“The Willows”

An afternoon out in a pre-1915 Ford Model T. Alonzo Smith’s family sold the property in 1904, and it is unclear if anyone was living in the house at the time of this photo.

The 1861 map for this house’s location shows Mrs. Hutchings. As of the 1860 census, the residents were Theodocia (Smith) Hutchings (1805-66), her son William, and daughters Mary Elizabeth, Josephine, and Lucy. Theodocia married William Hutchings (1803-49) in Steuben in 1828.

William was the son of Joseph Hutchings (1776-1857) and Elizabeth Trefethen (1777-1862). The Hutchings (Hutchins, Hutchens) family moved to the Steuben area from Kittery, Maine, to Steuben in the early 1800s. He purchased the land from Pliny Fisher (mortgaged) and Robert Moore in July 1834 (27:350, 27:351) and likely built the house shortly after that.

William passed away in 1849 at the age of 46. As of 1850, Theodocia and her children still resided there. As of 1860, her son William was listed as head of household. William (1836-1892) married Nancy Morrison, and they had one daughter, Josephine (b.1866). William’s occupation was a master mariner.

The property records don’t make it easy to trace, but the land and house were sold to Alonzo Smith around 1875. Alonzo (1839-1912, son of William Smith and Direxa Leighton) married Ellen Mariah Moore (1836-1886, daughter of Benjamin Moore and Ann Allen of Gouldsboro). Early in his career, he was a cooper and carriage maker. An 1875 property deed refers to his blacksmith shop shown on the 1881 map near his house. Alonzo was a first cousin of Theodocia.

Alonzo sold his 40-acre lot with buildings to Carrie S. (Nash) Brown (wife of Bartlett W. Brown of Milbridge) on 2 November 1904 for $450, mortgaged over six months (254:383). Bartlett died in 1909 and his heirs sold the property to Woodrow Smith in 1934 (645:291). The property was passed to Larry Evans Smith and Ann Smith, who sold the property to Keith Goldfarb in 1997 (2145:344, Tax Page Lot 033-07A, now 25 acres).

Alonzo moved in with his son Byron and his wife Augusta. It’s possible they continued to rent the property or lived elsewhere in Steuben. The Browns lived in Milbridge, and there’s no record of anyone living there. It fell into disrepair, and the town burned it down in a controlled burn in the 1970s.