Cutler, Theodore

CUTLER, BLACK, WEBB, CARTER, RANDALL, ARMSTRONG, SPARKS

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 5/18/2010 at 18:10:38

History of Hamilton County, Iowa, Vol. II, 1912, p. 158.

THEODORE CUTLER.

Farming in Hamilton County offers rich reward to well directed energy and industry. The soil is fertile and productive and an able and intelligent man is sure of acquiring through its cultivation a comfortable competency. There were, however, days when this victory over natural conditions was not so easy of accomplishment, days when the land was a discouraging waste, when the country was sparsely settled and when broad prairies stretched endlessly between the scattered houses. Agriculture under these conditions presented more difficulties and it was in these times that Theodore Cutler did his most constructive and useful work. He is now living in comparative retirement after a long life spent in the cultivation of the soil and his intelligent labor in a highly useful field of activity has won him many friends whom his genial and kindly nature binds to him more closely.

He was born March 19, 1845, at Sunbury, Delaware County, Ohio. The family has been in North America for many generations and was represented in the War of 1812 by General Cutler, grandfather of our subject, who did distinguished service at the battle of Sacket Harbor. Robert O. Cutler, the father of our subject, was born in Canada and at an early date removed to Ohio, where he taught school and farmed for some time. He spent a few years in Illinois and came to Iowa in 1855, settling in Clinton County where he remained for one year. His next removal was to Jones County and the twelve years which he spent in that vicinity resulted in his acquiring a high and respected place among its citizens. In 1869 he moved to Hamilton County and bought a farm on section 33, Fremont township, where he was active in the cultivation of the soil until his death, on March 1, 1876, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His wife, Lydia (Black) Cutler, survived him many years, dying on June 5, 1910, at the age of ninety-two.

Theodore Cutler was the only child born to his parents and received an ordinary country school education. He early became familiar with the details of farming by his work upon his father's property. When the latter died, in 1876, Mr. Cutler took full charge of the management and direction of his large and constantly growing enterprise. He is now the owner of three hundred and forty-three acres of highly improved land in Fremont township and through his efficient and intelligent work this property has been converted from raw prairie land into a modern, sanitary and highly productive farm. In the early days of Mr. Cutler's activities, at the period of his first settlement in Iowa, there was only one house east of his holdings as far as Maxwell's lane and only one between the Cutler farm and the little town of Duncombe on the west. The intervening territory was prairie land which had never been touched by the plow. The farm which Mr. Cutler and his father cultivated was at that time entirely unimproved. There were no buildings, no farm equipment and scarcely any facilities for the cultivation of the soil. The three hundred and forty-three acres which constitute the homestead are today tiled, fenced and equipped with large and commodious buildings, and comprise one of the model properties in Hamilton County. To this happy result the efficient management and skill of Theodore Cutler has been a contributing cause and the standards which have influenced his activities during the years have been influential factors in the upbuilding of Fremont township. Mr. Cutler continued personally to supervise his farm until 1908, when he met with an unfortunate accident. When he was feeding his hogs one of the animals bit him on the knee and this wound eventually necessitated the amputation of his leg. He is now practically retired from active work and has rented the farm to his son-in-law, Frank J. Webb. However, he still maintains his residence upon the property and is the oldest pioneer in Fremont township.

On January 15, 1868, Mr. Cutler was united in marriage to Miss Belle Carter, of Monticello, Jones County, Iowa. The original residence of the Carter family was in Virginia and Mrs. Cutler's grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war in a Virginia regiment. Joshua and Hannah Eliza (Randall) Carter, the parents of Mrs. Cutler, came to Iowa at an early date and settled in Jones County, removing in 1851 to Dubuque County, where they remained until they returned to Jones County. Late in life they moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and thence to Chicago, where the father's death occurred when he was eighty-one years of age and where the mother died when she was eighty years old. To Mr. and Mrs. Cutler have been born three children. Cora married on January 1, 1902, Frank J. Webb, a farmer in Fremont township, by whom she has one daughter, Elma Iona, born in September, 1903. Harry married Miss Myrtle Armstrong. He is now assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Webster City, Iowa. The youngest child, Roy Verne, married Sadie Sparks, by whom he has two children, Harold and Veva. He resides with his family in La Veta, Colorado, where he occupies the position of postmaster.

Mr. Cutler although he has retired from active life is still prominent in agricultural circles of Hamilton County. The state of Iowa owes him a debt of gratitude for his services as a capable organizer and developer and it is paying the obligation in the coin of universal honor and esteem.