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Marcus Tuttle
Cerro Gordo County
Born in Fairfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., May 10, 1830. He is the son of Ira and Lucy (Brockett) Tuttle. About the year 1842 his father moved to Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y., where he reared and educated his children as circumstances would permit. Marcus Tuttle strongly cherished an idea of obtaining a liberal education, but decided that another avenue in life would be wiser, and devoted his energies to his father's interests. He was an assiduous reader, and the pictured promises of the Great West seemed to offer a suitable field for the development of his energies. Mr. Tuttle along with his brothers proceeded direct from Des Moines to Clear Lake. He opened a farm of 200 acres on the prairie east of the lake. In 1856 he assisted in laying out the town of Clear Lake, and soon after commenced operating in real estate. He made the public interests of the village and township his own, meanwhile, and stood ready to confront any emergency which seemed to threaten the welfare of the little community. The place being without a general store, he found time to establish a mercantile business, and for several years carried on that enterprise. When circumstances seemed to require, we find him engaged in doing a banking and exchange business with his usual success. In the meantime he actively engaged in the political and civil affairs of his county and State, and generally a delegate in conventions of the State, district and county. The records of Cerro Gordo show him to have held the office of county judge for one term. He was offered and accepted the position of assessor of internal revenue, in his district of four counties. He resigned to fill the place of State Senator, to which he had been elected in his district, comprising the counties of Butler, Grundy, Franklin and Cerro Gordo serving in the Twelfth and Thirteen Iowa General Assemblies. He served his constituency in this position four years; was chairman of committee on commerce. An important work of Mr. Tuttle was the framing of the existing county high school law, which he guarded through its passage successfully when many other proposed school laws failed. From the organization of the party he was always a republican. He was married, Feb. 4, 1857, to Caroline M. Warner, of Otselic, Chenango County, N. Y. Mr. Tuttle removed to Spencer, Clay County, Iowa in March, 1879. He had become worn and wearied with his arduous life and had resolved to concentrate his means and devote them and his energies to stock-raising. After his settlement at Spencer, the Iowa and Montana Live Stock Company was organized and incorporated. He still owns a fine property at Clear Lake.
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