Representative Samuel McNutt View All Years

Mr. President: Your committee appointed to draft resolutions commemorative of the life and public services of the late Samuel McNutt, beg leave to submit the following resolutions and recommend their adoption:

Samuel McNutt was born in Londonderry, Ireland, November 21, 1822. His ancestry was of that Scotch immigration which went into Ireland some two and a half centuries ago, and which in two hundred years has furnished our country with some of the best people that have builded this nation. His ancestors were distinguished in conection with the border chivalry of Scotland and in the events of the Covenanter days. When quite small, his parents brought him to America, and made their home in the State of Delaware, where young McNutt grew to manhood. Here he did the ordinary work of a farmer’s boy, and attended school. He early showed aptitude for literature, furnishing contributions, partly poetical, to leading literary publications of the time, using the title “A Harmony Scholboy,” Harmony being the name of the school district where was his home. Some of his productions had wide circulation at the time. Graduating at Delaware College in 1848, he for some years taught school, and was for three years President of the New Castle County Teachers’ Association. Having meantime read law with the then Secretary of State of Delaware, he was in 1851 admitted to the bar. He then for three years held a chair in a college in the State of Mississippi. In 1854, he came to Muscatine, Iowa, and bought himself a farm. Not long after coming to Iowa he was principal in one of the schools of Muscatine. His journalistict training led him back to newspaper work and he was for a year or two editor of the Muscatine Enquirer, at the time a journal of much prominence in the state. In 1857, he became associated with Jospeh B. Dorr (afterwards Colonel of the Eighth Iowa Cavalry) in the editorial work of the Dubuque Express and Herald, then the leading Democratic paper in the state. When the war began, Mr. McNutt announced himself as strongly in favor of the most vigorous measures for suppressing the rebellion. In that interest, he published for a short time a paper known as the Daily Evening Union, at Dubuque. Subsequently he was for a brief period one of the editors of the Dubuque Times. Returning to the County of Muscatine in 1862, he was the next year elected by the Republicans of the County to the House of Representatives and was twice re-elected. In that body he was urgent for legislative control of railroads and introduced bills looking in that direction. He was chosen to the Senate in 1869, serving through the Thirteenth and Fourteenth General Assemblies, the latter of which enacted the Code of 1873, in which Mr. McNutt took an active part. He was a safe and sagacious legislator and an earnest advocate of what he thought to be right. Later in life he was appointed by President Harrison Consul to Maracaibo, Venezuela.

April 14, 1857, he was united in marriage with Anna Lucas, a niece of Robert Lucas, twice Governor of Ohio, and afterwards Governor of the Territory of Iowa. To this union were born three sons: Dr. Robert S. of Muscatine; W. L., now of Ord, Nebraska, and S. B. McNutt.

It has been well said of him that just prior to the war, during that convulsion, and after it for some years he was one of the men most talked of in Iowa. Throughout all the active years of his useful life he was more or less prominent in the history of our state. He continued in vigorous health until within a few weeks of his decease, which event occurred on the morning of January 10, 1911. He was much interested in the work of the Pioneer Lawmakers’ Association.

Resolved, by the Senate, That in the death of Honorable Samuel McNutt the state has lost one of her most useful and honored citizens, the memory of whose life and service will long remain with all.

That the Senate extends to his family its sincere sympathy.

Resolved, That these resolutions be printed in the Journal and a copy there of engrossed and duly authenticated by the President and Secretary of the Senate be presented to his family.

A. M. GARRETT,

H. R. CHAPMAN,

ROBERT HUNTER,

Committee.