Memories of "Fairview Farm" in Grey Township

Who Remembers Fairview Farm?

On discovering that one of my Hutchinson relatives was married at her father's (Cuthbert Hutchinson, 1864-1951) farm in Grey Township, Huron County, Ontario, and that the farm had been known to some as "Fairview Farm," I was intrigued. 

I put out the call to elder family members and asked what they might know about the Cuthbert Hutchinson farm (located at Lot 18, Concession 5), or if they had any knowledge of a location called Fairview Farm. 

My cousin Steve - a lifelong resident of Ontario, with close family connections to Hutchinson uncles, aunts and cousins in Grey Township - had these fond childhood memories to share.

Memories Of The Cuthbert Hutchinson Farm

What follows is a summary of my cousin Steve's thoughts and memories, communicated to me on 19 February 2024, when I asked him if he knew of a Fairview Farm in Grey Township, or anything about the wedding of Grace Jane Hutchinson (1890-1968) - our great-granduncle Cuthbert Hutchinson's oldest child. Her wedding took place at Cuthbert Hutchinson's farm on 28 December 1910.

When I was a young boy, [our cousin] George Hutchinson and his wife Eva (née Balfour) (1) owned the farm, which he got from his father Cuthbert Hutchinson. Their farm definitely had been owned by Cuthbert Hutchinson.

At Ethel [the town nearest to the farm], when stopped at a T-intersection, you face a big red-brick house. That's where George and Eva lived. When Mom [granddaughter of Cuthbert Hutchinson's brother] called them to set up a visit, it was either there at the house, or at the farm [that we would go to].

Undated Photo of Eva (Balfour) Hutchinson at what appears to be the red-brick house. (2)

One time I went to visit the place [as an adult], but the red-brick house had burned down. I remember as a kid being in the house; it had a neat construction, a double stairway where you would go up the stairs from one side of the house, and go down the other side of the staircase and be on the other side of the house.

Back on the road, if you go down the road, turn right and go past Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and continue down the road, then turn left, they [George and Eva] had the farm there too. (3) 

[That farm] was a crazy setup: it was a dairy farm, he had geese, and he had these cages and cages of foxes - I don't know why [George] kept them, maybe he raised them for their fur. And [George] would buy dead horses from stock removal as feed for the foxes. 

Then [back on the road], if you go back the other way, you get to the apple orchard [that George and Eva had].

The Hutchinson farm at Lot 18 Con 5, near Ethel in Grey Township, Huron County, about 1881 (4)

George and Eva, they never had any kids, so they indulged us, let us kids [Steve, his siblings and cousins] have the run of the place. They took us to the tombstone of George's mother, Mary Rosana Breckinridge [she is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery]. The tombstone says she was born in 1859, not 1869. (5) 

George and Eva, when they both died in 1963, they left Mom $500.00.

The farm was torn down decades ago, long ago. Strange, I never heard the farm called Fairview Farm but there is a town called Fairview - but it's the other way, in the opposite direction from Ethel.

I can only locate the Cuthbert Hutchinson farm, outlined in green in the map above; at this time, the precise locations of the apple orchard and the red-brick house in Ethel remain unclear, and need further investigation of land records to locate them.

While I didn't learn any new details about the 1910 wedding event itself, talking to my cousin about the farm was an amazing journey, and I felt privileged to be able to experience this snapshot of history through his living memory. 

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Notes and Sources:

(1) George William Hutchinson (1894-1963) was the younger brother of the bride, Grace Jane Hutchinson (1890-1968). Eva Katherine Balfour (1904-1963) was George's wife; they had married in 1929.

(2) Photo credit: bmactuary (n.d.). "Eva Balfour daughter of Frank & Annie Balfour." Publicly shared on Ancestry.ca on 21 Feb 2021. Last accessed on 28 Feb 2024.

(3) Note: These directions appear to lead to Lot 18, Concession 5 - shown in the map above as belonging to "Wm. H. Hutchinson." William Hornsby Hutchinson (1824-1907) was the founder of our Hutchinson line in Canada, and was Cuthbert Hutchinson's father.

(4) The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project (2001). Snip of the map of Grey Township in Huron County. Publisher: McGill University. Last accessed on 28 Feb 2024.

(5) Note: About 1869 is the year cited on most records for Mary Rosana (Breckinridge) Hutchinson, and the tombstone appears to show the only outlier date of 1859.