For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 544
SAMUEL McNUTT....Fifty years ago Samuel McNutt, of Muscatine county, came to Muscatine county and for more than a third of a century, until his retirement from active affairs, was prominently identified with the county and state. At the time of his death, which occurred January 10, 1911, when he had reached the age of eighty-eight years, he was one of the most honored citizens of Muscatine county and in comfort was enjoying the relaxation that should accompany the closing years of a useful life.He was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born in the north of Ireland, twenty miles west of Londonderry, November 21, 1822, a son of Samuel and Hannah ( Stuart ) McNutt, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The father, who was a farmer, spent his entire life in County Donegal, his death resulting in 1836, when he was about fifty-five years of age, from injuries sustained by being thrown from a runaway horse. The mother came with her children to America and after a brief stay in Philadelphia settled in Newcastle county, Delaware. For forty years she devoted her energy to the education and interests of her children and had the happiness of seeing them all honorably settled in life. She came west to Muscatine and died December 24, 1874, at the age of eighty-five years. She and her husband were members of the Presbyterian church.
Patrick McNutt, the paternal grandfather of our subject, married Mary Stevenson and lived to the age of eighty-five years. There were four children in their family, one son and three daughters, the names of the latter being, Mary, Jane and Nancy. Mary lived to be one hundred and five years old. The maternal grandfather was Robert Stuart, who emigrated from Scotland to Ireland on account of church persecution.
Samuel and Hannah McNutt were the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters, all of whom are now deceased except Hannah, the widow of William H. Hazlett, of Muscatine. The second son, Robert, became an eminent physician in Louisiana and at the outbreak of the Civil war, being a Union man, narrowly escaped with his life to the north, losing all his property in Louisiana. Governor Kirkwood appointed him assistant surgeon of the Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry. The third son, James, was also a strong Union man and for more than a year was in charge of the medical departments at Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, below New Orleans.
Samuel McNutt was reared upon the little farm in Delaware where his mother established a home for her family. Books were few and his early training consisted largely of such knowledge as he could secure from the catechism, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, Scott's Martyrs and Weem's Life of Washington. He very early gave evidence of literary talent and contributed poems to the Temperance Star of Wilmington, Delaware, which attracted the attention of Dr. J. B. Bell, of Newark, one of the professors in Delaware College. It was largely through the assistance of Dr. Bell that Mr. McNutt was able to secure a literary education. During his college days he contributed to Peterson's Magazine, Neal's Gazette, Godey's lady's Book, the Saturday Courier and other publications. After leaving college he engaged in teaching and at the same time studied law under the direction of Hon. Daniel M. Bates, who was then secretary of the state of Delaware. In 1850, being then twenty-eight years of age, Mr. McNutt removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was there admitted to the bar, beginning practice in that city. Just as he was fairly launched in his professional career he received an urgent call from the south and accepted a professorship in a collegiate institute at Hernando, Mississippi, where he continued from 1852 to 1854.
However, he yielded to a desire to travel northward and in 1854 gave up his position and located in Muscatine county, Iowa. Two years later he was made principal of the first ward public school in Muscatine and the same year he associated with D. F. Wells, principal of the third ward school, as editor of the first educational magazines in Iowa, called The Voice of Iowa and published by Dr. Enos of Cedar Rapids. About the close of the year he purchased a half interest in the Muscatine Enquirer and became its editor. He was also associate editor of the Dubuque Herald from 1856 to 1859, the paper being under the management of Joseph B. Dorr. Up to the outbreak of the war Mr. McNutt had been a democrat and a supporter of Stephen A. Douglas, but when the southern states began to secede he came out strongly for the constitution and the administration of Abraham Lincoln and upon requests of friends started the Daily Evening Union to counteract the influence of the Herald, which sympathized with the cause of the south. The publication of the Evening Union was discontinued in about a year with heavy financial loss and Mr. McNutt became one of the editors of the Dubuque Times. In the fall of 1862 he moved his family to his farm in Muscatine county, having determined to enter the army, but in 1863, while recruiting for the Eighth Cavalry, he was nominated and elected by the republicans of Muscatine county as representative to the tenth general assembly of Iowa and afterward was twice reelected to that position. At the close of his third term in the lower house he was elected without opposition to the senate for a term of four years. He made a splendid record in the legislature and was one of the pioneers in the introduction of bills for the control of railroad corporations. He secured passage through the house of the bill to drive " wild cat " currency out of Iowa and was chairman of the committee to investigate the Fort Madison penitentiary in 1872, writing the report which prevented the state from paying a claim of prison labor contractors amounting to forty-seven thousand dollars. In this report it was recommended that a new penitentiary be erected at a point where rock could be quarried, the new penitentiary at Anamosa being the result of this recommendation. In 1872 he was a candidate for state treasurer upon the republican ticket and received a very large vote but was not elected. He was prominent in the Grange movement and was the author of the monster petition signed by seventy thousand Iowa farmers asking the legislature to regulate the railroad charges. On August 13, 1890, Mr. McNutt was appointed by President Harrison as consul to Maracaibo, Venezuela, but after a brief residence at the capital of the South American republic he found the climate too severe and resigned, returning to his home. He served most acceptably as city judge of Muscatine in 1894 and 1895 and in many ways demonstrated unusual ability and fidelity as a public officer.
On April 14, 1857, Mr. McNutt was united in marriage to Miss Anna E. Lucas of Portsmouth, Ohio, a daughter of William Lucas and a niece of Robert Lucas, ex-governor of Ohio. In August, 1889, while Mrs. McNutt was visiting her son in Nebraska, she was taken ill and died. The children of the family now living are : William L., living near Ord, Nebraska, who married a Miss Brand and is the father of one daughter, Zona ; Robert S., a record of whom appears elsewhere in this review ; and Samuel, who is now a practicing dentist in Des Moines, Iowa. The sons are all graduated from college.
For twenty years Mr. McNutt was an officer of the Muscatine County Agricultural Society. He was a member of the Scotch-Irish Society of America and also of the Presbyterian church. He joined the Washingtonians as a boy and was a lifelomg advocate of temperance. He was identified with the Odd Fellows from 1851, with the Union League from 1861 and with the Patrons of Husbandry from 1972. As a pioneer of Iowa Mr. McNutt witnessed the marvelous transformation by which the vast region west of the Mississippi river has been made the abode of millions of human beings. He participated in the exciting times of the Civil war and noted the world-wide changes that have taken place on account of that great event. He was an active and successful factor in promoting the interests on his adopted state and at all times a willing supporter of every beneficial cause. Broad-minded and progressive, he ably performed his part as a leader in a commonwealth whose citizens are noted for their intelligence and high character. It was by such men that the republic has been preserved.
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