Central California Biographies

A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California : illustrated : containing 
a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its discovery to the 
present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future, illustrations and full-page portraits of 
some of its eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers, and prominent citizens of 
to-day (1893)

Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Author: Barrows, Henry D; Ingersoll, Luther A

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

 

WILLIAM D. TUTTLE, of Watsonville, California, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, 
August 29, 1821, and is the oldest son of Hiram and Annie (Dille) Tuttle, natives of Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey respectively. When William was two months old his parents moved to Ohio, 
where he was educated in the district schools, such as they were, and brought up to work on a 
frontier farm, grubbing, making rails, chopping, etc. At the age of eighteen he went to Iowa with 
his father. When he was twenty-one years old, he left home and settled on a claim near Ottumwa. 
On this he remained until 1857, when he went to Johnson county, Kansas, and bought 160 acres 
of land. There he farmed till 1875. That year he came to California and located in Watsonville, 
where he has since remained. He has a neat home in the town, and a fine little fruit ranch adjoin-
ing, and here he is spending the evening of his life, surrounded with the comforts and luxuries that 
this sunny clime affords. He has been a farmer all his life, and for fifty-eight years has never missed 
plowing and sowing some ground. Though now well advanced in years, he still does not feel right if 
he cannot plow a small patch of ground and plant out something which he can watch grow. 

Mr. Tuttle was married November 9, 1848, to Sarah A. Rouse, a native of Indiana, and a daughter 
of David and Eliza (Mansan) Rouse. Following are their children: Milton, a butcher of Watsonville; 
Elizabeth A.; Mary F., wife of 0. A. Cook; and Flora B., deceased. The mother died November 28, 
1888, aged fifty-nine years. Mr. Tuttle is a highly respected citizen, and an intelligent supporter of 
the Prohibition party. He has never paid a dollar for any intoxicant as a beverage.