Among the highly esteemed farmers and financially solid men of the Jamestown locality is J.W. Cutshaw, who came to Kansas in 1870 and homesteaded his present farm. He was born in Marshall county, Indiana, in 1843. When he was nine years old his parents removed to Michigan and settled in Berrien county, near Three Oaks, where Mr. Cutshaw was reared. When eighteen years of age he enlisted in Company K, Sixth Michigan Infantry, and served until 1863, When he was discharged on account, of a gun-shot wound received in Port Hudson, Louisiana, which disabled him for service. His company commander was Captain Ed. Bacon. Their lieutenant colonel was David Bacon - cousins. The warfare of his company consisted of guard duty, tearing up railroads, etc. Mr. Cutshaw returned to Michigan and lived in different localities of that state until 1870, when he emigrated west. He was unmarried when he secured his prairie claim and erected a little cabin and later a board house. But with the accession of a home all his own, "the young man's fancy lightly turned to thoughts of marriage," and in accordance was wedded to Miss Frances F. Wilson in 1877, whose acquaintance he had formed during his youth in Indiana. Of the eight children born to their union six are living: Grace L., a promising young girl of fifteen, died in 1893. Earl and Carl F. were born at the same birth and are very similar in personality. The resemblance between the twins is so marked they often exercise pranks on their hand-shaking friends. They are manly fine fellows twenty-three years of age. Earl J. is a student on his second year in the Kansas City Dental College. He had previously been a pupil of the Concordia high school for two years. Carl F., who represents the Continental insurance business, is located at Lincoln Center, Kansas. He is a graduate from the Concordia high school. Ralph Roscoe, aged twenty, is interested with his father on the farm. After a course in the Concordia high school he matriculated in the Great Western, Business College for two years. The other sons, Lewis Robert and Paul Fulsom, are young men of promise. They are aged nineteen and seventeen years, respectively. Fannie Louise, their only daughter, is a bright little girl of thirteen years. These children have been reared in the school of industry as well as book lore, for Mr. Cutshaw owns five hundred and twenty acres of land and is a large wheat and alfalfa grower as well as stockman. He owns thirteen quarter sections of uncultivated land in Thomas county, Kansas, which he purchased for ranching and speculative purposes, but believing it will produce good wheat, will put much of it under cultivation. His farm in Buffalo township is all first and second bottom land of excellent quality.

The parents of Mr. Cutshaw were Jesephus Arnold and Phoebe (Belangee) Cutshaw. His father was of Dutch origin and Pennsylvania birth. He lived for short periods in Ohio and Illinois, and later in Indiana. He gained a considerable fortune in the gold mines of California in 1849. The family came to Kansas in 1876, where the father and mother both died a few years later. There were six children: Mortimer, who lived in the same vicinity for many years, removed to California, where he died. Cecil Cutshaw, is a prominent farmer and lives on an adjoining estate.

Until the birth of the Populist party Mr. Cutshaw was a Republican, but is not a partisan politician and votes independently. Socially he is a member of the Woodmen and the Grand Army of the Republic. Although Mr. Cutshaw, has experienced his share of the early hardships he has given his sons better educational advantages than the average farmer boy receives and has accumulated an estate that warrants all the comforts of life. He is a typical western farmer and he and his excellent family are among the most desirable citizens or the community.