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William Nutter, aged 22 years, and Dinah Ingham, aged 18 years were married in Lancashire, England in 1852. (Newchurch-in-Pendle records show the baptismal date for William to be 3 January 1830 and for Dinah to be 1 June 1834. Their marriage license was issued 10 April 1852. Different sources have placed William's birth date from 1826 to 1830.)
In the family of William Nutter there were 19 children, all from the same parents. (Descendants of Nancy Nutter Stanworth in Utah claim that there were 21 children, all single births. We have found parish records of 18 of these.) Mr. Nutter recalls seeing 15 of these children seated together at his father's table. In Mrs. Nutter's family there were seven children.
Mr. Nutter, from his earliest youth, was taught the spinner's trade and worked at this trade until he rose to the position of foreman of the card room before leaving England. Mrs. Nutter, as a small child, wound bobbins for weavers, and when older worked in cotton and woolen mills.
About this time there were many Mormon preachers in both England and Wales. (The Mormon church had been established in America by the prophet Joseph Smith in 1830 and within 20 years missionaries had been sent to England). Large numbers of the people in these parts of England were converted to the Mormon faith and emigrated to Utah. These Mormon preachers strongly preached theirs as the only true Christian religion, that Mormons were the Saints of God, and Utah the promised land where all true Mormons should dwell far from the non-believing Gentiles. At the first, polygamy was not preached as a part of the Mormon faith or practice, but about this date 1853-4, its preachers becoming more bold, announced that Mormons of deep piety and good character, and who gave liberally to the church were permitted more than one wife. Mr. Nutter was converted to the Mormon faith. (Mormon Church records show that both William and Dinah were baptized 10 October 1852 at Accrington, England. William attained the priesthood 30 July 1855.) Mr. Nutter earnestly advocated its cause, though it seems that he gave little thought to the polygamous feature as it did not appeal to his nature or mode of life and doubtless, if he gave the matter serious thought, he deemed polygamy a privilege or right granted those most eminent and pious among the leaders. Mr. Nutter was so imbued with the truth of the Mormon faith that he attempted to convert his mother, who had already born 19 children, from her own faith and belief to that of the Mormons, but without success. Two children had been born to the Nutters (a girl, Olive, 7 April 1853, and a boy, Moroni, 14 October 1854) when, in the spring of 1855, in company with 700 other Mormon emigrants, they took passage on a sailing vessel named the Juventa, their destination Salt Lake City Utah. (The Juventa had been condemned as unseaworthy by the British government.) The passage cost about $30 for each grown person and included board. Five weeks were required for the trip, and they landed at Philadelphia, Pa. (May 5, 1855 according to Buffalo County History).
Mr. and Mrs. Nutter were without means when they landed but had been led to believe that plenty of work at good wages could be found upon arrival and they could soon save sufficient to enable them to continue their journey to Utah. Both had worked all their lives in cotton and woolen factories, and fully expected to find like employment on arrival, but were disappointed. Mr. Nutter finally secured work in a truck garden at $3 per week, working from daylight 'till dark. Work was so scarce at the time that some were compelled to work for their board and it is related that an old man, toothless, who worked for his board, was found fault with by his employer because he took so much time to eat his meals.
About this time the second child, Moroni, died of summer complaint and was buried in Philadelphia. After a few weeks Mr. Nutter found employment in a cotton factory, but was taken sick, and being without means, was compelled to ask for a ticket of admission for himself and child (Olive), they both being sick, to an almshouse, but could not secure admission for his wife. The family went together to the almshouse, arriving in the early evening. The superintendent, on coming to the door, demanded in a loud, coarse voice, "What in h__ did you come at this time of night for?" This brutal reception so angered Mr. Nutter that he left the building, and passing down a street, it being a warm evening and people sitting on their porches, inquired where he might find lodging until he was able to get work. He was taken to a building called "House of Industry", established by the Quakers for those out of work and means, where they were provided with clean beds and good food until employment could be found. When able to seek work Mr. Nutter found a man who promised employment on a railroad in the state of Delaware, and who furnished passage on a sailing vessel down the Delaware River, but furnished nothing to eat. The family had become very hungry when the Negro cook took pity and gave them a meal. Here Mr. Nutter worked two weeks, then found work for himself and wife with a farmer, but neglected to fix a price for their labor, and when leaving had little coming to them— just about enough to pay passage back to Philadelphia. They started on Saturday, and at midnight the vessel tied up until Monday morning, and the family had a hungry time.
On arriving in Philadelphia they met an Englishman who gave them some money and referred them to a friend in Gloucester, N. J. where they found employment in the "print works" and where they remained for two years. At this place the first child, (daughter Olive) died and was buried. Also, John N., the second son, was born 6 March 1856.
In the fall of 1857 the family returned to Philadelphia and Mr. Nutter found work at his trade at $1 per day wages, but soon came the Panic of 1857, and all manufacturing ceased. In the spring of 1858 he found employment at his trade as foreman of the card room at $40 per month wages. (According to another printed biography this employer was Guy Taylor & Co.) William H., the third son, was born at Philadelphia 9 June 1869. (The letter "H" was for "Hingham", Mrs. Nutter's way of pronouncing Ingham. A twin brother, named "Hingham William" did not survive, and in another Bassett history it is stated that this baby was buried beside his sister Olive.)
The family remained in Philadelphia until enough had been saved to enable them to reach Salt Lake City, Utah. They left in the spring of 1860, going by rail to a point on the Ohio River, then down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Florence, a few miles north of the present city of Omaha. They were three days making the trip from St. Joseph, MO to Florence, occasioned by getting aground on sand bars. Florence, at that date, was the assembling and outfitting point for all Mormons going overland to Salt Lake City.
On this trip Mr. Nutter and family were accompanied by Mrs. Samuel Stanworth and child, Mrs. Stanworth being a sister of Mr. Nutter. Mr. Stanworth had secured passage overland as a teamster in a freighting outfit.
In Florence Mr. Nutter purchased a yoke of oxen, a new wagon, a cow and food sufficient for the entire trip. Another family furnished a yoke of oxen and shared the wagon with Mr. Nutter's family during the trip. John was about four years of age and William eleven months (establishing their departure date in May of 1860). The train consisted of 75 wagons mostly drawn by two yoke of oxen. Most of the members of the outgoing emigrant train, of which the Nutters formed a part, were armed with cast-off government muskets as defense against the Indians. While they were continually in fear and dread of attack by Indians, they were seldom disturbed and this only when a single individual or small party became detached from the main body of the train. The Mormon immigrants traveled with ox teams, which were not nearly as inviting to attack by Indians as were horse-teams.
A daughter of Hyrum Smith (brother of Joseph Smith who had been martyred in Illinois in 1844) and her husband and children accompanied the train, the captain being John E. Smith, a son of Hyrum. All emigrants were supposed to carry provisions sufficient to last the entire trip, but some were wasteful and were entirely out of food before reaching the end of the journey. Mrs. Nutter says she feared more than wild Indians these famished emigrants when they came demanding food. A few days before the John E. Smith train left Florence, a hand cart train, that is, a party of emigrants carrying all their belongings on hand carts which the emigrants pushed or pulled, started out ahead and reached Utah some two weeks in advance of the Smith train. Owing to the crowded condition of their wagon, Mrs. Nutter walked the entire distance, riding less than 25 miles. Rice was the principle food used by the Nutters on the journey, this with the milk of their cow making a satisfactory meal. The captain of the train, John E. Smith, had frequently traveled the trail. He was a very profane man and a drunkard. When drunk he would not allow the train to break camp and they were much delayed on his account. On one such occasion he did not break camp until afternoon and then announced they would travel in the night to make up lost time. For fear William, the baby, might fall out of the wagon in the dark and be run over, Mrs. Nutter tied him with a rope to the bows of the wagon cover. While driving in the night on this occasion, a teamster, in lighting his pipe, frightened his oxen and this, in turn, caused a stampede of other ox teams, and the loose stock, cows and other cattle. Mrs. Nutter had milked their cow previous to the start and carried the milk in her hand so as to have it for supper when they camped for the night. In the stampede of the teams and stock she was knocked down and her milk spilled but she was not injured. One child was seriously injured and some of the wagons were broken so that when the teams were finally quieted the party was compelled to camp in order that repairs might be made. Late in the night the captain of the train came back, furious with rage and cursing because they had not continued the day's drive until they reached the camping place he had selected. During the trip twelve children died of whooping cough, one of the number being the daughter of Mr. Nutter's sister, Mrs. Stanworth. (Stanworth family records place this death of Elizabeth Ann on August 10, 1860 at the age of six months.) John N. recalls being awakened before daylight in the morning to take a last look at his little cousin who lay dead in a cracker box much too short for a comfortable bed, and who was buried in a grave beside the trail, early in the day, so as not to delay the journey of the train. Mrs. Nutter had the whooping cough but neither of her children got it.
Accompanying the train was a family, husband, wife and three children, possessed of considerable means; three good horse teams, a good wagon and abundant outfit for the trip. The three children sickened and died. The drunken captain, John E. Smith, neglected to caution the emigrants not to allow their animals to drink of the alkali water, and, as a result, this family thus lost some of their valuable horses. Finally, after having buried his three children along the trail, he also had to bury his wife without a coffin on the high divide where, it is related, the waters from one spring flow, one part towards the distant Pacific and the other part to the far-away Atlantic.
Towards the farther end of the journey the Mormon authorities had stored food for such emigrants as could pay for the same, and it was also furnished those without means. Emigrants arriving at Florence and without means had been furnished provisions to make the trip to Salt Lake, but all such assistance was required to be paid in full before such persons were allowed to leave the Mormon settlements. One young man who had preceded his parents to Utah, learning that they were coming with this train, came on foot 75 miles to meet them. The greatest suffering on the part of the emigrants on this journey was for want of water while crossing the alkali plains and in the mountains. Much of this suffering would have been avoided but for the drunken captain, who sometimes failed to advise where water could have been found, and thus save long drives between camps. Also, had the emigrants known the distance to the next water camp, they might have carried water at times to help relieve the great thirst endured often. There were drives of two days without water other than the little carried, and on one occasion, three days. At this time the oxen became unmanageable and in the heat of the day refused to proceed. There was great fear that all would perish. On this occasion Mrs. Nutter and another woman went some distance in search of water and finally found two tiny streams about as large as lead pencils, but which helped to relieve the thirst of their families. Mrs. Nutter cannot recall that any persons perished for lack of water, but there was great suffering and danger, and some of the livestock died.
Mrs. Nutter relates that on the ship, Juventa, at Florence, and on the trail occasional religious services were held, and she related an incident connected with one of such services held on the trail by the captain of the train, who was also an ordained elder and preacher. Captain Smith had issued an order for religious services to be held at camp headquarters in the evening, and he commanded everyone to be present. This service Captain Smith conducted in person, during which he stated that in being ordained an elder he was also given the power to pronounce a curse on anyone. He then said that he had lost a valuable knife costing him $5 and he knew someone with the train had it, and that, if the knife were not returned, he would pronounce a curse on the one having it. At this point a Welshman jumped up and confessed that he had the knife.
This trip, begun in the early summer, was completed after the harvest of the small grain had been finished in the fall, but in time to find work in the gathering of potatoes and other vegetables. (Wagon train records show that this particular train reached Salt Lake City on 1 September 1860.) There was no welcome on the part of the Mormon church or those in authority to these emigrant members of the church who had left kindred and friends, the land of their birth, the homes of their ancestors for many generations past, and who had, amid poverty, toil and undreamed of privations, at last reached the so-called "Promised Land"— the dwelling place of the "Latter Day Saints of God". There was no preparation in advance for their known coming, no provision whatever for their comfort or necessities. Did one complain to an elder of the church that he had only a dry crust to eat and no means to buy more, he was told to "soak his bread in water", and if he lacked for vegetables, was informed that "potato tops were better than nothing". Ox teams and good, new wagons were valuable property in Utah, and at much less than their real value. Mr. Nutter traded his team and wagon for ten acres of sandy land some miles from the city of Salt Lake. Included in the trade was a lot and house of "dobie" or sun-dried brick. Timber for fuel could be had in the mountains some five or more miles distant. Work could be had at the rate of $2 per day, but the pay consisted of produce, not cash. If wheat—one bushel for a day's work—this wheat, when sold at the Mormon storehouses, brought $1 a bushel in cash. Everything not raised in Utah commanded extravagant prices. The English are great lovers of tea. To purchase one pound of tea Mr. Nutter drove to the mountains, cut and hauled a load of wood to the city, a trip, coming and going, of thirty miles.
Mr. and Mrs. Nutter at once learned that polygamy as preached in England, and as practiced in Utah, were very different propositions. In Utah any man could have all the so-called wives he could manage to get possession of. In many cases, over the objections and protests of their parents, girls only 12 and 13 years old thus became mothers of children by becoming the plural wives of Mormon officials as well as of men who held no official connection with the Mormon Church but simply were members. The Nutters soon became dissatisfied with this Mormon faith. Mr. Nutter came to be a non-believer in any form of religious belief and so continued to the end of his life.
The breaking out of the Civil War in 1860 greatly pleased the Mormon leaders who claimed that it had been prophesied by Brigham Young, and that the Gentiles in the eastern states would destroy each other and that the Indian tribes in the West would assist in the destruction. All this was believed by the Mormon people and discouraged any who thought of leaving. In 1860 one Joseph Morris claimed to have had a vision in which the Lord had appointed him to be a Moses to lead those who followed him out of the clutches of the Mormon church; that the Lord had given him a "rod" which, when waved over those who joined with him, would prevent them from injury by the Mormons. Mr. and Mrs. Nutter were inclined to join the Morris colony, which was to make settlement in a place called "Weavers Valley", the real object being to get away from the Mormons—which was a somewhat difficult matter. To fully satisfy herself, Mrs. Nutter personally called on Morris and asked if the things he told about his vision were true. Morris solemnly assured her that they were true, and that the Lord directed what was written, and while Morris himself could not read what was written, his secretary could. Morris required his followers to make all their property common. But to this the Nutters would not consent, and so did not join his followers. Morris secured a following of many hundreds and moved to Weavers Valley, but Brigham Young sent Mormon soldiers against them and Morris and his chief assistant, named Banks, were shot.
Ellen, the second daughter, was born in Utah 14 July 1861. In 1862 Mr. and Mrs. Nutter arranged to leave Utah. They traded their real estate property for two yoke of oxen and a wagon, and provided themselves with food for the journey, but had no cow. Mrs. Nutter had taken with her to Utah a weaver's loom, thinking that she might get work at her trade. This loom she traded for a gold watch. They left Utah in the month of June accompanied by no other person or family, but later fell in with two other families, each with teams. On the first day's journeys when some twelve miles east of the city of Salt Lake they were overtaken by a Mrs. Allen with whom they were unacquainted. She was barefoot, had no clothing except what she wore, and she begged to be allowed to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Nutter on the trip eastward. Mr. Allen and wife had been fairly well educated people, and had arrived in Utah with considerable property. Mr. Allen had taken younger wives and practically deserted his first wife, leaving her destitute. When he saw that she was determined to leave him Mr. Allen had agreed that she might have a yoke of oxen with which to make the journey, but neither the Nutters or Mrs. Allen dared return for the steers for fear they would be detained and not allowed to continue their journey. For some reason, not fully understood, the Allens, on their journey to Utah, had left two sacks of flour at a Mormon station east of Utah, and this flour Mrs. Allen secured and added to the food supply of the party. (A story told in the family about Mrs. Allen is that a party of Mormons in search of the escaping Mrs. Allen overtook the Nutter wagon, but they were successful in helping her to hide, and in convincing the Mormons that she had gone on ahead with another wagon.) At Fort Laramie Mrs. Allen traded a ring in her possession for a pair of shoes. A native of England, she was a glove-maker by trade and her one desire was to return to her native land.
On this journey, Mrs. Nutter relates, when about a day's drive west of Fort Laramie they met a westbound emigrant train, which had just buried two of their party. On inquiry it was learned that two men and a woman, driving a pair of good horses and leading a good saddle horse beside the wagon, had stopped at a little trading post near the fort in order to make some purchases. There were some Indians about the trading post who tried to trade for the saddle horse, but the owners would not part with it. After leaving the trading post, and while out of sight of their wagon train, these three persons were attacked by the Indians, who had probably followed them. When the three persons did not come up with the train as expected, a halt was called and a party sent back to see what had happened. They found the two men dead beside the trail and their horses gone. The woman, wife of one of the men and sister of the other, was also gone. The Nutter party had planned to take the trail on the north side of the Platte, making it necessary to cross at Julesburg. Stopping for the noonday rest the three men of the party, unarmed, went to look for the crossing place, which was out of sight of their wagons. At the ford, or crossing, they found some Indians, probably Pawnees, armed with bows and arrows. They made signs to the Indians to lay down their weapons, which they did, and they came to the three men. The Indians were beggars, wanting whiskey, tobacco, or something to eat. The Nutter party had nothing of the kind with them to give away or trade. One of the Indians, a sort of chief, who could speak English, learning that the men contemplated traveling down the north side of the Platte, threatened, that if they did so, they would be killed. And so they kept to the trail on the south side until they reached Fort Kearney. When Mrs. Nutter was asked if they had any trouble crossing the river there, she replied, "No trouble at all."
On request she described in substance the crossing as follows: "Mr. Nutter walked on the "nigh" (or near) side of the oxen, driving the team. Mrs. Allen and myself waded in the river barefoot, on the opposite or "off" side, armed with whips to keep the team from turning back. The water was not deep except in the main channel, where it came nearly up to the wagon box. The Platte River at this crossing is 1 1/2 miles from the north to the south bank. There are numerous small islands or "toeheads", as they are called locally, so that the total width of all the channels is about 4000 feet. The crossing was about three miles in length, extending from a point half a mile west of the fort on the south side to a point some two miles west of the fort on the north bank. The Platte was a dangerous stream to cross, having numerous quicksand holes, and a fall of about eight feet to the mile. In time of high water in the main channel the water often came up to the wagon box and with the tremendous fall, ran at a furious rate. With a strong wind, in time of high water, the waters were forced into one channel, washing out holes ten or more feet in depth. The writer forded the Platte at this crossing in 1871 and saw a dozen or more large strong army wagons, sunken in quicksand holes and abandoned in midstream, when doubtless attached to each one of these wagons had been four or more pairs of strong government mules, driven by experienced drivers, while the brave, sturdy pioneers, men and women, who by toil and privation, demonstrated for the benefit of future generations, the possibilities of the then Nebraska territory as a place for comfortable homes and happy families. They thought it "no trouble at all" to wade waist deep in the swift running waters of this broad stream, and by means of whips and shouting, encourage their half-frightened ox teams to drag across its sandy bottom a heavily loaded wagon containing the small children of their families and all their earthly possessions.
The objective point with the Nutter family, in leaving Utah, had been the Wood River Valley, east of Fort Kearney, as they had been favorably impressed with the appearance of the locality on their outward journey. When about a mile east of the Boyd ranch, near the present village of Gibbon, Nebraska, they overtook a freighting outfit going to the Missouri River. Mrs. Allen was desirous of joining this outfit in order to continue her journey. There was no woman with it, but Mr. Nutter arranged with the "boss" to take Mrs. Allen so far as Omaha, he promising to protect her on the trip. The Nutters never afterward heard in any manner from Mrs. Allen.
The family purchased a "squatter's right" to a claim on Wood River about two miles east of the present village of Shelton, trading therefore one of the two yoke of oxen. Mrs. Nutter traded her gold watch for a cow and here began anew the struggle for a living and a home. During the fall Mr. Nutter found work putting up hay for use at Fort Kearney, and in winter, cutting and hauling wood to the fort. Wood at that time sold for $5 and $6 a cord delivered. Mr. Nutter had never worked at farming except while in Utah, and had never raised corn. He knew nothing about farming as conducted on the prairies of Nebraska territory. In the spring of 1863 he planted a small acreage of potatoes and other vegetables and managed to break about 18 acres of prairie sod, which he planted to corn. In planting this corn a hole was cut in the sod with an ax and the kernels of corn dropped in the hole. No weeds grew, in those days, on newly broken sod, and this corn was not cultivated in any manner. Mrs. Nutter assisted in the outdoor work. From those 18 acres the Nutters harvested and sold 600 bushels of corn at $1 per bushel-$600 in all. The corn was purchased by the Holiday stage line operating on the south side of the Platte. This was more money than the family had ever had at one time before, and Mrs. Nutter related that the first article which she ordered, when the money was received, was a pair of men's boots, size five, which cost $5. There being no store nearer than Omaha, an order was made for the things needed and sent by a freighting outfit which in time delivered the goods. Mrs. Nutter recalls that cotton sheeting cost 50 cents per yard and bed ticking 60 cents. In the spring of 1864 the Nutters planted a considerable acreage of corn and vegetables, planting their corn quite early, thereby securing the promise of a bountiful crop, whereas those of their neighbors who planted late had their corn destroyed by grasshoppers which appeared in great numbers, destroying unripened corn.
In August 1864 occurred the stampede memorable in the history of Nebraska territory for the horrible atrocities committed by the cruel Cheyenne Indians. At this time practically all settlers in the territory of Nebraska, except in the near vicinity of the Missouri River, deserted their homes and traveled with all possible speed toward the eastern border of the territory. On this occasion the Nutter family was aroused in the middle of the night by a messenger from Fort Kearney, saying that the Indians were on the war path, and advising the settlers to gather at Wood River Center (later renamed Shelton) prepared to defend themselves. As the Nutter family lived some two miles east of the place of gathering it was nearly morning by the time they could rouse up their sleepy children, hitch up their ox team and reach Wood River Center. There they found some twenty or more families, of whom some persons had on little more clothing than when first aroused from their slumbers. After remaining a day and a night at the gathering place, it was agreed that it would be best for all settlers to leave the settlement. (In another account Bassett related reasons for the flight of settlers out of central Nebraska at this time. He said that while the summer of 1864 had been a quiet and peaceful one in this area, still there had been tales of Indian raids. In a massacre near Plum Creek a wagon train had been attacked and many people murdered by the Cheyenne, and more atrocities had occurred in the Little Blue Valley. Many were of Mormon background and were influenced by the prophecy concerning the destruction by the Indians of the Gentiles.) The Nutters returned to their claim, hastily placed their household effects and children in their wagon, hitching thereto their ox team, and securing the few head of other cattle, took the trail for the Missouri River, every moment in dread of attack by the savage Indians. Is it any wonder that in the hurry incident to this sudden leaving of their home that baby Ellen should have been overlooked and left asleep in a dry goods box used as a cradle? During the time that they had been living on their claim twin daughters had been born, Onie and Leonie (30 October 1863), so that the mother's arms were full even without the older child, Ellen. Some considerable distance had been thus traveled before Ellen was missed and the team halted while the anxious father returned for her.
The fright which Mr. Nutter received on the occasion of this stampede seems not to have left him until after his arrival in England. He had heard of the horrors of the Civil War then raging in the states, of the Minnesota Massacre and other Indian atrocities, knew by bitter experience, the misery and degradation of Mormondom from which he had lately escaped, and his one desire was again to reach the hospitable shores of "Old England". At Omaha the family disposed of all their belongings for what was at the time deemed a fair price. Their first objective point was Quebec, Canada, for Mr. Nutter greatly feared that he might be compelled to take part in the Civil War. Of the journey from Omaha to Quebec, Mrs. Nutter can recall nothing as to route or mode of travel. One thing she does recall with much vividness is the great astonishment she felt when crossing the "states"—probably Iowa, Illinois and Michigan—to see that the people on the farms were busily at work in the fields or building new houses and barns, and in the cities larger buildings were being erected while she had thought that in the "states" everybody was fighting and being killed. At Quebec they engaged passage on a steamer for Liverpool. England. The passage money was paid in English money or at the rate of $3 U.S. paper money for $ 1 English money. The passage took two weeks and when the family reached Liverpool they had not a cent to pay fare to their home (near Burnley). Mr. Nutter pawned a watch for enough to pay their fare and at this time the daughter Ellen again was forgotten, for when the family was seated in the railway train ready to start it was discovered that Ellen had been left asleep in the station.
Mr. Nutter at once secured work at his trade, but in less than two weeks was longing to again be in his Nebraska home. He wrote to his former employer in Philadelphia (Guy Taylor & Company) soliciting work. Back came a reply, enclosing passage money for him, and Mr. Nutter, leaving his family in England, returned to Philadelphia to begin work as foreman of the card room at the cotton factory. (Mr. Nutter was a passenger on this trip on the "City of Boston" ship, a magnificent steamship that, on its return voyage, disappeared and has never been heard from. One source says that this ship sailed in April, 1865) Mrs. Nutter remained in England some months before joining her husband in Philadelphia, (one source says six months.) While Mrs. Nutter was in England the twin daughter, Leonie, died and was buried. (She was sick on board ship and it is possible that she died at sea.) Also a daughter, Elizabeth was born (12 December 1865).
Mr. Nutter remained in Philadelphia until in the spring of 1869 when he returned to Nebraska and purchased his squatter's right to the southeast quarter of Section 8, Township 9, Range 13 west, in Buffalo County. (His former claim east of Wood River Center by this time had been taken over by someone else.).)
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For his new claim Mr. Nutter paid about $300, including improvements—log house, log barn and corral. (This land had first been settled by A.W. Story who had been killed by Indians in 1865. The log house was said to be the oldest house in central Nebraska, having been built by Mr. Story in 1859. Mr. Nutter purchased his right to the claim from the Story family.) He found work on the Martin Slattery section of the railroad. (The Union Pacific Railway had been completed across Buffalo County by 1867.)
In July of that year Mrs. Nutter and the children arrived by train. (While the family lived in Philadelphia a daughter Alice had been born 21 June 1867, and a son Thomas, for whom no date of birth has been established, but it is likely that he was born in early 1869 as he was a small baby in his mother's lap as she rode on the train to Nebraska. It happened that General U. S. Grant also was riding on that train and as he passed in the aisle by Mrs. Nutter, he looked down at the small baby who was sick, and he said, "Madam, your child is dying." The baby was dead by the time they left the train at Wood River Center. Mr. Nutter met his family as they got off the train, and somewhere on the prairie a grave was dug and the baby was buried. In later years the small grave could not be located.)
In the spring of 1870, not being able to purchase a team, Mr. Nutter hired some land plowed and this he planted to both corn and potatoes, raising good crops of both. His crop of corn he sold for 50 cents per bushel to a party on a ranch in the Republican River Valley some fifty miles to the southwest. The potatoes he stored in a cave and later sold at good prices when the colony (Gibbon Homestead Colony) arrived 7 April 1871.
The crop of 1870 enabled Mr. Nutter to purchase a yoke of oxen and a cow. Through the kindness of Sgt. Michael Coady (who was of great help to the early settlers in many ways before he left Fort Kearney in 1874) he obtained a condemned army wagon. He also visited Thomas Morgan in Merrick County and secured another cow. This Morgan was one of the party who had come with the Nutters from Utah in 1862 and who had also settled in the vicinity of Wood River Center. During the "stampede" Morgon had gone east with the other settlers, but later returned in time to claim and harvest Mr. Nutter's crop of corn for which it is stated by earlier settlers who also returned after the stampede, he received $1000. This doubtless is more than the amount actually received for the corn, but it is generally agreed that Morgan did come into possession of the returns for this crop. Mrs. Nutter states that one cow was all Mr. Nutter ever received from the corn, and this from Morgan.
Mr. Nutter had not filed on his claim at the time of the arrival of the Gibbon Colony, but later filed a preemption claim, as not being a soldier, he could homestead only 80 acres within railroad limits. Under the preemption laws he paid $2.50 per acre for the land, or $400 for the quarter section. (U.S. Land Office records show that William Nutter filed a preemption claim in 1875. It has been related in the family that one day a man was seen stepping off the boundaries of the Nutter property. Mr. Nutter, having up to that time, relied upon his "squatter's rights" to protect his claim, suddenly became concerned about establishing further legal protection, and so he set forth on foot to reach the land office in Grand Island, walking all night to reach it before the other man might do so.)
John Nutter, the eldest child, was in his 16th year in 1872. The older children of the family were of great help in the opening up of the new home. Mr. Nutter and his family welcomed the coming of the colony at Gibbon. His older children were sent to schools established the first year of the colonists' arrival. The members of the colony were indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Nutter for many acts of kindness. Though but scantily supplied with farming tools themselves, they cheerfully loaned what they had to members of the colony. Mr. Nutter was a student of Huxley, Darwin, and others whose works demanded deep study and profound thought. (These books as well as the published works of Tito Vignoli, Stallo, Spencer, and others were in his library. He was, for many years, a subscriber to such magazines as Popular Science Monthly and North American Review.) He was also well versed in the subject of Free Trade from the standpoint of English practice and belief, and greatly delighted in a discussion of these and kindred subjects. He was at all times industrious and performed an incredible amount of labor, and yet was generally regarded as a "dreamer" because, while his hands were employed about the labors of his farm, his thoughts were almost wholly given to the contemplation of some profound subjects (Mrs. Nutter had not had the opportunity of getting an education as a child, and was therefore unable to read and write. However, it is told in the family, that during the time when the newspapers carried a great deal of publicity about the Alfred Dreyfus treason trial—he was wrongfully accused in 1894 and vindicated in 1906—she became so interested in the case that she taught herself to read so that she could follow the newspaper accounts like the rest of the family.)
The home of the Nutter family soon came to be one of the best-improved farms in Buffalo County. In the 1880's there was an orchard of 2000 bearing fruit trees. When this orchard came into bearing there was much loss by reason of wormy apples. Mr. Nutter, finding little of practical value in recognized authorities in regard to this pest of his orchard, set apart a room in his house where he made a scientific study of its life habits, pursuing his investigations with all the zeal and close attention to details that would be expected from a graduate of a scientific department of the state University with the initials of a degree attached to his name. The result of Mr. Nutter's study and investigations in this connection were deemed so important that the professor of horticulture at the state experimental station visited Mr. Nutter and secured these results and embodied them in a bulletin issued by the station. From these and like investigations came the present method of spraying fruit trees for the destruction of many kinds of fruit pests.
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In 1887 Mr. Nutter erected one of the finest farmhouses in the county. The house is of octagon form, 16 feet on a side, and 18 feet in height. It was furnished with hot and cold water and later a furnace has been added. There was abundant porch room, a well-kept lawn with ornamental trees and shrubs. (The family moved into this home on the day of the big-blizzard of central Nebraska January 12, 1888.) At that time a convenient barn was also erected.
After the return of the family to Nebraska in 1869, four more children were born: Jane Nutter (10 May 1870--she was named Jane after a sister of Mr. Nutter, but later changed her name to Jennie), Frank (22 April 1872), Mirabeau (18 December 1875), and Louise (2 October 1877). In all, fifteen children were born to this couple, ten of which are living and of legal age. All these children were given the benefit of common school education and some of them have been for years teachers in the public schools. (The Homestead Colony members established a school in Gibbon the same year they arrived, 1871. School District No. 8 was first organized 27 March 1872, and this country school was attended by three generations of the Nutter family over the years until it was incorporated into a larger reorganized school district in 1964. The school building itself is now the property of a grandson of William Nutter, also named William Nutter.)
All the property accumulated by Mr. and Mrs. Nutter has been by industry and economy as Mr. Nutter never speculated, nor so far as is known, had any source of income other than from his farm. (The home place is now the property of Donovan Nutter, son of Mirabeau. Other property is held by Lyman and William Nutter, sons of Frank. Harold and Donald Nutter, sons of John, also own farm properties in Buffalo County.)
Mr. Nutter died at his home on 13 May 1906 (after an illness extending seven or eight years resulting from an accidental injury to his spine which caused a progressive paralysis). He was buried in Riverside Cemetery near Gibbon.
No historical account of this family is at all complete that does not include some further mention of the mother of this family. She enjoyed little in the way of educational advantages and at an age when she should have been playing with her dolls, was helping to earn her family's living by winding bobbins for the weaver's shuttles. She, it was, who loyally, patiently, uncomplainingly followed the varying fortunes of the family, seemingly never discouraged, always hopeful, doing her full share of work most laborious, enduring her full share of all privations, bearing fifteen children, five of whom died in infancy or early youth, and were buried in widely separated graves; one in England, one in New Jersey, two in Philadelphia, and one in Nebraska.
As the years came and went, she came to be the financier of the family. She, it was, who saw that the children had food in plenty and of good quality, that they were comfortably clothed, and while to her Huxley and Darwin, and the fine-spun theories of free trade and protection were as mysterious as the letters of the Greek alphabet, yet it was she who saw that the children were regular in attendance at school, and that they attended to all the cares and duties that were assigned them.
In furnishing, from memory only, on request, something of the history of her family, its travels, its privations, its toils and struggles at times for the barest necessities of life, its times of great peril and sore affliction, she was much more likely to recall some humorous feature or incident than one of peril or privation. She seems not to realize that people who thus meet and overcome such almost insurmountable obstacles, and at last secure by industry, economy and integrity, a comfortable home for themselves and their immediate family, are the true heroes and heroines of real life.
Not withstanding all the toils and privations incident to her life and travels, in the 73rd year of her life, she pursues her daily tasks with vigor of step and a sprightliness of movement to be envied by many a person still on the sunny side of life.
(Mrs. Nutter lived to be 84 years old. She died 30 December 1918 and was buried three days later beside her husband in Riverside Cemetery.)