Shutt, George W.

Born: 1833-05-30 Loudoun County, Virginia

Died: 1893-10-01 Loudoun County, Virginia

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

George W. Shutt, attorney, moved to Springfield with his family about 1842. He relocated to St. Louis by 1850 when he was working as a clerk there, and two years later was engaged in the wholesale drug business in that city as a partner in the firm of Snow & Shutt. Shutt returned to Springfield and was a member of the bar there by 1855, having studied law in the office of Stephen A. Douglas. He partnered with James B. White in 1857 and 1858 and with James H. Matheny between 1859 and 1861. Abraham Lincoln and Shutt encountered each other on numerous occasions in the Sangamon County Circuit Court in the 1850s, and in 1861 Shutt was appointed master in chancery for this court. Shutt married first, Mary Osburn (Osborne) in 1857, and ten years later married Virginia Osburn (Osborne), with whom he had one son. In politics he was a Democrat, but following Lincoln’s assassination, Shutt served on the committee of invitation for Lincoln’s funeral.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 4, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 29; Morrison’s St. Louis Directory, for 1852 (St. Louis: Chambers & Knapp, 1852), 236, 241; Thomas Moffett and Others to David Davis; For legal cases involving Lincoln, search Participant, “Shutt, George W,” Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; Rock Island Morning Argus 24 October 1856, 3:1; West Virginia, U.S., Marriages Index, 1785-1971, 1857, Jefferson County; 1867, Jefferson County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 9 May 1857, 3:1; 19 June 1858, 1:4; 25 March 1861, 2:6; 7 November 1861, 3:2; 21 April 1865, 2:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 12 January 1859, 5:6; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 150; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 6 October 1893, 6:3; Gravestone, Ketoctin Baptist Church Cemetery, Purcellville, VA.