MCDERMITT - Of all the nations of Western Europe, Germany most likely played the greatest role in the peopling of the United States. Starting in colonial times the number of Germans seeking new homes, opportunities, and freedom, increased - most dramatically in the years between 1820 and 1910.
It was during the second "wave" of immigration that Theodore "Julius" Huettmann and his two brothers arrived in the United States, coming from the state of Holstien. Located on the North end of Germany, Schleswig-Holstein helps form the base of the Jutland Peninsula between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, with Denmark making up the peninsula to the north, and the rest of the lower German states to the south.
Largely a fertile farming area, the mid-1800s saw a huge decline in the grain market. With the end of the Civil War in America, the farming opportunities there had increased to the point the brothers were willing to leave home for good, and begin a four to six-week ocean voyage to a new life.
In California Julius (at some point the last name was "Americanized" to Huttman) met and married MeDora Carmack, half-sister to George Washington Carmack (famed for the Klondike Gold discovery of 1897).
Julius and MeDora raised several children, including Elmer "Shorty" Huttman - McDermitt Combined School Alumni Hailey (Huttman) Christean's great-grandfather. Elmer and his wife Lillian (Rees) made their home in Stonyford, Calif., and Elmer worked as a farmer and a logger in the surrounding area. They had one child, Howard Huttman, Hailey's grandfather.
Hailey's other paternal great-great-great-grandparents Frederick and Elena Hollman left Scotland and settled in Chile before immigrating on to California in 1850 when their son John was 4 years old.
John's son Benjamin and his wife Zelma were Hailey's great-grandparents and their daughter Vivian married Howard Huttman. Howard and Vivian ranched with Vivian's family in Woodland, Calif., until Hailey's dad Howard (Junior) was about 12 years old and they sold out and moved to Orovada, Nev.
There they owned a farm on the South end of the valley, and Howard also had a ranch air service - spraying and providing coyote control. Junior was not impressed with his new home! It was dusty and dry - not at all like California!
He attended the Orovada Grade School and started his freshman year at McDermitt High School - where he was a gold medalist on the McDermitt track team that took state both his junior and senior year - graduating in 1967.
Today Junior would tell you that he would not trade his home in Nevada for the whole state of California!
Hailey's mom Lorraine (Alcorta) Huttman was the third generation of her family to live in McDermitt. Her maternal grandparents John and Delores Muguira and paternal grandparents Saturnino and Justa Alcorda, all emigrated
- See ALUMNI, Page 20 -
from the Basque province of Viscaya Spain, settling in McDermitt in the early 1900s.
Her dad Bernardo was born there in 1925 and as McDermitt had no high school at that time he attended high school in Jordan Valley, Oregon, graduating in 1943. Twenty-four years later, Lorraine graduated from McDermtt High School in the same class as her future husband, Junior Huttman. Hailey, her older sister Heather (MHS 1994), younger brother Ryan (MHS 1998), followed by Olivia (MHS 2003) are all the second generation MHS graduates.
Hailey joined the family when they were living on the farm In Orovada on March 26, 1977. She attended the Orovada School and liked teachers Ann Thompson and Keelie MacKlintick, who was a first-year teacher when Hailey had her for the first half of the third grade.
She transferred to McDermitt when her parents bought the old Ideal Market on the Oregon side of the little town that straddles the line between two states.
Hailey says that moving to McDermitt was quite a change for her as she had never before lived "in town!" After school and on the weekends she would walk from home to the family store - Huts Market - to help pump gas and wait on store customers.
At 14 she began working at the Say When casino in the summers and would alternate between there and working for her dad who had a custom haying business. She says that the Say When was preferable as "dad" tended to fire her at least once each year - "Even though I was completely innocent of any wrongdoing!"
Hailey considered teacher Mary Kay Pace to be wonderful and she enjoyed classes with Ruth Alcorta and Bob Pace in junior high. She played volleyball, basketball and track.
In high school she liked teachers Barb Ferguson, Darlene Albisu, Cindy Sherburn and Ray Parks. She played volleyball and was a cheerleader all four years. An "A" student, Hailey had no particularly favorite class and - wanting to be done - petitioned the school board her senior year to take only two classes, freeing her to work more hours at the Say When for Claudia Elordi, to earn money for college.
After graduating as Valedictorian in 1995, Hailey spent a semester at Great Basin College in Elko before transferring to Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon to study funeral service education. Homesick, she transferred to Truckee Meadows and earned an associate's degree with plans to go back to Oregon; however, she had become a substitute teacher at McQueen High School in a Special Education program. Hailey had found her niche and stayed in Nevada!!
She enrolled at UNR and received a degree in Special Education, graduating in 2002. She did her student teaching at Lowry High School under Michon (Echave) Schmitt (MHS 1988), and began teaching a Comprehensive Life Skills program in Reno, Nevada at Mendive Middle School, teaching students with special needs. After two years there she heard a position needed filled at the Winnemucca Junior High and turned in her application; did a phone interview; and was hired by her old teacher, Ray Parks. Hailey started at the Junior High teaching special education. She held that position for eight years, transferring to Sonoma Heights Elementary for the 2012-13 year. Hailey now looks back on her high school teachers as mentors, and is pleased she is working with some of them, as well as several fellow MHS alumni, in Winnemucca.
When Hailey attended long-time McDermitt resident, Juanita Albisu's funeral in 2001, she happened to meet Dustin Christean. Dustin was Lowry's 1997 Valdictorian and was home from college in Indiana. After they met he transferred to UNR where he also earned a degree in education. He later taught at her old alma Marta in McDermitt as well as in Dayton, Nevada before transferring to Winnemucca. On 7/7/07 Dustin and Hailey were married and they have lived in Winnemucca ever since. Dustin currently holds masters' degrees in Administration as well as Counseling and Educational Psychology. As of July 1, 2013, he will begin his new position as principal of McDermitt High School.
In 2001, a daughter, Finn Olivia, joined Hailey and Dustin, and they recently moved into a new home to make room for all of the toys! Hailey would eventually like to return to school, when Finn is a bit older, to complete her master's degree in teaching English Language Learners.
When not at school, Hailey enjoys being crafty, working in her yard and spending time with her daughter. Once a year she flies to Oklahoma to visit her sister Heather and her family. She and Dustin also enjoy fishing and camping in the summer, taking Finn on her first camping trip to Chimney Reservoir when she was just 4 months old. Hailey can see herself retiring from teaching when Finn is about ready to graduate from high school and says that her mother Lorraine, McDermitt's resident house hoarder, has a place all ready for them when the time comes.
Hailey says that she has been asked many times how she could possibly stand living in McDermitt as a teenager as there couldn't have been anything to do. She replies that quite the opposite is true! When not working, her summers were spent camping, fishing, bike riding and hiking. During the school months her weekends were filled with seasonal sporting activities all across Northern Nevada. There was really not much trouble to be had-even though she has since apologized to the owner of the porta-potty that she hitched to the back of her old Chevy Beretta, and hauled down the highway, accompanied by her older sister and best friend, Joe!
She would tell the kids at her old school, "Typically, not everything in life is handed to you-and if it is you don't respect it as much as if you earned it yourself. That being said-prepare yourself for hard work if you want to achieve goals that you are proud of!"
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