William Nutter, son of William and Dinah (Ingham) Nutter, was born in Philadelphia, on June 9, 1859. "Will", as his family called him, was a few days short of his first birthday when his parents -- after traveling by rail and water from Philadelphia to Florence, Nebraska --began the journey by wagon train to Salt Lake City, Utah. In later years, Will would relate that he was "hog-tied" into the wagon by his parents who feared he could fall out undetected. Will contracted whooping cough like so many other children on the way. Fortunately, he survived, unlike so many others.
Disillusioned by their experience with the Mormans in Salt Lake City, Will's parents left the valley and settled in Wood River Junction (now Shelton), Nebraska. An Indian scare motivated his parents to take the family back to England, but they soon returned to Nebraska when things had settled down.
Laura Myrtle Comstock, the second child and eldest daughter of (George) Elmer Comstock and his wife Evalina Rosaltha (Eastman) Comstock, born in Lisbon, Illinois on February 22, 1874. The family moved to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin in 1888, then back to Gibbon, Nebraska in March, 1890
In the spring of 1890, thirty-one-year-old Will Nutter met a beautiful and petite sixteen-year-old girl, Laura Myrtle Comstock, at a dance in Gibbon. Will and Laura were married at her father's home in Gibbon on Thanksgiving Day, 1891.
Will and Laura had thirteen children:
| William Orville Nutter | Born in 1893. William married Myrtle Pearl Reese and the had four children. |
| Pearl Lurella Nutter | Born in 1895. Pearl married Coyd John Pickrell and they had four sons, but sadly only two sons survived to become adults. |
| Perry Alden Nutter | Born in 1897. Perry married Dorothy Wilke and they had 7 children. Perry and Dorothy eventually divorced. |
| Wellington Thomas Paine Nutter | Born in 1899. 'Duke' married Wilma Hazel Dettamore and the had 3 sons and 2 daughters, the eldest of which died shortly after birth. |
| Lincoln Banks Nutter | Born in 1901. 'Banks' married Isabella Whitcher and they had 7 children. |
| Ebert Ingersoll Nutter | Born in 1902. Ebert was kicked in the head by a horse and died in 1914. |
| Everette Clinton Nutter | Everette married Lois Frost McDaniels, who was divorced with four daughters when she married Everette. They had a daughter together, but soon divorced. Everette then married Wanda Nadine Keenan, widow of Everette's youngest brother Darwin. Darwin and Wanda had 3 daughters, and Everette assumed the care of them. |
| DeForest Gilman Nutter | Born in 1905. 'Forest' married Edith Koons and they had one child. |
| Victor Hugo Nutter | Born in 1907. Victor married Esther Bell and they had 4 children. |
| Evalina Rosaltha Nutter | Born in 1908. Evalina married Royal Lawrence Holmes and they had four children, however only two of them lived to attain adulthood. |
| Jessie Muriel Nutter | Born in 1910. 'Muriel' married Luther Claude Scott and they had two children, but eventually divorced. She remarried to Dewey Emmanuel Lamb. |
| Eldore Emmanuel Nutter | Born in 1911. Eldore married Doris I. VandeKamp, but they had no children. |
| Darwin Clifford Nutter | Born in 1913. Darwin married Audrey Angela Bayley and they had 2 children, but eventually divorced. Darwin remarried to Wanda Nadine Keenan and they had 3 daughters prior to Darwin's death at the young age of 49. Wanda then remarried Darwin's elder brother Everette. |
Will bought and farmed a piece of property adjacent to that of his parents. Will tended to speculate, rarely successfully, but still ran a lucrative farm and the family was always well provided for. Laura was an accomplished and talented seamstress and made almost all of the children's clothes.
In 1913, shortly after Will and Laura’s twelve-year-old son suddenly died, Will, Laura and the family moved to Scotts Bluff in western Nebraska, selling the farm and their homestead to Will's brothers. They moved into a rather large rented home and took in several boarders as well. Will and Laura dabbled in a couple of business ventures; a laundry and a restaurant/cafe called the "Dew Drop Inn". In late 1920, Will sold the businesses and took the family back home to Gibbon, where he bought back some of his land from his brothers, leased it out to others, and considered himself retired. A much more detail history of the lives of Will and Laura Nutter can be found in The Life and Times of William and Dinah Nutter, Prairie Pioneers, written by Michael Scheuer, who is decended from Will's mother's sister Mary Ann Ingham.
Will died from a cancerous tumor at the age of 74 on August 26, 1937. He was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Gibbon. Laura lived only four more years and died of bone cancer in Yuba, California on 26 September, 1937 at the age of 63.