THE HUTCHESON BARN
The Hutcheson Family arrived in the Mims area during the 1920s where they established citrus groves and raised cattle. The barn was built during the 1940s of heart pine cross-sawed lumber and recycled materials such as wood telephone poles and parts of old tin signs with a tin roof. It was used to shelter cattle, store feed and farm equipment, and barrels of "home brew." The Hutcheson Barn will be located near the Cracker House as part of the "Farmstead". Farm tools and implements will be exhibited as well as displays about citrus and agriculture industries of Brevard County.
The 1940's Hutchenson Barn at the staging area.
The Hutcheson and Wilkinson Families
From family records Compiled by Roz Foster
Thomas Hillard Hutcheson and his wife Minerva came to the Mims area from Georgia in the early 1920's. They purchased acreage in, the area along Singleton Ave. and Parrish Rd, and homesteaded on the west side of Singleton Ave. north of Parrish Rd. and developed citrus groves. They had two sons, Leon and Donnie.
Leon married Lena Louise Wilkinson whose family were engaged in the timber business at Maytown and operated a sawmill there. She was the daughter of Robert W. Wilkinson and Myra Emma Bowen. Many of the Wilkinson family members continued to live in Maytown, but several migrated to the Mims/LaGrange area and married into other pioneer families by the names of Price, Carlile, Spear, Ellis, Clark, and Harrell.
Pansy Bowles Price, daughter of Gertrude Clara Wilkinson, was the caretaker of LaGrange Cemetery for many years; Mary Elizabeth Wilkinson Carlile worked for Nevins Packing House most of her adult life; Gertrude's second husband, Elwood Oscar Harrell ran the ice plant on Tropic St. in Titusville; Robert Earl Wilkinson's second wife was Myrtle Irene Ellis; Vivian Adel Wilkinson married Charles Henry Clark, the game warden at Farmton, which is located near Maytown; daughter Ilean married Rudolph Spear, who was a cattle rancher and owned citrus groves; daughter Virgie married and lived in a section house on the Clark property near the spur line that went from Enterprise Junction to Titusville. Virgie and Ilean recall, " When the train killed one of our cows crossing the tracks, the engineer would stop on his return trip and notify the family that he had killed one of the cows. Charlie and sons would go pick up the cow, butcher it for meat, which was cooked and canned in jars and sealed with lard to keep." Daughter Dorothy would ride the train to Maytown School from the little community of Pennichaw, located on the north side of Hwy. 46 near Lake Harney and west of Maytown. The Clark family home was a fine example of a Florida "cracker house".
Leon and Lena Louise owned land and built a house "cracker" house and old barn from heart pine lumber in the late 1940's. Leon hauled the rough sawed lumber from Union Park in an old flatbed truck. He took it to the sawmill located at Aurantia to be sawed into specified board lengths. When he went back to pick up the boards, he discovered they were sawed into shorter lengths than requested, but took them anyway. He adjusted the size of the house and barn to fit the boards. The barn was used to shelter the cattle and store feed, and sometimes to make "home brew". Several of the "brew" barrels are still stored in the structure. They also were involved with the citrus industry, operating groves. The little house was remodeled, which included an enlarged kitchen area, bathroom, and closed in porch and was happily occupied by six family members.
Donnie and wife Mary owned the house located at the front of the property on Parrish Rd. It had been used as a day room for the troops at Camp Blanding in north Florida, and moved to this location in 1948 and became their home.
The larger barn was built sometime in the late 1950's by Donnie and
used as storage for farm implements and work space. The pens built on
the north and east sides were used to peg up the cattle.
