Thomas E. Tutt

As printed in 1899

Tutt, Thomas E., merchant and banker, was born October 9, 1822, in the town of Luray, Page County, Virginia, and died in St. Louis, March 28, 1897. His father was Dr. Gabriel Tutt, a well known Virginia physician, who removed with his family from that State to Missouri in 1835. The son was thirteen years old when the family removed to this State, and up to that time had enjoyed good educational advantages. In Cooper county, where the new home was established, he completed a practical education which fitted him for business pursuits, ami at sixteen years of age he began clerking in a store. He had a natural genius for trade, and this, combined with steady habits, close application to his duties and a conscientious devotion to the interests of his employers, caused him to be advanced steadily from one position of trust and responsibility to another. Carefully saving his earnings, he found himself in possession of a cash capital of one thousand dollars when he was twenty-two years of age. Associating with himself a for- mer schoolmate, he opened a general store at Camden, Ray County, Missouri, in 1844, and their venture proved an entire success. After an experience of four years as a country merchant, in the course of which he had added largely to his cash capital, and had at the same time gained a still more valuable knowledge of Western trade, he determined to embark in business on a larger scale, and removed to St. Louis, where he established himself in the wholesale boot and shoe trade, in company with James S. Watson, and under the firm name of Tutt & Watson. At the end of five years this firm was dissolved, and the extent of their success is evidenced by the fact that they divided profits amounting to $84,000. With the handsome capital which he now had at his command, Mr. Tutt engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business, from which he retired in 1858, on account of ill-health. After a season of rest and recreation, he again engaged in a branch of the wholesale trade, in 1859, dealing chiefly in New Orleans molasses and sugar products. In [860, in company with his brother, D. G. Tint, and John ['. Bakery he organized another wholesale and commission house, from which he withdrew in 1X64. With R.. Donald, of St. Joseph, Missouri, and 1 G. I'utt. he then established a mercantile house at Virginia City, Montana, a gold mining center about sixty miles southeast of Butte (it.. In [865, on the advice of his physician, who recommended a change of climate fur the improvement of his health, he went t.> the Rocky Mountain region, and for several years thereafter he spent a large portion of his time looking after his business enterprises there. During the winter of 1865-6 there was a great rush of miners into what was known as the "Sun River" mining region, and the unusual severity of the winter caused much suffering among the fortune-hunters. Their pitiable condition appealed strongly to the sympathies of Mr. Tun, and his establishment of a hospital, in which they were treated and cared for. caused him to lie regarded as a public benefactor by those with whom he was thus temporarily brought into contact, lie returned to St. Louis in 1870, and was thereafter most prominently identified with the banking interests of the city. As early as 1854 he had been made a director of the old State Bank of Missouri, the first bank established west of the Mississippi River, and had had occasion to make a somewhat careful study of the banking business. Soon after his return from the Rocky Mountain country he ass ciated himself with James M. Franciscus, and together they founded the Haskell Bank, of which he became president. Later he was identified with the Lucas Rank as a director, and in 1877 became president of the Third National Bank, holding the latter position until July of 1889, when he resigned. At the time '>i his death he was a director of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company. He was an intelligent student of financial problems, and from time to time wrote entertainingly and instructively on financial topics, lor several years he served as a director of the Wabash Railroad Company, and in 1884 the great re- 5p msibilitj was imposed upon him of adjusting the affairs of the Wabash Railroad as receiver for the company. For many years he was president of the board <>f trustees of the Missouri Institution for the Blind, and served 1- president also of the Mercantile Library

Association. I lis religious affiliations were with the Presbyterian Church, and in politics he was a Democrat of the old school, being especially prominent during the later years of his life in the advocacy of a sound financial system for the United States. He was married, in 1855, to the eldest daughter of Dr. James H. Bennett, and niece of Honorable James S. Rollins, of Columbus, Missouri. Mrs. Tutt died in 1864, and in 1871 he married Miss Sallie R. Rhodes, daughter of Colonel Clifton Rhodes, of Danville, Kentucky. His wife and two daughters are the surviving members of his family.

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography (v. 4) (1899). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.