It is very fitting that among the young men of Nez Perces County, Mr. Utt should be mentioned as one of the capable, enterprising and progressive ones, whose labors have done much to assist in the up building of the County.
Rufus W. Utt was born in Jersey County, Illinois, on January 15, 1872, being the son of John H. and Marv (Armstrong) Utt, natives of Illinois. The father was born May 2, 1841, and his father was a pioneer of Illinois. The mother of our subject died in 1877. The family removed to Kansas when Rufus was eleven years old, settling in Chautauqua County. The father bought land and farmed. Rufus was educated and grew to manhood in that western home and at the age of twenty-three he came to Latah County and milled in Garden Gulch and on Gold Hill with varying success for two years.
Then he came to Nez Perces County and took up farming and stock raising. He leased land and broke it for two years’ use and in this business he has done well. He owns a good farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Latah County, near Princeton, which is well improved and which he intends to make his home when his leases expire in this County.
In Latah County, on January 1, 1899, Mr. Utt married Miss Lulu I., daughter of Robert and Louise (Hendricks) Mowlds. The father was born in Illinois in 1852 and the mother was born there in 1862. They are both now living in Latah County. Mr. Mowlds was a pioneer in Lincoln County, Washington, and is a first class carpenter and builder. Mrs. Utt was born in Lincoln County, Washington, on January 31, 1882, and she has the following brothers and sisters, Mattie, Cecil, Virgie, Itha, Lloyd and Pearl. Mr. Utt has two sisters and one brother, Nancy J. Bontwell, in Little Rock, Arkansas; John M., in Nez Perces County; Mary M., who has not been heard from since the Johnstown flood, she being there. Two children have come to bless the household of our subject, Ethel M. and Rufus Ed.
Mr. Utt is a member of the M. W. A. at Peck. He is a Democrat but does not press for personal preferment.
Mrs. Utt is a member of the Christian Church and Mr. Utt is a wise advocate of good schools and general progress.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903