User:Jaliet31/General Joseph C. Hutchison

General Joseph C. Hutchison (1896-1982), born Ninety-Six, South Carolina, died Sanford, Florida, was a veteran of both world wars, serving in the European theater in World War I and in the Pacific theater in World War II in Mindano, The Phillipines. As Brigadier General in the United States Army, 31st Infantry Division, he accepted the surrender of the Phillipines from the Japanese on September 8, 1945. The surrender was offered by Lieutenant General Gyosaku Morozumi, Acting Commanding General of the 35th Army and Commanding General of the 30th Division, Imperial Japanese Army.

Although he served with distinction in both world wars, Hutchison was not a career military man. One of six children born to a farming family in rural South Carolina, he attended Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC and excelled in mathematics. Upon graduation, he accepted a teaching position at Seminole High School in Sanford, Florida, where he met and married Anne Caldwell Whitner, who was the President of the class of 1915 of Seminole High School and later employed as a teacher. The couple resided in Sanford for the rest of their lives and had two daughters. Hutchison rose through the ranks in WWI, survived the flu pandemic of 1917-18 while in the Army, and was discharged honorably as a Lieutenant. He re-enlisted when WWII started and rapidly rose to the rank of Brigadeer General, serving as commanding officer of the Army 31st Infantry Divison in Mindano. He retired after the war as a Lieutenant General.

Between the two world wars, Hutchison was a farmer, spending part of the year in Florida or New York State depending on the growing and harvest seasons. He was elected to the Seminole County Commission in the early 1960s and was a deacon in the First Presbyterian Church. The Sanford Historical Museum houses his military artifacts.