Robert McCutcheon

MCCUTCHEON, MCELHINNEY

Posted By: Chuck and Joy Hanson (email)
Date: 12/13/2006 at 22:28:33

Thursday, Sept. 28, 1899, Robert McCutcheon, one of the good men of the county, as well as one of the first settlers, died at his home in Washington township. On the Saturday previous, he was digging potatoes near the house, feeling unusually ill for several days previous, and he carried a sack partly filled to the door as his daughter was passing out for a bucket of water, when he set the sack down, remarking to her that he had wrenched his neck as he shouldered the sack and had such a pain in the back of his head. She told him to go in and lie down on the lounge and she would bring him a cup of water. She did this and bathed his head, when he again repeated that the back of his head hurt him very much. This is the last he ever said. He soon became unconscious. Medical attendance was soon procured, and it was found that a blood vessel had been ruptured at the base of the brain. He lived until Thursday and was buried in the Bentonsport cemetery Saturday, Sept. 30, services being at the Presbyterian church, Rev. McElhinney preaching the sermon, in the absence of the M. E. minister, the deceased being a Methodist. The deceased was born in 1823, in Calloway County, Mo., and would have been 76 years old on the 10th of this month. In 1836 he came to Van Buren County with his parents, and with the exception of two years in California, his home was at, or near, the farm where he died. Truly he was an old settler. His wife died six years ago and of the six children that were born to them, five are left to mourn for the departed father. He was a delegate to the late republican county convention, and was then full of life and good will to his fellow men, but is now in the grave. A good man has gone.

From the Mason Scrapbook owned by H.K. Redhead