“He was a man of eminently correct habits of life, possessing superior constitution, temperate, industrious and of a cheerful disposition even marked to the end,” wrote, Nutt’s son, Joseph, of his father.
On April 1, 1799, Nutt arrived in Centerville, spelled Centreville at the time, from Kentucky where he had lived since 1788. He traveled through thick wilderness to survey and claim 320 acres of land in what is now the center of town.
Although, he was offered a place to store his belongings until a cabin could be built, Nutt, who was planning to build quickly, refused saying, “I am not going to unpack until I enter my own cabin.”
Traveling with Nutt was his wife Mary Archer Nutt, whom he had wed in 1779, and their six children. Prior to the move, the couple had buried three children, who were victims of smallpox in Kentucky.
Mary Nutt died at the age of 61 in 1817.
Nutt married a Warren County woman, Martha Pedrick Craig, in 1818 and they went on to start their own family, which included two sons, Joseph and John. The Nutt land became fragmented as Nutt gave each of his children a portion of his land.
Although he was a busy man, Nutt also owned a tavern, The Sign of the Bucks Horn, and ran for office in Washington Twp., where he served as supervisor of roads and overseer of the poor.
In 1842, Nutt died and was buried in the old Centerville Cemetery next to his two wives.
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