San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LEWIS M. CUTTING
A pioneer who has had much to do
with the building up of the city along substantial lines and whose optimism for
its future greatness as a commercial city is Lewis M. Cutting, who at the advanced
age of ninety-one years, after over sixty years of leadership in the realty
field, still confers daily in the transaction of important deals in the
conducting of the affairs of the firm of L. M. Cutting, realtors, of which he
is the senior member, while his son Francis Cutting, is the junior member and
is actively engaged in the management of the firm.
Lewis M. Cutting was born in Lowell,
Massachusetts, September 1, 1831. His
father, Lewis Cutting, was a native of Weston, while his grandfather, John
Cutting, also of Weston, married Cynthia Warren, a niece of General Joseph
Warren of Revolutionary fame, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill while in
command of the American forces and died on the battlefield. In his will he left his niece, Cynthia, one
of his farms at Weston, Massachusetts, where General Warren had built a flour
mill which was run by water-power. John
Cutting and his wife were engaged in farming the place while their son,
Marshall, ran the mill. Lewis Cutting,
the father of our subject, was married in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Miss Susan
Julia Morrison, who was born in Derry, New Hampshire, of an old and prominent
New England family which took an active part in the early days of its Colonial
history. The Morrison family dates back
to a time in Norway when two younger sons of the then King of Norway settled in
Scotland and established the Morrison family in that country. After many generations, members of the family
settled in New Hampshire and were counted among the most highly respected
families, some of its members serving in the Colonial and Revolutionary
wars. Lewis Cutting was the
superintendent of the cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts when his wife, who
had passed away three weeks after his son Lewis M. was born, was buried in
Derry, New Hampshire. He married a
second time and had six children, four of whom grew to maturity, but none are
now living. In 1862 he came to San
Francisco and established the Cutting Packing plant, which he conducted for
many years; it was in that city that he spent the remainder of his life.
Lewis M. Cutting was reared in the
city of Lowell, Massachusetts, being graduated from the Lowell high school at
the age of thirteen years. He then
worked for a time in the cotton mills until he entered the employ of Burbank,
Case & Company, hardware merchants in Lowell. He left Lowell on Christmas Day, 1851, and
going by way of the Isthmus of Panama, he arrived in San Francisco February 7
1852. For a few months he was employed
in San Francisco, and then came to Stockton in June, 1852. Like most of the early pioneers, he was
attracted to the mines, and for about three years he engaged in mining at Red
Mountain Bar and vicinity in Tuolumne County, meeting with success. Returning to Stockton, he was employed in a
hardware store on the corner of Main and El Dorado streets.
Having worked during vacations in
his grandfather’s flour mill at Weston, Massachusetts, Mr. Cutting was
solicited by the Sperry’s to take charge as superintendent of their mills in Stockton. This place he accepted, and in his usual
thorough way he made a success of the business and placed it on a substantial
basis. He then again was employed in the
hardware store until he accepted a position as superintendent of the flour
mills at Knights Ferry for Hestres & Magendi, a position he filled for two years. While living at Knights Ferry he formed the
acquaintance of Captain U. S. Grant, who was visiting his sister and
brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. John Dent, and this resulted in a warm friendship.
In 1860 Mr. Cutting founded the
business that today continues to bear his name so honorably. To prepare himself to be more able as a realtor
he studied law for a time and few men had a better understanding of drawing up
contracts and realty transactions. In
the same year he became associated with Captain Charles M. Weber, the founder
of Stockton, and at one time the principal owner of the land where Stockton is
now located. A short time thereafter,
President Abraham Lincoln confirmed Captain Weber’s patent to the grant El
Campo de Los Franceses, a great property of some
48,000 acres. Mr. Cutting acted as
Captain Weber’s agent for twenty-seven years, and he continued in that capacity
for six years after Captain Weber’s death.
He then closed up the estate, selling thousands of acres of land, which
is now the most valuable aggregation of properties in San Joaquin County. The sale and deeds to practically all but the
six central blocks of Stockton were handled by this able realty dealer, noted as
an authority on land values in this county.
Mr. Cutting was really one of the principals in the organizing of the
Stockton Savings and Loan Association.
Starting the first subscription for stock, in two hours he had enough
subscribed to start incorporation.
Mr. Cutting’s marriage occurred in
San Francisco where he was united with Miss Catherine Howland, a native of
Vermont, an estimable woman. Their
marriage proved a very happy one. She
passed away in October of 1922, mourned by her family and friends. Their union was blessed with four
children: Lewis H., a farmer; Francis,
Mr. Cutting’s partner; Maria, who is an artist and has a studio in the city;
and Mrs. Grace Stewart, who presides over her father’s home.
Associated in the firm of L. M.
Cutting & Company is his son, Francis Cutting, a native son of Stockton who
is following in his father’s business footsteps. Reared in this city he has watched its steady
growth, personally familiar with locations and land values in the city and
farming communities; it is the consensus of opinion that he is one of the best
informed land and investment authorities in central California. Lewis M. Cutting served under
two different governors as a director of the State Hospital at Stockton. He is one of the oldest members of Stockton
Lodge No. 6, I. O. O. F.
Always keenly interested in current
affairs, Mr. Cutting is well informed and keeps abreast of the times. He is precise in his habits, friendly in his
association, and, being a liberal man, he has been helpful to others. He has
ever been loyal to the advancing interests of Stockton, having watched the city
grow from a mere hamlet to a city of more than 50,000 inhabitants, a community
of great manufacturing and industrial enterprises, and a distributing center for
the agricultural products of central California.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
485-486. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases