Sacramento Valley Biographies

HON. WILLIAM M. CUTTER

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, May 2009.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

          Conspicuous among the esteemed and respected residents of
Marysville is Hon. William M. Cutter, who is numbered among the pioneer
settlers of California and Nevada, and who has been actively identified with
the political welfare of the two states, serving in the legislatures of
both. A keen-witted, brainy and progressive man, he has the courage of his
convictions, and in whatever position he is placed his personality is felt.
Coming from distinguished colonial ancestry on both sides of the house, he
was born, in 1836, in Warren, Me., a son of Rev. Edward Francis Cutter. The
emigrant ancestor of the  Cutter family came from England to this country in
1635, and settled in Massachusetts. One of his descendants, the
great-great-grandfather of William M. Cutter, was an officer in the
Revolutionary War, serving as surgeon general of the Eastern department. Mr.
Cutter's grandfather, Levi Cutter, was engaged in commercial pursuits during
his earlier life, having an extensive trade in the East Indies. He was
afterward for many years cashier in the Atlantic Bank, of Portland, Me.

        Born and bred in Portland, Me., Edward Francis Cutter was graduated
from Bowdoin College, and ordained as a Congregational minister. He served
as pastor of the churches of that denomination in Warren and Belfast, Me.,
and in Freeport, Ill. Returning to Maine from Illinois, he became editor of
the Christian Mirror, which was published in  Portland. He died in
Charleston, S. C., in the seventy-second year of his age, in 1881. He was a
Republican in politics, and a strong abolitionist. He married Mary Elizabeth
McClellan, who was born in Warren, Me. Her father, William McClellan, a
native of Maine, traced his lineage back to John and Priscilla (Mullen)
Alden, who came over on the Mayflower. He was a large ship builder on St.
George's River for a number of years, dying in 1842. Of the children born of
the union of Rev. E. F. and Mrs. Cutter, four grew to years of maturity, and
three are living, William M. being the second child and the only son. The
mother attained the venerable age of eighty-three years, dying in 1897.

        Removing with his parents to Belfast, Me., when ten years old,
William M. Cutter completed his early education at the Belfast Academy,
studying under Prof. George Fields. At the age of sixteen years he went to
Boston in search of employment, and for about three years was a clerk in the
store of Chandler & Co. In 1855, seized with gold fever, he sailed from New
York on the steamer George Low, which was later rechristened as the Central
America, and, in 1857, was sunk off Cape Hatteras. From Aspinwall, with the
exception of a few miles that he walked, he crossed the Isthmus by rail to
Panama, where he took passage on the Golden Gate for San Francisco, arriving
there November 29, 1855, after a twenty-four days' trip. Going directly to
Tuolumne county, Mr. Cutter spent two months in mining on Coyote Creek, and
then went to Sacramento, where he became night clerk in the old Union hotel,
of which J. P. Dyer was proprietor. While thus employed he took up the study
of shorthand, and was one of the first stenographers in the state. In 1859
Mr. Cutter began reporting  for the Sacramento Daily Union, and during the
session of the state legislature he and Mr. Sumner reported the doings of
the assembly, while Messrs. Coates and Malone, of Oregon, reported the
senate. Continuing in the same position, he traveled all over the state, and
had the honor of reporting the last speech of Broderick, at Santa Clara. In
1860 he again reported the assembly for the Union, at the close of the
session resigning from that paper.

         Going to Nevada in that year, Mr. Cutter was court reporter until
1869, and during the time reported the Comstock Lode cases. Unusually quick
and alert, and very accurate, he was eminently successful as a reporter, and
his services were always in demand. While living in Nevada he served as an
assemblyman in the first and second sessions of the state legislature, being
elected by the Republicans of Storey county, and helped elect Stewart, the
first senator to the national congress from Nevada. Going to White Pine,
Nev., in the spring of 1869, Mr. Cutter remained there about three months,
when, in December, 1869, John Bigler of the Sacramento Reporter, sent for
him to go there to report the proceedings of that session of the state
assembly for his paper, and he accepted the offer made him, and remained in
Sacramento a few months. The following year  Mr. Cutter was court reporter
for the tenth judicial district, which included Butte, Tehama, Plumas and
Lassen counties, continuing until 1879, when the new constitution was
adopted. Mr. Cutter was subsequently court reporter for Butte, Yuba and
Sutter counties until 1897, but since then has reported for the judicial
courts of Yuba and Sutter counties only.

        Inheriting to some extent the political faith of his ancestors, Mr.
Cutter cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont, the Republican
candidate, and was a stanch advocate of the principles of that party for a
number of years. After the Civil War, displeased to think that Congress
allowed the southern states to come back to the Union as states, instead of
leaving them as territories for a certain number of years, he joined the
Democratic party. He remained dormant, however, until 1879, when he went as
a delegate from California to the Democratic state convention, where he
caused great conster-nation by insisting on the passage of a resolution to
prevent a political trade. In 1883 Mr. Cutter was elected a member of
assembly of the California state legislature on the Democratic ticket, and
served in that year and in the extra session of 1884. He there took an
active part in the railway legislation that proved so beneficial to the
interests of the state, and for that reason was to be read out of the party,
but said he could more quickly take himself out. In 1884, being an avowed
protectionist, and that being the main issue of the presidential campaign of
that year, Mr. Cutter returned to the Republican ranks, and has since been
an active party worker. In 1894 he was elected to the assembly of the state
legislature on the Republican ticket; was re-elected in 1896; in 1898 was
elected to the state senate, and served in the extra and regular sessions of
1899, and in the regular session of 1901; and in 1902 was 

renominated, but was defeated at the polls. In 1900 Mr. Cutter served as a
member of the executive committee and as secretary of the state central
committee; and in 1902 was elected a member of the Republican state
executive committee, and chairman of the state Republican central committee.
During his long and eventful career Mr. Cutter has had many thrilling
experiences, especially when the country was new. In 1864, in Virginia City,
Nev., during the presidential campaign there were many scenes of violence,
and on voting day he helped guard the polls. During the seven years that he
lived in Nevada there were three hundred and five deaths from violence. In
the fall of 1904 a syndicate was formed, of which Mr. Cutter was a member,
which purchased the Marysville Democrat, a non-partisan paper. Since
January, 1905, Mr. Cutter has been president of the company and manager and
editor of the paper. He also continues as court reporter of Yuba and Sutter
counties.

           In 1855, in Boston, Mass., Mr. Cutter married Ellen Parks, a
native of Massachusetts, and they have three children living, namely: Mrs.
Mary Dinsmore of Marysville; Frances; and Ella.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 519-520.