Ancestor Archives: Henry Lee Nutt (1824-1899)

by Rocky Macy

Henry Lee NUTT, the second oldest of at least sixteen children born to David Granville NUTT and Sarah Ann LANDERS, was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on December 27, 1824.  He married Celana RUTLEDGE, the daughter of Thomas RUTLEDGE and Angeline GRINDSTAFF, sometime around 1850, probably in Newton County, Missouri.  Henry Lee NUTT passed away in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, on October 4, 1899, just eighty-eight days before the start of the twentieth century.
 
Henry Lee NUTT was my g-g-g-grandfather.
 
Henry’s parents and eight children were living in Bedford County, Tennessee, when the 1840 census was taken, and although that census did not list any family members by name except for the heads of the household, Henry NUTT can be identified because one NUTT family has a head of household named “David” and the demographics of the family fit that of David and Sarah Ann NUTT – with a free white male between the ages of 15 and 19 listed who would have been Henry. 
 
By the time of the 1850 US Census, the first to contain names and ages of all family members, 24 –year-old Henry (who was probably twenty-five) was living in  “Jackson and Van Buren” of Newton County, Missouri, in the household of Thomas and Angeline RUTLEDGE, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, along with his sixteen-year-old bride, Celana NUTT.   Six-year-old Jacob “GRINESTAFF,” who was likely Angeline’s nephew, cousin, or younger brother, was also a resident of that household.
 
Henry’s parents were living in Van Buren Township of Newton County, Missouri, in 1850.   That household included Henry’s father and mother, David (age 53) and Sarah Ann (43), along with their oldest daughter, Elizabeth WRIGHT (23), her husband, Jackson WRIGHT (22) and their son, George M. WRIGHT (2).  Also in that household were six other children of David Granville and Sarah Ann (LANDERS) NUTT.  They included:  Jesse (15), Jacob (14), John (11), Abram (10), Susan (7), and David (2).
 
Even though David Granville NUTT secured land in Newton County, he and Sarah Ann at least two of their sons, Jacob and Abram, were living in Johnson County, Texas, in 1860, and most of the NUTT family, with the exception of Henry, were in Hood County, Texas soon after the Civil War.    Four of the NUTT sons became prominent local farmers and businessmen in Hood County.  Sarah Ann’s brother, Abel LANDERS, who had served in the Missouri Legislature from Newton County in 1842-44, 1846-48, and 1852-54 also relocated to Hood County where he became a judge who helped in the establishment of the community of Granbury, a political maneuver that resulted in a personal profit for some of his NUTT nephews.
 
Between the years of 1850 and 1860 Henry and Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT had a good start on their own family, and when Henry’s parents and brothers moved off to Texas, he and Celana remained behind in Newton County, Missouri, close to her parents.  Their first five children were born in Newton County between 1850 and 1860, and by the time that their final child, Henryetta, was born in 1880, the family had a total of nine children.  In addition to those nine, Henry and Celana also had six or more grandchildren who resided with them at one time or another, at least four of whom they raised.
 
The 1860 US Census found 35-year-old Henry and 25-year-old “Celina” living in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, along with their five children:  Thomas (age 10), Angeline (8), Sarah (6), David (4), and “Celina” (1).  The family’s last name was mistakenly recorded by the census taker as “WUNTT.”    Also living in the household were Mary COPLAND (19) and Penna COPLAND (6 months).  On that census Henry’s occupation was listed as a farmer, and the family’s relationship to Mary COPLAND and her daughter was not given.
 
When the 1870 US Census was taken, the family was still residing in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, and Henry was still listed as a farmer.  The census taker spelled the family’s surname as “NATT.”   It included Henry (age 40 – and off by at least five years), and “Salina” (33 – and off by at least two years). The children in the household included “Phebe A.” as 21 when she was in fact about four-years-old, Angeline (18), (David) Jackson (13), “Salina” (10), and (Mary) Evaline (8).
 
The census taker in 1880 took more care with spelling.  That US Census included Henry Nutt (age 55) a constable and farmer, Celana Nutt (46), Sarah E. Hankins (their daughter) (28), David J. Nutt (22), Celana Nutt (20), Phoebe A. Nutt (12), Thos. F. Nutt (an out-of-wedlock child of their daughter, Angeline Nutt) (8), Susan L. Nutt (6), William H. Laws (another son of Angeline’s – but one who had a biological father of record) (6), Elizabeth Hankins (Sarah’s daughter) (5), “Henrietta” Nutt (4 - and probably should have been "4 months"), Henry Hankins  (Sarah’s son) (4) and Mary Laws (Angeline’s daughter who also had a biological father of record) (4).
 
The total roster of children for Henry and Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT includes:  Thomas Benton NUTT (1850-1902), Angeline NUTT 1852 - after 1876), Sarah Elizabeth NUTT (ca.1854-1891), David Jackson NUTT (1857-1936), Celana Celasia NUTT (1859-1887), Mary Evaline NUTT (1861-1944), Phoebe Ann NUTT (1866-1954), Susan S. NUTT (1874-1951), and Henryetta NUTT (1880-1928).

 
Thomas Benton NUTT married Lucinda Ann BOYD, Angeline NUTT married Isaac N. LAWS, Sarah Elizabeth NUTT married Hiram F. HANKINS, David Jackson NUTT married Ella L. PETERS, Celana Celasis NUTT married David McClellan SAYERS, Mary Evaline NUTT married 1. Moses HARPOOL;  and, 2. George Marion YOACHUM, Phoebe Ann NUTT married Orlando Breese McKNIGHT, Susan S. NUTT married L.A. FRENCH, and Henryetta NUTT married 1. William Glen SHELDON;  and, 2. Ernest E. ROBERTS.

 
Henry and Celana stayed behind in Missouri to begin their family when Henry’s parents and brothers moved to Texas in the late 1850’s.    At present it is unclear whether he served in the Civil War or not.   An entry in the “Special (Veteran’s) Census of 1890” for Newton County  and reported in Volume II of the 3^rd Series of “Pioneers of the Six Bulls, the Newton County, Missouri Saga” – compiled by Larry A. JAMES - contains the following information:
 

“NUTT, Henry, Com Sergeant Conference Cherokee Cavalry November 1863-May 1865 Neosho (Line drawn through all information.)”

 
Henry NUTT, like his uncle, Abel LANDERS who had moved to Texas with Henry’s father and mother (Abel’s sister), had an interest in public service.   However, Henry’s ambition was in the field of law enforcement.   During his lifetime Henry NUTT served as a deputy sheriff of Newton County, the county jailer, and city marshal for the town of Neosho. He also ran for sheriff of Newton County at least one time, but was unsuccessful in that election.  Henry’s various law enforcement positions led to several articles in the local press.
 
There was a brief mention in the “Neosho Times” newspaper in 1880 that was repeated on December 2, 1920 in the newspaper’s “Forty Years Ago” feature.  It related:
 

“J.R. McElhany, the new sheriff, entered upon his official duties Monday.  He selected Henry Nutt as his deputy.”

 
The following piece ran in a local newspaper (probably the “Neosho Times” during the three years or so that Henry worked as the deputy for Sheriff McELHANY.  The article was located on an Ancestry.com page and the person who clipped it did not include its source.    The piece was titled “Records of Jailbirds,” so it may have been taken from a collected history of Neosho or Newton County.  It reads as follows:
 

“Records of Jailbirds”
 
“Sheriff McElhany and Deputy Sheriff Nutt went down to Pineville Monday to deliver a couple of prisoners, Beavers and Copples, who have been confined to our jail for safe-keeping.
 
“A short review of the crimes committed by the persons who are now or recently have been confined in the Newton County jail may not be uninteresting, and we append the following:
 
“Last winter Beavers made a tour of the neighborhood near Pineville with two horses and the running gear of a wagon.  First he stole a wagon bed and afterward everything he could get his hands on and remove to his wagon.  Bacon, flour, axes, sows, chains, plows, and many other things found their way into this wagon.    During the night a light snow fell, and the next morning it was a very easy matter to follow the wagon track in the snow.  As soon as the officers were notified of the thefts, they set out in pursuit and soon overtook Beavers with his wagon, loaded with almost everything necessary to carry on the farming business.  Beavers was accompanied by his half-brother, a boy thirteen-or-fourteen-year- old.  They were arrested and taken to Pineville.  The two were chained together and placed under guard to await action of the grand jury which was to meet in a few days.
 
“By some means, the chain was broken and Beavers made his escape before the grand jury (met).  He was afterward recaptured.”

 
(Put a pin in Beavers.  He will pop up again in another escape.)
 
The following appeared in the Crimes and Accidents section of “Goodspeed’s 1888 History of McDonald and Newton Counties” (page 207):
 

“The killing of Charles Grayson by Charles Cross, at Neosho took place on October 1, 1881.  Cross fled, but was captured by Deputy Nutt and Sam. Hammer in the woods northeast of the town.  In February, 1882, Cross received a sixty years’ sentence.”

 
And now, back to Beavers, the escape artist.   “Goodspeed’s 1888 History of McDonald and Newton Counties” (page 208) recounted this tale:
 

“In June, 1882, Jack Sheldon, Tom Beason, and Bill Beavers, three prisoners in the county jail, threw lime in Jailer Henry Nutt’s eyes and escaped.  O.H. Bender pursued Beavers and captured him.  Jack Nutt (Henry’s son, David Jackson NUTT), wounded Beason on Hickory Creek, and captured him, and after a long search for Sheldon he was found, wounded, and captured.  This Sheldon murdered Smith in January, 1882.”

 
The following article actually has more to do with Sheriff McELHANY than it does Henry NUTT, but I chose to include it because it adds to the overall character of rural law enforcement at the time.  It was taken from the “Neosho Times” newspaper of October 23, 1913, in a feature entitled “Thirty Years Ago” – so it would have occurred in October of 1883:
 

“J.T. McElhany was sworn is as acting sheriff by Circuit Clerk Morrow Friday morning.  He appointed J.B. McElhany as deputy and Henry Nutt jailer.    He has armed himself with a weapon taken from a prisoner a year or so ago.  It is a rifle which has had the barrel sawed off to about six inches in length and a handle put on, thus making it a regular “hoss” pistol.  He lugged it around manfully until he found it was loaded almost to the muzzle.  He then hired some boys to take it out in the woods, tie a string to the trigger and, after retreating to a safe distance, fire it off.”

 
The next year, 1884, Henry NUTT ran for city marshal of Neosho and won that position, but he had resigned by the following year.  The following was taken from “Goodspeed’s 1888 History of McDonald and Newton Counties” (page 266):
 

“The Neosho election of 1884 resulted in the choice of Dr. A. Maas for mayor, J.M. Propst, H.C. Abbott, Horace M. Linee, and John Myers for aldermen, and Henry Nutt for marshal.    In 1885 the officers elected were D. Markey, J.T McElhany, N.J. Phillips, aldermen, S.D. Boyd, marshal to fill unexpired term of Henry Nutt, resigned;  Luke Kelly was appointed treasurer, C.M. Robeson, collector, John M. Sherwood, street commissioner, S.H. Woodfin,  city attorney;  and R.M. Randle, city clerk.”  

 
By 1888 Henry NUTT was again back in the news, this time when he was nominated to run for county sheriff by the Union-Labor Party.  The following ran in the “Neosho Times” newspaper on August 16, 1938 in the feature entitled “Fifty Years Ago,” so it would have occurred in 1888:
 

“The Union-Labor party assembled in convention Tuesday and nominated the following ticket:  county representative, George Frank (D);  sheriff, Henry Nutt (D);    collector, B. Dalton, (D);   treasurer, J.H. Miller (D); assessor, King Graham (R);   surveyor, E.M. Rosenberry (D):  public administrator, Scott Ferris (R);  coroner, Dr. J.R. Smith (D);  western judge, D.A. Burch (R);  eastern judge, E.T. Gaither.”  

 
Celana (RUTLEDGE) NUTT passed away in April of 1894 leaving Henry to endure the final five-and-a-half years of his life as a widower.  He died on October 4, 1899, in Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, and is buried beside Celana at I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) Cemetery in Neosho.    
 
Henry NUTT was a force in his community, and the legacy of Henry and Celana lives on through the lives and achievements of their many descendants who still make their homes in Newton County, Missouri, and the surrounding area.  
 
This NUTT tree has deep roots and many branches!