Fourth Generation

14. Tobias MCNUTT was born on 22 July 1813 in Lewisburg, Preble County, OH.^1,3,12 He appeared in the census in 1830 in Harrison Township, Preble County, OH.³ He appeared in the census in 1840 in Jefferson, Preble County, OH.¹³ (His family cannot be located in the 1850, 1860 or 1870 Census' anywhere in the U.S. It is assumed that they were living in Ohio or Indiana, but they were not listed in either state.) Tobias died on 3 August 1857 at the age of 44 in Spring Prairie Township, Walworth County, WI.^1,4,14,15,16 An article in The Monroe County Heritage Book indicates that he died by drowning in Lewisburg, Preble County, Ohio. A family source indicates that Tobias grew ill while at Beaver Island, Michigan, and displayed a jaundice. He was then brought back to the Voree settlement, where he later died. His family, including his son James and the family of his older brother John, were present.

From the Beaver Island Website: "Beaver Island as we know it first appeared out of the ice eleven thousand years ago. Since then, its form has changed considerably because of the rise and fall of Lake Michigan, which has ranged over a differential of 375'. The Lake dropped to a very low level about 8,000 years ago, and stayed down for 4,000 years. During this time, this land was not an island at all but an appendage of the mainland. Then the Lake rose to 30' above its present level, submerging all of Beaver except the central plateau. Next, it dropped about ten feet, producing a slightly smaller version of our present Island. The edge of this configuration was layered with beach gravel. When a logging railroad was built in 1904, it was placed on this firm bed.

We know that Native Americans passed by Beaver Island as long ago as 2,200 years. There is no proof that they lived here, but the oral tradition of the Odawas, who have resided here for over 300 years, is that there were small fishing villages in many of the bays when they arrived. Arrowheads, spear heads, and fragments of Woodland-period pottery indicate that at least they came ashore. Fire-cracked rocks mark their cooking fires along the bluff. In 1871 the archeologist Henry Gillman opened some of the mounds in the harbor, and was surprised at the "uncommonly skillful workmanship" of the artifacts he found.

The Odawas (Ottawas) migrated westward in the ripples of Native American movement that retreated from contact with the whites, arriving on Beaver Island in the mid-seventeenth century. At times they were recruited to help in skirmishes between the English and the French, but little was known about their lives until Father Baraga came from L'Arbre Croche in 1832 to convert the Indians living on the north shore to Catholicism. He baptized 22 Indians, but those living in the settlement near Whiskey Point remained pagan. A few years later, some of the 199 Indians living on Garden Island, 2 miles north (and the site of over 3,000 Indian graves), were converted by other missionaries.

White traders and trappers began to appear in the early 1800s. Trapping, fishing, and cutting wood for the passing steamers allowed men to earn a living at this frontier. By the 1840s, two trading posts were flourishing. Economic power shifted here from Mackinac Island because of Beaver's good fishing, ample forests, and vastly superior harbor. In 1850, 100 people lived in a growing community at Whiskey Point, unaware that the few Mormons already present would soon overwhelm them and force them to leave.

James Strang, who would create America's only kingdom on Beaver Island, was born in New York in 1813. He expected great things of himself. He established a law practice at the age of 23, but it failed to satisfy his ambition. When he met Joseph Smith in 1844, he converted to his new evangelical religion as a way of improving his position.

Strang's debating skills impressed the Mormon leader, who assigned him to found a branch in Burlington, Wisconsin. While Strang was away, Smith was killed. Shortly thereafter Strang produced a letter naming him as Smith's chosen heir. He was challenged by Brigham Young, who was more solidly entrenched. Strang led those who accepted him to Nauvoo, Illinois, and then to Voree, Wisconsin, before deciding that God wanted him to bring his flock to Beaver Island.

After producing mysterious brass plates from the ground and receiving directives from God, Strang formed a colony on Beaver Island in 1848. It grew year by year, and soon had the numbers to elect Strang to the state legislature. Trouble with the "gentiles" led to the "War of Whiskey Point", which the Mormons won by unexpectedly firing a canon at the unruly gang gathered at the trading post. By the early 1850s, most of the non-Mormons had left the Island. The ensuing degree of absolute power went to Strang's head, and rumors spread about Mormon attrocities. Strang had himself crowned king, and began taking additional wives. Attempts to oust him by legal means failed, and in 1856 he was assassinated by two disgruntled followers. His people were driven off the Island by a wild mob from Mackinac Island, which was instigated by speculators eager to grab the land. During their 8-year occupancy, the Mormons cleared and cultivated the ground, built roads and houses, and changed the Island from a wilderness to a moderate outpost of civilization. But fate conspired to keep them from reaping the benefits of their toil.

Beaver Island was blessed to be near some of the best fishing grounds in the world. The Mormons had excluded the gentiles from partaking in this bounty, but once the Mormons were gone, Irish fishermen began to appear. They came from Gull Island, Mackinac Island, various port cities on the mainland, and County Donegal in Ireland. Once they settled in, they wrote to their families and friends about "America's Emerald Isle."
Over the following three decades, the population grew in surges, taking on a decidedly Irish flavor. Ordinary conversations, as well as services in the Catholic Church, were conducted in Gaelic. Of the 881 residents in 1880, there were 141 Gallaghers, 123 Boyles, and 90 O'Donnells recorded in the census. Closely knit, isolated from the rest of the world during the winter, this community developed a unique identity.

Because they controlled the nearby fishing grounds, the economy thrived. By the mid 1880s Beaver Island had become the largest supplier of fresh-water fish in the country. But the invention (1872) and proliferation of the steam tug posed a severe threat. Suddenly fishermen from mainland ports could cross to the grounds, lay five miles of nets, and cross back before dark. No sooner had the Island fishermen adjusted to the loss of their monopoly than a second blow befell them: a sudden drastic reduction in the supply of fish, starting in 1886. Due to overfishing, the harvest declined to half its previous rate by 1893.

This problem affected the entire Great Lakes. Michigan started a hatcheries program. This helped, but not enough, so in 1897 a law closing the season during the fall spawning period was passed. The Beaver Island fisherman, notoriously independent, announced that this did not apply to them, so in 1898 a warden was dispatched. He leased a boat in Charlevoix and headed for the Island in the first no-fishing week. A fisherman who was out lifting his nets by the light of the moon saw the warden approach. He tried to flee, but the warden, firing on him with a "Winchester cannon," gave chase. Eventually the fisherman's boat was too damaged to continue and he was caught and arrested, his equipment confiscated. This became known as "the Battle of the Beavers." Islanders' intractability was reduced, but streaks of it could still be observed for the next hundred years." He was buried in Spring Prairie Township, Walworth County, WI.^1,17,18 in the Voree Cemetery.

From the research of Diane O'Sullivan: "I would like to share one bit of research that I have managed to do on my great-great-grandfather Tobias McNutt's final resting place. My great-grandfather James Oscar McNutt's recollections indicate he witnessed the burial of his father Tobias in Voree Cemetery, which is no longer active. This Cemetery is located along the border of Racine and Walworth Counties in southern Wisconsin. Many years later, when James went to search for his father's gravesite, he could not locate it. Sadly, the location of the gravesites of many others was also lost. The land of the Cemetery has since been fenced off and a marker has been erected outside of the fence to remember the 60-plus people who are interred there."

From the Burlington, Wisconsin, website: "Unknown to most, except Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, this quiet little town of Burlington, Wisconsin is not what it seems. While some see Burlington as Chocolate City, USA, home of Nestle's Chocolate, other's know the hidden secrets that lie within the unspoken name of , Voree, right outside of Burlington. . The congregations of the Morman Church speak of Voree as the 'promised land' or 'The New Jerusalem'. Burlington and Voree are treasure chests filled with stories of the mystik. They are the home to the Mound Builders and an Israelite Tribe that was here to harvest the bounty for King Solomon's Temple. Yes - This could have been one of the very places of The Lost Mines of Solomon!

The Mormons believe that the Burlington Area is the 'Promised Land' - The place that Jesus Christ will return to during the End Days. It is one of the sacred places their people are to gather during these times. Could this be true? In my years of investigation of this area, it does seem there is more truth in these statements than others may have thought.

Burlington Wisconsin, if not the place of the gathering, definitely is a place of mystery, mysticism and sacred sites, once inhabited by a people wiped out of our history and memory. The true history of this area has been replaced with a fallacy.

The Strangites of the Burlington area are a smaller group of people, also calling themselves Latter Day Saints, who have been in the Burlington area continuously since 1835. These people are the remnant of James J. Strang's 1844-1856 settlement called the City of Voree, on Burlington's west edge, that once numbered more than two thousand people. After their leader, James J. Strang was shot and killed in 1856, the group almost vanished. Nevertheless, its colorful contribution to American culture is recognized in books, articles, and newspaper stories appearing from the press every year since Strang's death. Strang was shot on Beaver Island but went home to Voree where he died and was buried at the old Voree Cemetery on Mormon Road."

Tobias MCNUTT and Mary Jane VANCE were married on 5 January 1837 in Preble County, OH.^1,4 Mary Jane VANCE was born about 1820 in Ohio.¹² (According to the 1880 Census record, her parents were both born in Pennsylvania.) She appeared in the census in 1840 in Jefferson, Preble County, OH.¹³ She lived at her home in Knapp Township, Jackson County, WI in 1864.⁹

Newspaper Article Excerpts: "It was in 1864 that a small party of Mormons, only 14 families in all, made the trip from Indiana to this section of Wisconsin in search of timber lands. The group made the trip by ox team and it required many tiresome weeks to complete the journey.

The caravan passed through some of the finest farm lands in Wisconsin, always with their eyes turned toward timber lands where they could produce lumber. They found the end of their prospective rainbow in the then heavily wooded area north of Tomah and settled there to carve out a new civilization in the dense forests.

Among those families was Mrs. Mary Jane McNutt, a hardy pioneer woman, and her two boys, Ferdinand, 9, and James, 16. She had lost her husband, Tobias McNutt, by drowning previously, and James had taken over as head of the family, despite his extreme youth. The Civil War was in progress at the time, but James was too young to be taken in the draft and other members of this Mormon colony escaped the draft for some reason or other.

Shortly after the arrival of the 14 families in the area, James McNutt acquired a sawmill, which he operated, despite his youth, as well as extensive logging operation, affording employment for many of the settlers. Another sawmill was operated in the vicinity by Dan Hockart and much of the output from these two mills was shipped to Nauvoo, a large Mormon settlement in Illinois which was flourishing at that time. It is not known for certain, but it is possible that the need for building materials at Nauvoo was a strong incentive in inducing the venturesome pioneers to seek the timber lands of Wisconsin, of which they had heard so much.

As the timber was cut from the bountiful acres, small farms developed and many wild products were gathered to help provide for these pioneer settlers. Game abounded in the area and wild cranberries and blueberries could be gathered freely for the taking. Frank McNutt (a son of James) tells of one time his father loaded up a wagon load of wild cranberries and took them to Milwaukee for sale, He made the trip by ox team and the journey required a month of diligent driving to complete. The proceeds from the load of cranberries went a long way in those days, however, and the trip was very much worth while.

Frank McNutt, who is 79 years old, also remembers of elders of the Mormon church gathering in the Knapp area for a grand conference. Sometimes there were as many as 20 of these stern, black-frocked God-fearing men at the conference and they spent several days going over plans for missionary work and other details of their church program.

These elders were deeply impressed with the land which their God had given their church colony. There was meat aplenty in the woods, wild berries to pick and sell, and timber to be cut and sawed into lumber for the market. 'It is a paradise of peace and plenty,' they agreed.

In those early years there were hardships and perils and tragedy and privations for those hardy pioneer settlers, but they enjoyed themselves in their own way, despite the lack of contacts with the outside world and their own limited resources. Church services were held regularly in the local school house and many gatherings marked the social life of the colony. This colony did not practice polygamy.

Indians roamed that area in large numbers in those days, but the Mormons always treated them kindly and there was never any hint of trouble between the Mormons and their red brothers.

In the first years of the Mormon settlement, the lower part of Jackson county was all the town of Manchester. The settlers were required to travel many miles to vote, but this only occurred occasionally, on the occasion of presidential elections; otherwise, the settlers took no interest in politics and lived under their own government. Later, the town of Millston was created and still later the towns of Knapp and Bear Bluff were established, which gave the colony a local government.

The nearest shipping and trading point was at Warrens, six miles away, which was a thrifty lumbering town at that time. Seldom did the settlers need to go farther for their market or supplies. Roads were not conducive to travel in those days, and the general transportation was ox team, which was slow and uninviting for traveling.

The Mormon colony remained the Knapp area for 25 years and then departed for western states, some to Colorado, some to Wyoming, and some to Utah. James McNutt and his family decided to remain in the community."

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Mary appeared in the census in 1880 in Millston, Jackson County, WI.¹² She was a widow and lived by herself, next door to her son Ferdinand. She was buried in Knapp Township, Jackson County, WI.⁹ in the Mormon Cemetery. (It is located about 16 miles north of Tomah.)

Tobias MCNUTT and Mary Jane VANCE had the following children: