Occupation Planter | Parents Rush Nutt Name Haller Nutt | |
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Spouse(s) Julia Augusta Williams Nutt Children Caroline Routh NuttMary Ella NuttFanny Smith NuttHaller Nutt, Jr.John NuttAustin NuttSargeant Prentiss NuttJulia NuttCalvin Routh NuttLillie NuttRushworth Nutt Died June 15, 1864, Natchez, Mississippi, United States | ||
Haller Nutt (1816-1864) was an American Southern planter. He was a successful cotton planter and plantation owner in Mississippi. He developed a strain of cotton that became important commercially for the Deep South.
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Early life
Haller Nutt was born on February 17, 1816 on Laurel Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. His father was Dr. Rush Nutt, son of Richard Nutt of Northumberland County, Virginia. His maternal grandfather was David Ker, the first presiding professor (later known as university president) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later a Judge of the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Nutt was educated at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1832 to 1835.
Career
Nutt returned to Mississippi and helped his father manage the Laurel Hill Plantation.
He owned several plantations, including:
He mainly grew cash crops, including cotton and sugar cane. These plantations brought him considerable wealth. He made a net profit of more than $228,000 from agricultural enterprises in 1860. He owned 43,000 acres (170 km2) of land and 800 slaves. His fortune prior to the Civil War was estimated at more than three million dollars.
He suffered large financial losses during the American Civil War due to the destruction of his cotton fields and real estate. However, General Grant spared the Winter Quarters plantation because Nutt was pro-Union. Nevertheless, the expropriation of stores and supplies by the Union and Confederate armies led to the foreclosure on Nutt's plantations in Louisiana. After the war, he filed documents with the federal government that would compensate for the loss of assets due to the Union army.
Personal life
Nutt married Julia Augusta Williams, the daughter of Austin Williams and Caroline Routh Williams, in 1840. She was only eighteen at the time. They had eleven children:
They decided to begin construction on Longwood in the spring of 1860. They hired Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan to design the multistory octagonal in the Oriental Revival style. Construction of the exterior was completed by the beginning of the Civil War. With the threat of the Civil War looming, Sloan's artisans soon halted their construction, fearing for their safety, and fled back to the North. The basement story was completed by slave labor and was ready for occupancy by 1862. Longwood is the largest octagonal house in the United States.
Death
Nutt died on June 15, 1864, of pneumonia. His family continued living at Longwood plantation after his death.