It’s pretty safe to say that if you grew up in
Spokane you are familiar with the Hutton Settlement. The Hutton settlement is that community of
four three story cottages north of Upriver drive on Argonne; the property is
currently on the National Registry of Historic Places. The home was opened in 1919 by Levi Hutton on
the premise, “to provide a home for children deprived of a normal family
through no fault of their own.” On
average 78 children at a time called Hutton Settlement home; the children
assimilated into the community through attending area churches and enrolling in
school in the West Valley district. Hutton
Settlement was rare in that it didn’t accept any state or federal money;
instead the settlement was able to sustain itself nearly entirely on the real
estate it sat on. The land and some
money were given to the Hutton Settlement at the time of Levi Hutton’s
death. The children ran the settlement
like a farm, as described in 1934, “ a model farm operated by families of boys
and girls…”. The Hutton Settlement has
served the Spokane area for nearly 100 years, and it’s thanks to the memory of
one extraordinary woman.
Levi Hutton grew up an orphan, making a life for
himself, but it was not for this reason Mr. Hutton founded the Hutton
Settlement. Of course Levi had a soft
spot for orphans and underprivileged children, but it was his wife, May, who
gave him the idea. May Arkwright Hutton
was a character. She was the
illegitimate child of a pastor who ran a girls home. May was raised by her grandfather in Ohio and
at the age of 23, May packed up and moved to Kellogg, ID where she would run a
boarding house. Four years later, May
and Levi met, married, and moved to the mining town of Wallace, ID.
It was in
Wallace where Levi and May would make their name, Levi financially and May
politically. She would start by fighting
for labor rights for miners and rail workers, even writing a book on the
subject (later in life she would buy back as many copies of the book as she
could, as she was not proud of it). May
was soon a flamboyant spokeswoman for Women’s Suffrage in the Pacific
Northwest. After Idaho passed the right
for women to vote in 1896 and Levi’s investment in the Hercules mine paid off
millions, her “Panhandle celebrity” began to inflate. In 1903, during his tour of the Pacific
Northwest, Teddy Roosevelt was entertained by the Hutton’s at their home in
Wallace. May would even run for Idaho
State Senate in 1904 but would go on to lose.
By 1906, The North Idaho Panhandle had become too small for the new
millionaires and they set their sights west into Washington.
They moved to Spokane so Levi could diversify his
investments and May had a plan to bring women the right to vote in Washington by
1910. It was in Spokane and Washington
where May clashed with her political rival Emma DeVoe, even though they had the
same goal, they differed how to reach that goal; but eventually women could
vote in Washington in 1910. She became a
woman of firsts in Spokane; May was the first woman to sit on a jury in
Washington, she became the first woman to speak at a Presidential convention in
the 1912 Democratic National Convention; also became the first woman registered
voter in Spokane county.
May was an instant hit in Spokane. Author James Montgomery described May and
Spokane in his book Liberated Woman, “they were really made for each
other; both were rambunctious, cocky, independent, and not very mature.” The Hutton’s lived in luxury in the penthouses
of the Hutton Block on 1st between Washington and Sprague. May was loved by the Spokane reporters, as it
was said she was a woman who had never heard the term “off the record.” May was in town and was motivated to help
make changes and she had the money.
In her off time from politics and living the high
life, May had a soft spot for single mother’s and hated to see these women and
children struggle to get by. May had a
plan to alleviate some of these mother’s struggles by helping find them a
husband and a suitable environment to raise a family. She pitched the idea to the city and had the
chance to make a match. A mother named Lilly
from a women’s home that May frequented was set up with a farm hand in the
Palouse. After a trial stint together,
Lilly decided they made a good match and the two were married. The farm hand received, “a wife, housekeeper,
companion and as an added bonus, a baby,” while the mother and child received a
home and father figure. A time later May
returned to check up on the young couple and was pleased with what she
encountered; the couple was happy, the child was growing and healthy, and Lilly
was pregnant with the couple’s first biological child. It was a match made in heaven, lonely
farmers, single mothers, and May Arkwright Hutton.
People like May Hutton were essential in the
expansion of the United States. She was
her own person and let people know who she was.
Spokane was lucky to house such an enigmatic person for nearly a
decade. The Hutton name is etched into
every Spokanite’s mind. So the next time
you hear the name Hutton you won’t just paint the picture of a palatial campus
in Millwood with brick buildings in your mind but also the outline of a brash,
stocky, well dressed, charismatic woman greeting you at the entrance under the
sign which holds the settlement’s motto, “The child is father of man.” May’s memory has and will live on through the
Hutton Settlement.
As a friendly reminder the 100th
anniversary of May’s death is this year on October 6th. She died of Bright’s Disease.
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