising to promote, simultaneously, themselves and these causes.  This style of marketing was developed primarily by Jesse and Judson; and in future years it would be used extensively by their brothers.

Even the Hutchinsons'  newspaper ads  differed from those of most entertainers.  For instance, many acts would lead off with the word  "Concert"  or the name of the hall; the Hutchinsons' typically began with their own name, Hutchinson Family.  While we may think long and hard about how to classify them, they fully understood what category they were in  -  Hutchinson Family.  They might have near-competitors as professional popular singers  -  the Alleghanians come prominently to mind.  But as singing reformers and eccentric personalities, they were in a class by themselves.

At Buffalo, Jesse settled with his brothers and left for New England.  Meanwhile, the three brothers worked their way home.  Back in Milford, Brother John found the quartet's old journal book.  He began a new entry.  The Hutchinson brothers tended to wear their hair long;  and here John recorded that he had let his beard grow to full length, having not shaved for six months.

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In September the trio started on a tour through southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont.  Jesse remained in Lynn to care for his wife and daughter, who were ill.  Then on  Wednesday evening, September 10, 1851,  Susan Hutchinson died.  From what is known of her life, it seems unlikely she enjoyed much good health during her adult years.  Evidently their daughter's condition gave some reason for hope; but on the 21st, little Susan died.  Jesse had lost his wife and all six of their children.

Jesse had made plans to go on a tour with his brothers later in the fall.  He looked forward to this trip, no doubt thinking that getting away, seeing friends, and being productive would help him work through his grief.  But John said,  "[W]e were unable to agree on the terms by which he should act as our advance agent. . . . "   And this is all we are told about the ending of the highly productive business arrangement between Jesse and his brothers.

When one considers the remarkable degree of detail and candor in many of the family's records, John's note about this break with Jesse  -  our only account  -  is curiously terse.  It is otherwise most notable for being strictly one-sided.  If there is blame to be found, no doubt there is plenty of it to go around.

It is unlikely that the differences between the brothers had to do with finances.  When Jesse acted as the group's business manager, he shared equally in the profits.  In fact, the Hutchinsons, in general, had a long history of sharing generously.

It seems probable that Jesse wanted to take the company to the Pacific coast.  He loved scenes of tremendous excitement, and the California Gold Rush was among the greatest spectacles of the age.  But his brothers had responsibilities to young families who must have thought the singers should not venture off to the  "land of gold and graves."  It is probably not mere coincidence that Jesse ultimately hooked up with a band of singers who toured far more widely than the Hutchinsons.

The main causes of this incident may have been mostly personal in nature.  Quite likely John and Asa asked for, but failed to obtain, assurances from Jesse that he would make no effort to involve Judson in the spiritual manifestations or any of his other current passions.  "Judson,"  said John,  "was a man of the most ardent, loving and susceptible nature.  His nerves were always tuned to concert pitch, and he could stand no more than the ordinary limit of excitement in our eventful experiences without breaking."

On Tuesday, November 25, the Hutchinson Family trio began a tour, giving concerts at crowded halls in South Boston, Chelsea, and Boston.  While singing in Charlestown, Judson and Asa came down with bad colds.  By the time they reached Providence, Judson could not sing.  At another time, Joshua or Jesse might fill in.  But Joshua was planning a tour of his own, and this was no time to be asking a favor of Jesse.  Judson went home to Milford to get well, and soon his brothers followed.

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As for Jesse, he needed to get away.  Though he loved High Rock, it was filled with hard memories.  So he set off in search of adventure.  On Saturday, December 6, he was where we would expect to find him  -  in New York on Broadway, among a huge crowd of people who had come to welcome the Hungarian revolutionary, Lajos Kossuth, who was making a triumphant U.S. tour.

By the 17th,  the trio started once more down that old road which leads from one concert hall to the next.  In Providence, the brothers were surprised by news they received from Jesse.

Now,  the Alleghanians vocal group was in New York well before the Hutchinsons.  In December, they were quite active, singing for the National Temperance Society and at meetings in New York and Brooklyn in honor of Kossuth.  This was a couple weeks or more before the Hutchinsons reached the city.  It is uncertain that the Alleghanians and the Hutchinsons bumped heads much during the next few months.  Travel itineraries show them often going their separate ways.  And it is worth adding that Jesse had been the Hutchinsons' principal advance agent for the past few years.  He might have thought those travel routes were  his.

While the Hutchinson brothers had been struggling with the problem of how to replace the all-important singing voice of their sister Abby, Miriam Goodnow of the Alleghanians was the darling of the New York press and was drawing a great deal of attention to her group.  It was known that representatives of the Alleghanians were in negotiations with master showman P. T. Barnum.   And as the new year progressed, talk of a singing trip to the California gold-mining country became public.  The Hutchinsons, who were accustomed to excitement surrounding themselves, must have been made uncomfortable, to say the least, by these new developments.

The trio's New York concerts were held at Metropolitan Hall.  Originally named Tripler Hall, it opened in 1850.  The acoustics were spectacular.  The Hutchinson Family must have sounded wonderful in their Metropolitan Hall debut on Tuesday evening, January 6, 1852.  "One Hundred Years Hence" was among the songs they were introducing to New York audiences during this stop.

Meanwhile, on Friday evening, January 16, while the Hutchinson Family was entertaining in Williamsburgh, Jesse took the Alleghanians to the Printer's Banquet and Ball at Niblo's Saloon.  About this time it seems they were introducing new songs with lyrics by Jesse, such as his  "Welcome to Kossuth;"  and for this occasion they had another new piece  -  Fanny Gage's "Song of Labor."  This title appears often on the Alleghanians' later concert programs, as well as on many bills of Brother Joshua.

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Asa was known for seeing projects through to completion;  and now he had a new publication in the works.  The Book of Brothers is the earliest-known Hutchinson Family biography.  Evidently Asa served as something like an executive editor for this project.  The booklet began:

At one point in Story of the Hutchinsons,  John spoke of  "Mr. Dix,  the family historian."  His book's index indicates that this Mr. Dix was the writer,  John Ross Dix.  It seems probable that John Hutchinson was telling us John Ross Dix was the  "literary friend"  who  "compiled for publication"  and otherwise wrote the Book of Brothers.

Late in January, the trio went up the Hudson River for a series of profitable concerts around Albany.  Next they returned to New York for more engagements.  They sang, too, at Brooklyn, Newark, Princeton, and Trenton and then traveled to Philadelphia.

Joshua was giving concerts in Pennsylvania.  Earlier, attempts at Christiana to assist fugitive slaves had ended in violence.  So when Joshua was making plans to come to that state, he asked his advance agent to arrange a visit to the site of the fighting.  As it turned out, the New England Masonic Temple was not available; so on Thursday evening, January 29, Joshua entertained in Christiana on the second floor of a newly-constructed woolen mill.  The machinery was not yet in place.

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He told William Lloyd Garrison:

Joshua continued singing in Pennsylvania,  making appearances at  Germantown,  Jenkintown,  Frankford,  Holmesburg,  and  Bristol.

When  the  main  group  arrived  in  Philadelphia  for  engagements,   said  John,

The admiration was mutual.   Judson's

It must be at about this time that Joshua connected with a nine-year-old boy in a Massachusetts orphanage.  Possibly he sang there during this tour.  Joshua and his wife Irene adopted the child, naming him Louis Kossuth Hutchinson after the public figure who was very much in the news in those days.

The trio went to Baltimore,  where they found placards in the streets  urging people not to let the Hutchinsons perform.

The posters were dated March 6,  and were signed,  "Southern Rights."   Certain key words were printed in  "flaming large type."

The singers appealed to the mayor,  who dispatched fifty police officers on the evening of the engagement.  John said  "the blue-coats awed the roughs so much that there was no disorder."

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The Hutchinsons moved on to Washington and,  as usual,  visited the Capitol early and often.  They attended one of the levees of President Fillmore.

The brothers returned through Harrisburg, where John was joined by his wife.  While the group performed in Pennsylvania, Fanny sang with them frequently, making a quartet.  After a stop in Pittsburgh, they made a swing through the Midwest.  The singers visited New York City for social calls and shopping, and then went home.

The group had withstood Abby's retirement and the break with Jesse; but now, Judson announced his plan to stop singing with his brothers.  He advertised a public auction for May 15, at which he intended to sell off his agricultural equipment, in preparation for settling on  "a big farm in Illinois."