Hutchinson Dring

Most of us remember our history well enough to be familiar with the name George Armstrong Custer.

He, of course, was the young, reckless, and successful General of the Civil War. However, he became most famous for his exploits on June 25, 1876. That was the day he led his troops into that great blunder known as the Battle of Bighorn. He didn't come home that day, nor did the 225 troops he led into battle. It would go down in history as the Custer Massacre.

You may wonder, what does all of that have to do with Morrison, Illinois? Often when I am looking through the old Whiteside Sentinels, I stumble onto little interesting items that catch my attention, and that is how I found this story.

It was titled "Last Survivor of Custer's Men Dies at County Farm." To those of you not familiar with the County Farm, the home stood next to what is now the Whiteside County Health Dept. at Round Grove. For many years it served as a home for the homeless. I hope to write a story about that in the future.

The story in the Sentinel recorded the death of Hutchinson Dring. Mr. Dring was 87 years old at the time of his death and was 68 when he came to the home in 1910, after living a year in Prophetstown. When he came to the home he was listed as homeless. The records show that he was born in England, coming to this country and settling in Kansas as a young boy. What he did until 1876 is unknown, but according to the story, he was under Custer's command at the time of the great massacre.

Fate was with our friend Hutchinson, because the story goes that on June 24, the day before the fatal day, Custer called for a messenger to deliver a message to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Hutchinson volunteered. He was given his pick of horses; he chose to make the dangerous 480 mile trip. When he returned from his dangerous trip, he found that it wasn't nearly as dangerous as it would have been had he stayed, because his fellow soliders had all been killed. The story says that he had also been a member of Buffalo Bill's squad and had been involved in several of his Indian battles.

It seems that Mr. Dring seldom spoke of his experience. This information was given to Mr. Z. D. Carney, the superintendent of the County Farm, through a brother of Mr. Dring. He had lived in Chicago and had passed away two years prior to Hutchinson's death.

This made Hutchinson Dring probably the last survivor of Custer's famous army. What he did before coming to Prophetstown, or why he ended up there, we will never know.

An added twist to this story is that I looked up the roster of Custer's army at the time on the Internet. I know I may have missed something and that records do get lost through the years. The catch is, that I couldn't find Hutchinson Dring listed anywhere. The roster appeared to list everyone at the fort--but no Hutchinson.

Hutchinson Dring lies buried in Potters Field at the Round Grove Cemetery. There is no stone to mark his grave. Like so many stories, there are so many questions about his life that we would like to ask. Potters Field is silent.

(by Orville Goodenough, Guest Columnist)