Colonel Basil Hicks Dutcher was born 3 December 1871 in Bergen Point, NJ. He finished high school (Friend’s Seminary at 17. He had an early and deep interest in natural history and especially ornithology. He and his father William Dutcher (renowned ornithologist and first President of the Audubon Society) and some of the specimens he and his father collected are in the Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1890 he worked with naturalist Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam in Idaho and the next year he joined Vernon Bailey and Dr. Merriam on the first naturalist expedition of Death Valley. A species of meadow mouse Microtus dutcheri was named for him by Vernon Bailey and the pocket mouse Perognathus merriami gilvus was designated the Dutcher Pocket Mouse by C. Hart Merriam in his honor. He graduated from the Columbia School of Mines in 1892 but switched from engineering to medicine at the direction of his father and received his MD from Columbia Physicians and Surgeons in 1895. He was described as severe, rigid and unyielding. He joined the Army as a physician and got his commission in October 1896. He was promoted to Captain in 1901, Major in 1908, Lieutenant Colonel in 1916 and Colonel in 1917.
His service record includes the following:
- Army Medicaal School from 4 November 1896 to 13 March 1897
- 20 March to 14 December 1897 served at Fort Leavenworth, KS
- December 1897 to December 1898 served at Fort Grant, AZ
- 13 July 1899 sailed on the transport ship ³City of Para² for Manila; served as Assistant Surgeon on the voyage
- 12 August 1899 to 16 January 1900 was Regimental Surgeon of 20th Infantry at Fort Santiago, Manila and surgeon of Bilibid Prison and attending surgeon of the 14th Infantry.
- 12 October 1899 participated in a skirmish at Cavite Viejo, Luzon and at San Francisco de Malabon.
- January to 3 April 1900 on duty with 47th Infantry at Bulusan, then returned to Fort Santiago
- July to November 25, 1900 Surgeon to the 24th Infantry at Pangasinan, Luzon
- October to 11 July 1901 ill and in hospitals in Manila and at Nagasaki, Japan and sailed on transport Meade for San Francisco
- August 1901 to 26 September 1904 at Fort Hancock, NJ and Sandy Hook Proving Grounds
- 26 September 1904 to 16 November 1905 at Fort Apache, AZ
- 17 November 1905 to 12 June 1906 at Washington Barracks of Columbia, and at Boston, pursuing course at the London School of Tropical Medicine; graduated with distinction.
- June 1906 sailed from San Francisco on transport Sheridan, arriving Manila on 1 August 1906
- August 1906 to August 1908 on duty in Philippines at Javo, Leyte; Camp Bumpus; Warwick Barracks; Iloilo; Manila
- 15 August to 12 September 1908 en route Manila to San Francisco
- 4 November 1908 to 19 September 1912 on duty at Plattsburgh Barracks, NY
- 11 October 1912 to 14 August 1913 at Fort Sam Houston, TX
- Until 23 June 1917 post Surgeon at San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Until 30 November 1917 at Camp ES Otis, Canal Zone.
- During WWI, Dutcher served briefly in the Office of the Surgeon General (Gorgas) and was then assigned as commanding officer of Base Hospital 37. On 18 May 1918 sailed for Europe with this hospital, stationed first at Plymouth and then at Brest. On 1 November 1918 assigned to Base Section Number 5, American Expeditionary Forces. Returned to the United States March 1919 and assigned to duty at Fort Dix, NJ. Transferred to Fort Hamilton, NY in January 1920.
- Dutcher was decorated with the ŒPalmes Academiques¹ (grade of Officer of Public Instruction) by the French Government.
Colonel Basil Hicks (Rome, NY March 1897) married Maude Helen Walker(21 March 1867 – 12 Jun 1917) in Rome, NY in March of 1897. They met while he was in medical school and she was a nurse. Maude Helen Walkerwas born 21 March 1867 to William Alexander Walker(ca 1840 to p 1911) and Frances Servey(ca 1846 - ?). William Alexander Walker’s ancestors came from Glasgow, Scotland around 1820, probably to work on the Erie Canal.
Basil Hicksand Maude Helenhad two children:
Catherine Dutcher(14 November 1898 – 23 December 1980). She had polio as a child. Both she and her sister went to the Emma Willard School for Girls and then Vassar.She became a laboratory technician but stayed at home to take care of Mary and Nina when they were adopted.
Carolene Dutcher(26 June 1903 – 12 December 1981). Both she and her sister went to the Emma Willard School for Girls and then Vassar. She became an elementary school teacher
Maude Helen Dutcherdied 12 June 1917 in NYC.
Colonel Basil Hicks Dutchermet Eberhardina Diez(12 July 1888 in Brooklyn, NY - 1 September 1927 Glendale, CA) when they were both traveling back from Panama on the same ship in late 2017. (It is assumed she had been in Panama visiting her brother William Diez, an electrician who lived and worked intermittently is South America, both Chile and Panama.) Basil Hicksproposed, and they were married 1 May 1918 at the First Reformed Church in Tarrytown shortly before he was posted to the American Expeditionary Force in France. He remained in France less than a year. They had two daughters: Mary Dutcherand Nina Dutcher. The relationship was strained upon his return. Eberhardina(also called Nina) sued for divorce in September of 1921 when Mary was 2 years and 8 months and Nina was one year old. The grounds were that he had been unfaithful while in France and that he was making unreasonable demands on her: excessive economizing, household drudgery, and having to take care of her husband’s invalid mother, Catherine Oliver (‘Scaldy’ because of scars from a burn as a child) Price whose health was impaired by high blood pressure and strokes. She died in late 1921. Eberhardina(Nina) and Basil Hicksseparated and she left with her two daughters for San Diego, California to live with her brother Williamand his wife Marguerite (Madge).
While in San Diego she met a lifeguard, Captain William Johns. They were married on 22 October 1926 in Santa Ana, California. Nina Eliasand Mary Dutcher Fowlerboth remembered him as extremely active, strong, fit, and daring. Eberhardinadied 1 September 1927 in Glendale, CA of pulmonary complications of intentional drowning (both daughters survived) less than a year after their marriage. There is an unsubstantiated family speculation that she was pregnant at the time of her death.
William Carl Johnswas born 2 December 1888 in Potsdam, Germany. He was an adventurer and athlete and had a very interesting life. He ran away at 15, became a merchant marine on the German ship Patmos, participated in a mutiny, served as a mercenary for a matter of weeks in Pancho Villa’s army in Mexico, left in 1907 for the United States and served in the Navy or Naval Guard for 4 years (1911-1914). He then worked as a swimming instructor and Life Guard in southern California at Coronado Beach where he met and married Eberhardina. Less than a year later he was widowed. He had an extended career as a lifeguard including Honolulu, Waikiki, Asbury Park, Jones Beach, and others. He was also a sparring partner for Jack Dempsey and helped Gene Tunney train. In 1945 he was living in South Miami Beach with his family and still working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.
Mary Dutcherwas born January 12, 1919 in NYC to Colonel Basil Hicks Dutcher, MDand his second wife, Eberhardina Diez. She and her younger sister Ninamoved to San Diego, California when their mother began divorce proceedings in 1921. They lived with her mother’s brother William Diez(1891 – 1976) whom they called Uncle Will and his wife Madge. Mary went to first grade in Glendale. After their mother’s death, they went to Mrs. Edna R. Ritchie’s boarding school at Los Arboles Private School, 1430 N Marengo Avenue in Pasadena for two years (1927-1928 and 1928-1929). In 1929, their half-sisters Catherineand Carolenearranged to take them in. A woman accompanied the two girls from Panama to NYC where they stayed for several days. They saw Sonny Boy (Davey Lee) in ‘Frozen River’ which was the first Rin Tin Tin movie. Mimi stayed with Catherine at Mrs. Keating’s house, and Nina stayed with Carolene at Carolene’s dressmaker’s house. They then went to Tarrytown and stayed in a boarding house (Mrs. Mortimer’s) while their Irvington house was being completed, perhaps 6 months. They spent a Christmas time there. They would take a bus from Tarrytown to Irvington, getting something first at Cushman’s Bakery and drinking from a public spring in Irvington. Mimi and NIna would look for loose change in the bus cushions. She attended Irvington High School and graduated in June 1937. Mary graduated from Smith College in 1941 and took courses At Columbia in the summer of 1942 to do psychological testing. From 12 February 1943 through 4 November 1945 she served in the WAACs and then the WACs in New Guinea. After the war she used her GI Bill benefits to study and travel around Europe (France and Switzerland primarily) with friends Peggy Margerum and Kay Rich. She became a good skier. She was a talented artist, a passion she pursued her entire life. She returned to the US around 1947 to be with her sister Ninaat the birth of her first child, Peter. She became an elementary school teacher on Long Island and in 1965 earned a Master’s at Adelphi. She spent weekends and much of the summer with her sister Ninaand Nina’s husband Kurt Elias, MD, acting as the magical aunt and second mother for the three children Peter, Joan, and Margaret. She met William Alfred Fowleron 4 August 1966 on a train to Santa Fe. He proposed on 25 February 1989 and they were married 14 December 1989 in Pasadena, CA where they lived until William Fowlerdied on 14 March 1995. In 1995 Mary returned east to Andover, MA near where her niece Joan Eliasand her husband Richard Baldwinwere living. When Joan’s two sons were born (Benjamin Dutcher Baldwin22 June 1986 and Michael Retherford Baldwin7 May 1988), Mary continued her role as the magical Great Aunt. In March of 2019, two months after her 100thbirthday, she was hospitalized with heart failure, did not recover enough to live independently, and was transferred to a nursing facility near her nephew Peterand his wife Cindywhere she passed away peacefully on 30 June 2019.
Nina Dutcherwas born September 22, 1920 at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland to Colonel Basil Hicks Dutcher, MDand his second wife, Eberhardina Diez. She and her younger sister Nina moved to San Diego, California when their mother began divorce proceedings in 1921. They lived with her mother’s brother William Diez (1891 – 1976) whom they called Uncle Will and his wife Madge. After their mother’s death, they went to Mrs. Edna R. Ritchie’s boarding school at Los Arboles Private School, 1430 N Marengo Avenue in Pasadena for two years (1927-1928 and 1928-1929). In 1929, their half-sisters Catherine and Carolene arranged to take them in. A woman accompanied the two girls from Panama to NYC where they stayed for several days. They saw Sonny Boy (Davey Lee) in ‘Frozen River’ which was the first Rin Tin Tin movie. Mimi stayed with Catherine at Mrs. Keating’s house, and Nina stayed with Carolene at Carolene’s dressmaker’s house. They then went to Tarrytown and stayed in a boarding house (Mrs. Mortimer’s) while their Irvington house was being completed, perhaps 6 months. They spent a Christmas time there. They would take a bus from Tarrytown to Irvington, getting something first at Cushman’s Bakery and drinking from a public spring in Irvington. Mimi and NIna would look for loose change in the bus cushions. She attended Irvington High School and graduated from Vassar College in 1942. She got her MD at New York Medical College at Mt. Sinai, where she met and married Kurt Elias, MD 21 March 1946. Their first child Peter was born 19 July 1947 at Fort Bragg in North Carolina where Kurt was serving as Captain in the Army. They moved to Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, where Joan Emily(Jemmy) was born 11 April 1951. They bought a house in Colonial Heights in Yonkers, NY about the time of the birth of their third child, Margaret Jean30 March 1954. They were divorced in July 1974. Nina later sold the house and moved to Ann Arbor where Margaret and her husband Doug Evanslived with their two sons Nick (30 April 1987) and Jonathan (2 October 1991). Nina struggled with depression all her life. She died 27 March 2017 in Ann Arbor, MI.