The Academy of Richmond County inducted Dr. William Henry Tutt into its Hall of Fame on 17 Oct 2019.
His induction biography reads [2]:
Born in Augusta, August 31, 1823, Dr. William Henry Tutt became a name recognized throughout the country as the Physician who created several medicines, that in the nineteenth century were believed to have beneficial effects, including the best known Tutt’s Liver Pills. A graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, Tutt practiced medicine for a number of years. At this time, many Physicians were also Pharmacists. Tutt decided to become a merchant/manufacturer of patent medicines. The first advertisement for Tutt as a wholesale and retail druggist appeared in the Augusta Chronicle in April 1845. Two years later, he was appointed to the Board of Health by the Mayor and would continue to be active in the community in many ways, including several years on the City Council. In 1847, he married Harriet Remson Beall of Lincoln County. They had four daughters and two sons. In June 1860, he announced that he had given his interest in the drug store in Augusta to his brother B. F. Tutt. He moved with his family to New York to expand his wholesale drug business there. Unfortunately, the Civil War began only months after the family’s arrival and while William was able to get passes for his family to return South, he was delayed. Historian Edward Cashin explained, he basically escaped from the North by getting passage to Bermuda, then through the blockade, and finally overland to Augusta. By 1863, he was once again advertising a drug store in the newspaper. After the war, Tutt devised a plan to expand the Augusta canal. Although it did not happen until after he left the city again, he was correct that a larger canal would boost manufacturing and the economic growth of the city.
In 1872, the Tutt family returned to New York again to manufacture medicines, this time staying over fifteen years. He remained in New York until 1888, becoming quite wealthy in the process. He returned to Augusta in 1888 and began to invest some of that wealth for the development of the city. One of the backers and promoters of the Augusta National Exposition that fall, Tutt believed that Augusta could attract wealthy Northerners to the city in the cold months of winter. He bought acreage from the Anne McKinne Winter estate and built the Grand Bon Air Hotel sitting atop the Hill. His vision of Augusta, as winter destination, became a reality for the next four decades. It brought some of the country’s most successful industrialists and politicians of the late nineteenth century for several months each year to the community. The Bon Air introduced golf to the city. This winter colony was an economic and cultural boon to Augusta’s economy. When William Tutt died March 15, 1898, he was a Revered Citizen of the Augusta Community.
The Academy of Richmond County Hall of Fame biography
Chartered in 1783 in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, the Academy of Richmond County is the fifth oldest existing public high school in the United States. [4]
William Henry Tutt I (1823-1898) is 1st cousin 6x removed of MKS in the Knight branch.
References:
[1] Men of Mark in Georgia, Volume III, edited by William J. Northen, 1911.
[2] ARC Hall of Fame, 2019-2020.
[3] Photograph courtesy of Mike Newman, © 2019 Mike Newman.
[4] Wikipedia, “Academy of Richmond County.”