History of Detroit, a chronicle of its progress, its industries, its institutions, and the people of the fair City of the straits, / by Paul Leake ... [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF DETROIT

1095

Pacific, the Kansas & Texas, and the Texas Pacific Railroads, for each
of which he served as construction engineer.
In the year 1876, when twenty-three years of age, Mr. Huchins removed from Missouri to Waco, Texas, where he made a radical change
of vocation, by assuming a place on the reportorial staff of the Waco
Examiner, of which he later became editor. He also acted as political
correspondent in Texas for New York and New Orleans papers, and he
proved distinctively versatile and successful in the field of practical
journalism, the discipline of which has been of marked value to him in
the defining and controlling of public service utilities, as he is enabled
to view the agencies employed from the popular standpoint as well as
from that of the interested principal. In 1881 he again identified himself with the work of his profession, and for the ensuing thirteen years he
continued to be actively engaged in railroad engineering work. He was
connected in turn with the New Orleans & Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas
& Texas, and the Illinois Central Railroads, with each of which he made
a record that greatly enhanced his professional reputation.
In 1894, at the expiration of the period noted above, Mr. Hutchins
came to Detroit, where he became vice-president of the Citizens' Street
Railway Company, in which he had become a large stockholder. He also
became president of the Detroit, Fort Wayne & Belle Isle Railway Company, and vice-president of the Detroit Electric Railway Company.
These three corporations controlled at the time the principal street railway properties and interests in Detroit, and he at once became a dominating force in their control and management. Concerning his further
activities in this connection the following pertinent statements have been
made: "In his executive capacities Mr. Hutchins did much to institute
improvements in facilities fnd service, and his policy has ever been of the
most liberal and progressive order, yet tinctured with due conservatism.
Upon the consolidation of the various street-railway interests of the city,
coincident with the organization of the Detroit United Railway company,
in 1901, Mr. Hutchins was elected vice-president of this important corporation, and in January of the following year, in recognition of his fine
technical and administrative ability, came his election to the office of
president, of which he has since continued the incumbent and in which
he has accomplished a great work in extending and perfecting the complex system controlled by the company and including extended interurban
lines. He has been animated by distinctive public spirit and has done
all in his power to conserve through legitimate means the interests of the
stockholders of the company, while advocating liberality in all extension
and equipment work. The citizens of Detroit and other points touched
by the system of the Detroit United Railway have a full appreciation
of the facilities afforded, and adverse criticism can come only from
those moved by political motives or lack of knowledge." He is also a
director of the Peoples State Bank of Detroit.
Though loyal to all civic duties and responsibilities, he has been
essentially and primarily a business man and has never been imbued
with any ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office. He is
an active and appreciative member of the Detroit Board of Commerce,
which has exerted potent influence in furthering the industrial and civic
progress of the Michigan metropolis, where he is also identified with representative clubs and other social organizations. He is a member of the
American Society of Civil Engineers and is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, in the former of which his maximum York Rite affiliation is with Detroit Commandery, No. 1, Knights
Templar, besides which he has completed in this time-honored organization the circle of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.