James Cutsinger

CUTSINGER, HARTER, PLANNER, AUSTIN, RUDSELL, GARDNER, POWER, WALKER, LOCKWOOD

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 21:04:33

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

JAMES CUTSINGER.

Happy is the man who can retire after a life of hard work and feel that he has sufficient to provide for his wants for his declining years. It is very evident that the man who can retire to a life of ease in his later years has been a man of energy and well-defined purpose. At the close of the Civil War many farmers left the Eastern states and took advantage of the cheap lands in Iowa. At the same time there were many soldiers who were given free transportation to O'Brien county, as well as other counties in the state, and allowed to take up government land at a very low rate. Among the distinguished veterans of the Civil War who made this county their home after the close of the war, there is no one who is more deserving of mention in this volume than James Cutsinger, a retired farmer now living in Sheldon.

James Cutsinger was born in 1841, in Johnson county, Indiana, the son of Perry and Clara (Harter) Cutsinger. The father was a native of Kentucky, born in 1811, and died in Indiana in 1846. His wife was born in Indiana in 1822. To Perry Cutsinger and wife were born three children: Sarah Ann, deceased; Jacob, who is a carpenter living in the state of Washington, and James, whose history is here given.

James Cutsinger was four years of age when his father died, and in 1851 his mother married Garland Planner, who was born in 1822, and he was a veteran of the Mexican War and, after his marriage to Mrs. Cutsinger, went to Minnesota, where he engaged in farming. To this second union were born three children: Jasper, a member of the fire department of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Harry, deceased, and Mrs. Mary Jane Austin, also deceased.

James Cutsinger was ten years of age when his mother was married the second time and he then lived with his mother and stepfather until he was twenty-six years of age. At the opening of the Civil War he enlisted in Company B, Tenth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. After seeing service with the Indians in that state his regiment was transferred to Missouri, and he saw hard service in the South and West and was discharged at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1865. Immediately after the close of the Civil War he came to Jasper county, Iowa, purchased a farm and began to lay the foundation of his present prosperity. For twenty years he lived in that county, buying and selling several farms in that time, and in 1885 he came to Osceola county, where he lived on a rented farm for ten years, after which he bought one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land in that county, to which he later added eighty more acres. He has improved his two hundred and forty acres at a total cost of four thousand dollars. Among other improvements he put out six acres of fruit and orchard trees.

In 1912 Mr. Cutsinger retired from his farm and moved to Sheldon, where he owns a fine residence in the northern part of the city. In addition to his farm in Osceola county, he has a share in the elevator company at Rittier, Iowa, and an interest in the elevator at Ashton, Iowa. Mr. Cutsinger was married in 1866 to Paulina Rudsell, who died five years later. To this marriage were born three children: Perry, who lives at Ashton, Iowa; Edward and James, who are living in the state of Washington. In 1872 Mr. Cutsinger was married to Rachel Gardner, and to this union there were born nine children: Mrs. Clarrisa Power, who is a resident of Montana; Mrs. Minnie Walker, of this county; Arthur, of this county; Mrs. Mamie Lockwood, who lives on the home place in Osceola county; George and Clay, living in Sheldon; Ethel and Hazel, who are with their parents in Sheldon.

Mr. Cutsinger cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln and has continued to vote the Republican ticket down to the present time. While he has always taken an active interest in politics, public office has never had any attractions for him. He and his family are regular attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church, and give to it their earnest support at all times. His fraternal relations are restricted to his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, which, in many ways, is the most honorable fraternity to which a man can belong in the United States. Mr. Cutsinger is a man who has lived a life singularly free from contention and for this reason has always been regarded with confidence and respect by all with whom he has been associated.

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