McCutcheon, James W.

MCCUTCHEON, HUNTLEY, CHEEK

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/23/2006 at 19:41:43

McCUTCHEON, JAMES W.

James W. McCutcheon, who bears a substantial reputation as a wise and judicious businessman, is engaged in real estate operations on a very extensive scale in Rock Rapids. He was born in April 1842, in Rushville, Illinois, a son of Jesse McCutcheon, who was both a farmer and an attorney. Jesse McCutcheon was born in Kentucky, and died in Canton, Illinois, at the age of fifty-two years. His widow is still living, and has her home with her son James W. She was born in Tennessee and was the mother of four children, three of them girls that have now passed on to the better world.

After his father's death Mr. McCutcheon returned to the farm with his mother and sisters, and there they lived together until all became of age, when the property was divided, and he received as his share, one hundred and sixty acres. He lived here longer than he would otherwise have done, but from a feeling of duty to his mother and sisters.

The circumstances of the family admitted little schooling for the only son, but his father had taught him so well that he was later able to easily pass the examination and enter high school. After his father's death and the panic of 1857, the family found their income so lessened that in the hands of the renter the farm could not produce them a living. So the son advised all to return to it. This they did with him as the active manager, and displaying those sound business qualities that have marked his life career. Much as he desired to do, the care of the family estate kept him from enlisting in the Civil War.

Mr. McCutcheon kept on and on, and reflected that nearly all the rich men he knew had become so by buying Illinois cheap lands at an early date. So, in 1883, he sold out in his Illinois home, and the spring of 1884 came to Lyon County, Iowa. He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, adjoining the city limits and already partially improved, where he lived one year before he came to Rock Rapids. Here he is engaged in buying and selling farmlands; thousands of acres have been handled by him. While people are apt to point him out on the street as a retired capitalist he is as busy and active and so up-to-date a business man, that the thought of a retired life for him is out of the question for many years to come. When he first came here he little dreamed that he would deal so largely in land, but he grasped the opportunity, and has met with large success.

The first marriage of Mr. McCutcheon was in 1870, when Miss Lydia Huntley became his wife. She died less than a year after her wedding. In 1873 he was again married, Miss Belinda Cheek becoming his wife. They were married in Canton, Illinois. To this union was born five children: Frank died at the age of twelve years; Lydia is a graduate of the State University of Iowa; James, who is now in Seattle, spent two years at the University; Florence and Allen are students in the Rock Rapids schools.

Mr. McCutcheon is a Republican, but believing in free silver voted for W.J. Bryan in 1896. In 1900 he voted for McKinley. In Illinois he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of his second election. While located there he held various local positions, but no aspirations for political honors were ever displayed by him. He is a straight-out businessman. He was also a stockholder and a director in a bank, but in Lyon County he has confined himself to real-estate. Both husband and wife take a very active part in the affairs of the Congregational Church, to which they have liberally contributed, and where they are much esteemed and beloved for their genuine worth and Christian character.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson