Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 1912


Rutter, Thomas Biography

While the Rutter family was originally of Germany, the Pennsylvania branch descends from Thomas Rutter, born in England and one of the early colonists of Pennsylvania. He was a blacksmith, and it is possible that he came in the employ of William Penn, as he was married at Penn 's Manor House and received from him a grant of two hundred acres of land for "smith's service." He began prospecting for iron ore, and interested others with him as Thomas Rutter & Company. He persevered until he found ore in paying quantities, then erected a smelting furnace and began making iron, being the first man in Pennsylvania to make iron from the native ore. His plant was located in then Philadelphia, but later set off as Berks county. In 1713-14-27-28 he was a member of the Provincial Assembly.

He was a member in early life of the Society of Friends, belonging to the Philadelphia meeting, also to the Abington meeting, on the records of which the births of his three eldest children are entered. Later he renounced his faith and became a Baptist, and for a time was pastor of a small congregation of that sect in Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia, March, 1730. He married, by Friends' ceremony, January 10, 1685, Rebecca Staples, who survived him. Children: Anna; Rebecca; Thomas, born 1690 (q. v.): John, 1693; Mary, married Edward Rees: Martha, married - Doughty; Hester, married Henry Hockley; Joseph, died 1732. It is from his sons Thomas, John and Joseph that most of the names in Pennsylvania descend, in fact, all who claim Rutter descend from the colonial period.

(I) The records of the branch herein recorded are from the year 1789, when Isaac Rutter was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, He grew to manhood in that county, but after his marriage he purchased a good farm in Berks county on which he resided from 1825 until his death in 1829. He is buried in the village of Douglassville, on the Schuylkill river. After his death his widow returned to Lancaster county with her children. He married Sarah Echard, born in Lancaster county, June 17, 1791, died June 19, 1876, aged eighty-five years. She was a member of the Lutheran church. Children: 1. Catherine, married Abraham Rife, of Berks county, Pennsylvania. 2. Sarah Ann, married Douglass Martin, and lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 3. George, died in Lancaster county; at the time of his death he was master mechanic of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, having formerly been a locomotive engineer. 4. Isaac Wayne, of whom further. 5. Susanna Maria, married John Bender, a merchant of Lancaster county.

(II) Isaac Wayne, son of Isaac and Sarah (Echard) Rutter, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, October 30, 1823. He was six years old when his father died and his mother returned to Lancaster county to a farm fourteen miles east of Lancaster City. He received but little schooling, never attending the public schools, but for a short time was pupil under an Irish schoolmaster who kept a private school in the loft of a neighboring farmer's spring house. He worked at farming, first doing a boy's work, as he advanced in years and strength, became a full hand. He was thrifty, and finally was able to purchase a farm for himself. He then spent four years in the employ of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, of which his brother George was master mechanic. He was employed as a wood worker. In 1867 he came to Connellsville, where for eighteen months he was employed at the bench in the carpenter shops of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad; the company then having to discharge the shop's foreman, Mr. Rutter was without solicitation on his part promoted to that position. He remained with the company twenty-one years and became master car builder of the Connellsville plant.

About 1884 he was appointed to a position in the United States internal revenue service under the Cleveland administration, serving as store keeper for the twenty-third district. He then engaged in the real estate and insurance business. In 1890 he was elected commissioner of Fayette county, serving a full term. In 1896 he was elected treasurer of the borough of Connellsville, and continuously served as such by successive re-election until the time of his death, March 18, 1912, with the single exception of the year 1903. While the foregoing covers the direct services of Mr. Rutter during his forty-five years' residence in Connellsville, it by no means covers the extent of his activities. He was one of six men who organized the first bank in Connellsville, the Yough State Bank, now the Yough National Bank. When the First National Bank was started he transferred his interest to that bank, becoming one of the stockholders. He was also one of the founders of the first daily newspaper in Connellsville, the Connellsville Courier (or News), and a director for several years; also one of the original stockholders of the Connellsville News. During his term of county commissioner a new court house was erected. As president of the board he had intimate connection with the work, and as a practical mechanic was able to judge and insist on proper material and construction. He was made a Mason at Columbia, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1855. He was always a Democrat, and was a member of the Presbyterian church, He married, November 23, 1853. Eliza J. Ray, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 1825, died August 13, 1895, daughter of John and Catherine (Slaymaker) Ray, both born in Lancaster county. After his bereavement his home at No. 416 Johnson avenue was presided over by his niece, Miss Mary Bower. This brick dwelling, built in 1876, was the first erected on that street. To his eighty-eighth year Mr. Rutter was a splendid example of clean living and uprightness of character. Always a worker, his sturdy frame showed little evidence of its weight of years. Every day, six days in every week, found him at his desk in the treasurer's office, transacting, with a clear brain, important city business. Truly the blood has not weakened since the days his pioneer ancestor tramped the hills of Eastern Pennsylvania, undaunted by successive failures, until at last the coveted ore was found and his name written in the book of fame as the "First iron master in Pennsylvania."

(II) Thomas (2) Rutter, son of Thomas (1) Rutter (q. v.), was born in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1690, and was buried in Christ Church graveyard in Philadelphia, July 3, 1738. He was an iron master and was associated with his father in iron business. He received under his father's will a plantation in Bristol township, also a third interest in the iron furnace, together with certain iron ore interests and other property. In 1729 he was elected a member of the provincial assembly. He married (first) Sarah -, who died prior to August 10, 1728, on which day he married (second) Mary Catherine, daughter of Caesar Gheslin, a Huguenot, who moved from France to England before September 9, 1692, on which day he was naturalized a citizen of London. He came to Philadelphia later and established there in business as a silversmith. He was buried in Christ Church graveyard, February 13, 1733 -1734. Children of Thomas Rutter: 1. Rebecca, born 1721, 2. Sarah, 1724. Children by second wife: 3. Catherine, died in infancy. 4. Thomas, of whom further. 5. Mary, died in infancy.

(III) Thomas (3), son of Thomas (2) Rutter, was born January 30, 1732. He became a prominent iron master and was for many years one of the justices of the peace and courts of Berks county. He married and left issue.

(IV) Thomas (4), son of Thomas (3) Rutter, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, and received a good education. He was engaged in business in Philadelphia, and Baltimore, Maryland, and was a man of considerable property. He married, in 1800, Elizabeth Asquith, and resided in his home located near the site of the present Baltimore Sun building. Thomas Rutter died in 1819, his wife surviving him several years. They left issue.

(V) George W., son of Thomas (4) and Elizabeth (Asquith) Rutter, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 25, 1803, died at 11.30 a. m., Saturday, January 9, 1897, having nearly attained his ninety-fourth year. At the age of six years he was placed in St. Mary's College, Baltimore, from which after many years study he was graduated. At the age of twenty-one years he received his portion of his father's estate, which he at once invested in a stock of dry goods that he shipped to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, over the old National road in the old Conestoga wagons then used for hauling freight. He opened his dry goods store in Uniontown in 1824, conducting business alone until 1830, then admitting John Brownfield, under the name of George Rutter & Company. In 1833 he moved to New Geneva, engaging there in the same business until 1836, then returning to Uniontown, where he became bookkeeper for F. H. Oliphant, the iron manufacturer. In 1842 he leased the Beeson flouring mill, which he operated for two years. About 1848 he opened a grocery store in the Claggett building, later moving to the Dr. Robinson building. In 1885 he erected his own building on West Main street, where he continued in business actively until within a few years of his death, and even after passing his ninetieth birthday, looking after his own affairs; and he wrote in a beautifully clear hand many items of bookkeeping.

He was remarkably well preserved both physically and mentally, his memory being unusually good. He was of social, jovial disposition, a good entertainer, and loved in his latter years to recall the happenings of fifty, sixty and seventy years previous. He made many trips east over the "Old Pike" to purchase goods in Eastern cities, and was fond of relating his experiences on that old thoroughfare. One of his customers was Dr. Braddie, the famous mail robber of about 1830, who used to send to him for drugs, one in particular that no Uniontown doctor ever used. He was a Whig and Republican, but never sought office. He was strictly temperate, and avoided all excesses that tended to induce disease or shorten life. During his long business life he carefully examined all coins that passed through his hands, selecting for preservation rare or curious ones, either foreign or domestic, and in this way he gathered a most valuable collection that was his pride. A few years before his death he sold the entire collection to an Eastern numismatist. He continued seventy years in business, longer than any other man in Uniontown. The business he founded was continued after his death by his son Hanson.

He married, December 24, 1826, Mary Beeson, a granddaughter of Henry Beeson, the founder of Uniontown, whose history is found in this work. They lived most happily together for sixty-two years, she dying June 1, 1893. They were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and contributed largely to its upbuilding in Uniontown. Children: 1. John T., born July 14, 1828, died December 25, 1833. 2. George B., died May 28, 1909, aged seventy-one years; a veteran of the civil war. 3. Hanson, of whom further. 4. Skiles, twin of Hanson.

(VI) Hanson, son of George W. and Mary (Beeson) Rutter, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1848. He was educated in the public schools, and while yet a boy began clerking in his father's grocery. He became the active manager, and after his father's death continued the business. He made the development and management of this business his life work, and most successfully conducted it until 1910, when he in turn passed it over to his sons. While not as long in business as his father, his term of active business life has covered half a century of the most eventful years of our country's progress. He is a member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics and the order of Heptasophs. In political faith he is a Republican. He married, in 1883, Virginia, daughter of John Gaddis, of another old and prominent Fayette county family (see Gaddis). Children: Henry B. and John G., neither married, and are carrying on the grocery business under the style of Rutter Brothers; Helen, deceased; George; Robert Ray; Mary Virginia; Lawrence M.; Ella C.


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.





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