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Auburn Twp. -
RUFUS DUTTON, son of
James and Clarissa Dutton, was born in Norfolk, St. Lawrence County,
State of New York, Jan. 20, 1821. When six years old the family
moved to Canandagua, New York, where they resided until the spring of
1829, when they moved to Auburn, Ohio. His boyhood here was spent
at home on the farm until he was thirteen years old, during which time
he enjoyed such limited advantages for an education as the common
schools of the country at that time afforded. The summer of 1834 he
was hired by Edson Kent, of Bainbridge, to work on his farm for
four dollars per month, and in the fall of the same year he worked for
his brother John, in a foundry in Leroy. The following
spring he went to work with his father to learn the trade of a
carpenter. He worked at his trade with his father, except the
winter months of the year, until he was twenty years old. During
the winter of 1837 and '38, he, with three of his brothers, attended
school in the "Ransom Brown district." The school was taught by
the late Joseph W. Gray, founder and editor of the Plain
Dealer, of Cleveland. For three years and a half before this
winter he had attended school less than four months in all. His
father's circumstances were such at the
__me as to require all the
assistance that both he and his older brother Charles, who
also worked at the trade with him, could render. Gray
taught the best school that at that time he ever been kept in Auburn.
He and his brothers, besides doing "chores" at home, walked, in going to
and from school each day, over four miles, and when there was an evening
school - a not unfrequent occurrence - over eight miles; yet he has
often said that he never made more rapid progress in his studies than he
did that winter.
The next season his father built a house for Dexter
Pease, in Bainbridge. While at work on his house both he and
his brother Charles hired to teach school for the winter.
Rufus taught in the district west of Bainbridge center. The
school-house was a log one, as was at that time nearly every dwelling
house in the district, but there was then no scarcity of children in
number for a school. His average attendance of scholars was
forty-six. After working with his father the following spring and
summer, he left home for the first time to attend a select school.
He carried with him to pay board, tuition, and expenses for books, only
twenty dollars, and that was borrowed money. A rather small sum
would seem at the present time to pay all the expenses of nine or ten
weeks' schooling. But it did not cost as many dollars then as now
to pay the expenses of an education. For board, lights, and
washing, in a private family (a Baptist minister's), he paid one dollar
a week. The school he attended was one opened that fall at
Streetsboro, by Mr. and Mrs. Osgood. Mrs. Osgood was the
daughter of Benjamin Barney, formerly of Auburn. The winter
of 1839 and '40, he taught a school at Bainbridge center. A part
of the following season he went to school again in Streetsboro, and the
next winter taught in Euclid. After studying the next spring and
summer with Mr. Abels, of Troy, he, with John Barnes, of
Auburn, left his home Sept. 20, 1841, intending to get situations as
teachers, near Dayton, Ohio. Leaving Auburn Monday morning, they
arrived at Dayton the Saturday following. Six days now would seem
a long time to make that journey; but then there could be no traveling
by cars, for there was not one mile of railroad in the State of Ohio.
After remaining a few days in Dayton without making any great effort to
find positions as teachers, they started with the intent of going to
find positions as teachers they started with the intent of going to
Kentucky, where they heard teachers were in demand and better wages paid
than in Ohio. Arriving in Cincinnati early one foggy morning,
they, while walking along the steamboat landing, came to a boat which
had up stream, and sign out, "For St. Louis this morning at nine A. M."
Dutton proposed to Barnes that they go to St. Louis.
This proposition was made thoughtlessly, and as thoughtlessly accepted.
Acting from the impulse of the moment, they, boy like, went on board,
and being in formed by the captain that they had barely time to get
their trunks before the steamer would start, hastened to get them on
board. The boat did not, however, leave the wharf for more than
twenty-four hours afterwards. This gave them time for reflection
and they would gladly have left the boat and resumed their journey to
Kentucky, but they had paid their fare, and there was no getting back
their money, and they had not enough to go without it; so they were
reluctantly compelled to abide by the choice they had made.
Owing to the low stage of the Ohio river, the boat
frequently getting aground, they were eight days in making the passage.
From St. Louis they went to Alton, Illinois, and thence up into the
country to the little village of Jerseyville. Here they remained a
couple of weeks, Barnes working upon the farm, and Dutton
at finishing the house of the landlord with whom they put up.
After they had replenished a little their very scanty funds, and finding
nothing to do that offered inducements to stay there, they returned to
St. Louis, and then went by steamer to Memphis, Tennessee. Here
they landed, November 19th, one thousand three hundred miles, by river
travel, from home, among entire strangers and with hardly a dollar in
their pockets. They now began to feel that matters were getting a
little serious with them. They started back into the country, on
foot, to try and find situations, but in this were unsuccessful.
Returning again to Memphis, they sought work there; for work they now
must have. Memphis, at that time, was divided into two rival
sections, viz: North Memphis, and South Memphis or Fort Pickering.
Fort Pickering was preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of the
founding of that part of the city, and, as was often the custom at the
south, at entertainments of this kind, a barbecue was to be given.
Finding the ground had been staked off for trenches, they proposed to
the officer in charge of the preparations, to dig them for the moderate
sum of one dollar and seventy-five cents. Their proposition was
accepted with the generous offer to give them two dollars and fifty
cents instead of the sum asked, and, in addition, the gentleman took
them home to dine with him. A barbecue, as is well known, is made
by roasting, whole, an ox, sheep, or hog, one of all, as the case may
require. This is done by digging one or more trenches (in this
case two were made) some twenty or thirty feet long, two feet wide at
the top, and eighteen inches deep. The trenches are then filled
with wood, which is burned
until it becomes a mass of coals, when iron bars are laid across them, upon
the animals, after being killed and dressed, are placed, and turned from
side to side until they are roasted. It will be apparent that from this
method of cooking any degree of rare or well-done meats can be cut to suit the tastes
of the most fastidious.
The next day after the barbecue, Dutton
succeeded in hiring out, to work at his trade, after which, by pledging his trunk and clothes, he borrowed ten
dollars which he let Barnes have to get back up the river with.
Remaining in Memphis until the next June, he was taken
sick with the fever, but was fortunate enough to get away before he became too ill to travel.
He obliged, however, to leave the most of his earnings (one hundred dollars)
to be collected for him by an agent, who, unfortunately never collected or paid
to him a dollar. The journey up the Mississippi, and Ohio rivers was to
him, sick as he was, a long and tedious one. The steamer was ten days in making
the trip from Memphis to Beaver. Arriving at home, he was confined to his
bed several weeks, and it was a long time before he fully recovered from the
effects of the fever.
Following winter he, with two brothers and his sister,
attended school at Cuyahoga Falls, and the next season he attended the Painesville academy,
teaching part of the day to pay his expenses. The academy was then
under the charge of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens. Mrs. Stevens, formerly
taught the school in Streetsboro.
The winter of 1844 and 1845 he taught a select school
at Auburn corners, and the following spring went again to Memphis to try and get what was due
him for work done, three years before. But the company he had worked
for, in meanwhile had failed, and the hotel upon which he worked and
which, when he left Memphis, in the summer of 1842, was the best and
most fashionable hotel in the city, had been turned into a negro pen for keeping slaves
to be sold at auction. The contrast presented by these poor creatures in
the large dining hall of the hotel, covered with dirt and filth, waiting, like so
many cattle -- and apparently almost as unconscious - their time to be brought to the
auction block and sold, compared with what was taking place in the same hall three
years before, when the elite of the city, with all the display and
parade so common then at the south, came there to dinner, can be better imagined than
described.
Returning to Auburn, Dutton remained there only
a few weeks, when, on account of his ill-health, he left for the east, and, after spending a few
weeks at Saratoga, went to New York city. Arriving there, with only a few
dollars in his pockets, he had thought of making a trip to sea, but he soon satisfied
himself, from what he saw, that the life of a sailor, even for a single short trip,
would not be to him agreeable, so he had sought again, what he had found before his
never-failing friend in time of need, viz: work at his trade. This
he succeeded in getting, taking work by the piece, as he was unable, from ill-health, to
do a full day's work. He remained in the city, working, as he was able, at his
trade, until the fall of 1846, when, after obtaining one of the two scholarships of
the University of the City of New York, belonging to the Mercantile Library
association, of which he had become a member, he offered himself, and, passing
examination, was admitted into the sophomore class. The first two
years of his course he supported himself by working at his trade out of college hours,
studying at night and early morning to keep up with his class. The
last year of his course his brother George loaned him money to
pay his way. Graduating in the summer of 1849, he returned to
Auburn, when, after spending a few weeks with his friends, he went to
Dayton, Ohio, to take the position as principal of one of the public
schools. He taught there in the public, and, afterwards, in a private school, until the close of 1851. Some of his
friends were at that time talking of going to Oregon to settle, and
desiring to get more accurate information of the country than was then
to be obtained from published accounts, he volunteered to go there and
bring back a report. Resigning his position, he made preparation
for the journey, intending to be absent ten months.
Leaving Dayton Apr. 1, 1851, he went by stage to
Cincinnati, thence by steamer to Independence, Missouri, where he
purchased a horse, and rode across that part of the State known as the
Platte purchase, to St. Joseph. Here he joined in company with two
young men, and with them purchased an outfit for their journey across
the plains. The people of the border, who furnished "emigrants
with outfits," were a set of sharpers, resorting to almost any kind of
deception or fraud to sell their goods. Many an unfortunate
emigrant, after spending all his money for an outfit, found, to his
sorrow, after being out a few days on the plains, that both the team and
wagon which he had been induced to purchase from the representations of
persons pretending to speak from experience, were unfit and worthless
for the journey. None but the soundest and hardiest animals were
suited for the journey, as they had to depend entirely for food upon the
grass found along the way, which was often both inferior in quality and
deficient in quantity. In consequence of deficient food, the
teams, after a short time, became poor and weak, and it became necessary
to lighten the loads in every way possible, even by throwing away of the
outfit every pound that could be possibly dispensed with. As was
natural, people were very reluctant to part in this way with goods which
they believed would be important to their comfort at the end of their
journey. Thus, it often happened that goods were carried too long
for the strength of the teams, and not thrown aside until after it was
found impossible to transport them further. As a consequence, the
raod or pathway, after the first one or two hundred miles, was strewn
along the entire length with articles which had been thrown aside, from
time to time, as the teams became too much worn out to draw them
further. The road sides often presented some very interesting
sights, from the great variety of things found lying along the way.
A complete printing press was found standing by the road side near the
top of the Rocky mountains. Some enterprising editor had,
doubtless, purchased it, with the intention of "starting a paper on the
Pacific coast," and, after hauling it over the long distance from the
States to the Rocky mountains, found it impossible to carry it further.
Even within seventy miles of the settlements in Oregon, on the Cascade
mountains, five cooking stoves, seven wagons, with their loads, were
found in one place. The year before, many, said not to be less
than fifty thousand, started to cross the plains. That year the
cholera broke out among them. Many died, and their raves were
numerous along the road side. In most cases, the graves had been
dug into by jackalls. The small party Dutton traveled with
most of the way - nine in all - made the journey without the loss of any
of their number, though only five centered the settlement in Oregon
together. The sufferings of the preceding year prevented many from
attempting to cross this season, so that the journey was made with
comparatively small loss or suffering. Only eighteen emigrants
were killed by the Indians,* this year, of all that started on the
journey. As Dutton was going to Oregon solely to see and
examine the country, and expected to return in the fall to the states,
he desired to make his journey across the plains as short as possible,
so that he would have more time for that purpose in the settlements.
To expedite the journey, he, with his party, would travel with one train
a few days, then push on to another in advance, and so on
until they got in advance of all the others, so that his small party travelled
alone over the most dangerous portion of the road, from Soda springs across the
Blue mountains, and finally five of their number, whom he described in his letter
to his friends in Dayton as "wayworn travelers, descending from the western
slope the Cascade mountains, and coming out of their dense forests, saw
for the first time for ninety-six days cultivated fields, houses, and other
evidences that they were now in a civilized country." Dutton remained
nearly four months in Oregon. During this time he made a journey through the Williamette
valley on both sides of the river of that name, and went as far south as
up Umqua river. Sickness prevented him from going to Washington
territory, which was included in his plans.
Having remained in Oregon as long as he intended, he
left Portland for Astoria, by steamer,, November, 25th, and thence to
San Francisco. After remaining in Francisco four days he left in the steamship "Golden Gate," her
first downward trip, for Panama. The voyage lasted twelve days,
including twenty-four hours stoppage at Acaculpa, to take on coal. From Panama
he, with some other passengers, walked to Gorgona, from which village they made
the passage in a row-boat down to Chagres river, a distance of sixty-five
miles to Chagres. The railroad across the Isthmus was not then completed.
From Chagres he went to Havanna, and thence to New Orleans. At New Orleans
he engaged passage to Cincinnatti. The winter of 1851 and '52
was very severe, and the Ohio river froze over nearly the whole length. A few miles
above Cairo the steamboat was stopped by the ice. As it seemed probable the boat
would be detained there for a long time, Dutton, with two others, undertook a
journey by land, of over three hundred miles, to Louisville, Kentucky.
After they had walked two days, through deep snow, they stopped for a day; made a "yankee
jumper" and purchased a horse and part of a harness, with a small rope for
lines. Thus equipped they completed the journey to Louisville in ten
days from the time they left the steamer. From Louisville he reached Cincinnati
by way of Lexington and Covington, the river being still frozen over. From
Cincinnati to Dayton by railroad (which was completed during his absence).
He arrived in Dayton the last day of February, after an absence of ten months.
In 1852 he, with Mr. Stevens, formerly his teacher in the Painsville
academy, took charge of the agricultural department of the works of E. Thresher& Co.,
now Barney, Smith & Co., of Dayton. Mr. Stevens retired from
the business in 1854, when Dutton purchased the entire interest of this department,
and in 1855, built a manufactory for the purpose of making mowers and
reapers. He commenced breaking ground for his work "Aug. 20, 1855. On the first
day of December he had his buildings completed, machinery put up, and one hundred
men at work. The previous year he had made, for John S. Wright,
of Chicago, four hundred reapers, known as the "Atkins' Reaper." For the harvest
of 1856 he made one thousand of these machines under contract for
Wright.
He made, on his own account, for the harvest of 1857, eight hundred, and
the same number for the harvest of 1858. Wright failed to meet his
obligation as agreed under his contracts for 1855 and '56. Partly owing to this, and
partly owing to his losses in financial crisis of 1857, he was compelled to sell out
his business in Dayton.
He spent a portion of the winter of 1860 and'61 in
Washington during the exciting times preceding the war. In the winter of 1862 he went to New
York city, and made arrangements there with R. L. Allen & Co. to introduce
into the market his (Dutton's) new mower, known as the Clipper mower.
He remained with the Allens until the fall of 1866, during which time
there were made and sold several thousand of his machines. This machine being now
well known and established, there was organized the Clipper Reaper and Mower
company at Yonkers, New York, for the purpose of making them for
extensively and better supplying the demand. This company, during
the time Dutton was connected with it until 1873, manufactured
under his supervision about eighteen thousand Clipper machines.
These were sold throughout the United States and Canada; also quite a
number found market in Europe and South America. Those farmers who
have used the Clipper mowers are well aware of its superior qualities.
The Clipper was not financially a success, and, after Dutton left
it, the stock continued to decline until it has become valueless.
After leaving the Clipper, he has been engaged in perfecting a mower,
known first as the New Clipper, and afterwards as the Haymaker, and now
as the New Champion. The Champion company, of Springfield, Ohio,
having bought the right, they are now manufacturing them extensively at
their works.
In connection with his business, Dutton has been
quite an experimented having given careful attention to perfecting his
machines, striving always to have them occupy the front rank among
machines of this kind. In pursuit of the object, he has obtained
between thirty and forty patents on his inventions. But, like too
many inventors, others have received much of the fruits of his labors.
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* The term emigrant was applied to all who cross the plains.
 Source:
1798 Pioneer and General History of Geauga County
with Sketches of
some of the Pioneers and Prominent Men. -
Published by
The Historical Society of Geauga County, 1880 - Page 221-226 |
