Male

April 6, 1797

September 1834

Watertown, CT

New Haven, CT
Watertown, CT
New York, NY
Venus, IL

Mary Ann Monson Whitney (May 29, 1821)

George Younglove Cutler was the son of George Younglove and Dothe (Stone) Cutler. His father was a successful merchant in Watertown, CT and owned a large amount of real estate in Oneida County, NY. After attending the Litchfield Law School, Cutler moved to New Haven, CT to study law with David Daggett (a U.S. Senator, CT State Attorney, Mayor of New Haven, CT, member CT House of Representatives, and Judge of CT State Supreme Court. He was also the uncle of his future wife) Cutler was admitted to the bar in Litchfield in 1820. He married Litchfield Female Academy student Mary Ann Pomeroy Monson. Cutler then practiced law in Watertown and New Haven, CT and also engaged in the book business in New York City. He moved to Venus, IL (now Nauvoo, IL) in 1829. During the time he and his wife lived ...in Venus Cutler served not only as the Postmaster of Venus, but also the Justice of the Peace, and was appointed a county commissioner of Hancock County. In September of 1834 George Y. Cutler died. He is buried in Nauvoo, IL and Cutler St. was named for him.
[more][less]

Culter penned this handwritten poem to "the lovely girls" of the Litchfield Female Academy (one of whom, Mary Ann "Monson," he later married):

Let's fill our cups to Beauty bright,
And toast the lovely girls.
This would have been a dreary night,
But for the charming girls.

And here's to all our noble Selves,
God bless our glorious lives.
Our health to our most noble Selves,
God grant us heavenly wives.

Connecticut demands a bowl,
And claims a foaming can.
Our health to Hannah's noble soul,
And beauteous Mary Ann.

Old Penna too we'll greet,
And Penna toast.
And sure the bumper must be sweet,
When sweet Conard's the toast.

One cup to Georgia's beauty too,
The angel of the South.
The ...lovely Dick's a picture true,
Of innocence and truth.

And we will fill a sparkling glass,
To Winne's sparkling eyes.
And for the love of this sweet lass,
We'll drain the bumper dry.

And now to Monson's lively mind,
And to her brilliant wit.
We shall roam far e're we shall find,
A Soul so bright and sweet.

And one to the enchanting face,
And the engaging mien.
To beauty, dignity and grace,
United in the Queen.

The female students in the poem are identified as:
Hannah Wolcott (1814-1819)
Mary Ann Patten (1817-1819)
Jane Lowe Conard [married Oliver Stoughton Wolcott in 1820] (1819)
Anna A., i.e., "Dick" [of Sunbury, Liberty Co., Georgia] (1819)
Maria A. Winne (1819)
Mary Ann Monson AKA Mary Ann Pomeroy Monson; Mary Ann Monson Whitney, and Mary Ann Cutler [married Cutler in 1821] (1820)

Mary Ann Lewis Collection, Folder 8, Litchfield Historical Society N.A., N.D. ca. 1819

Cutler's former classmate James Simon Taylor committed suicide in 1820, reportedly after being rejected romantically by Litchfield Female Academy student Lucretia Swift, and the death was discussed in letters:

In a "Journal" entry dated October 18, 1820, Cutler mentioned a letter he received from Thomas Tucker Whittlesey (Yale 1817, LLS 1818) which stated, "Taylor has been refused by Miss Swift of Windham."

Two months later, on December 29, 1820, Cutler noted, "Little Taylor, you remember him — he is mentioned in orator Ogilvies book as a rare specimen has killed himself for the love of Miss Swift."

[All we know of Taylor is that he passed the bar in 1820 and died soon after."]

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) pp. 201, 205.

In 1820, Litchfeld Female Academy student Mary Ann Wolcott was romantically attached to Litchfield Law School student Henry Walter Livingston, whose family belonged to the old NY grant, Manor families (considered the closest thing to “aristocracy in the US”). Despite Mary Ann's own distinguished background ( it didn't meet the Livingston family's marital criteria and Henry ultimately ended the relationship. This caused a stir in the community and many students weighed in on the breakup via journal entries and letters.

Upon Henry’s arrival at Litchfield Law School, Cutler wrote that Henry saw Mary Ann (his first glance of her?) and fellow student "Hannah L" from his window at Tapping Reeve’s house and remarked, “I suppose these young ladies i.e. the ladies of this village -- depend upon law students for their husbands -- I will be very careful they do not ensnare me.”

Within three weeks, Henry was “engaged” to Mary Ann:

In Cutler's “Journal” dated September 2, 1820:
“Engagements are dangerous affairs -- ‘reason’ & love take little company together now-a-days -- love easily takes possession of a man, but an engagement connected with delay is apt to cool it & when the passion is moderated, it is easily ousted by reason -- & too often by something which ought to have less effect than reason.”

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p.197.

Cutler believed “it was probably the interference of friends who have caused the mishap” between Livingston and Mary Ann and that "avarice" was prejudice against her economic and social standing. “...[T]hat is a very dishonorable reason considering his already monstrous estate... if I was an Emperor I would hang such a man.”

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p.197.

It was also rumored that Livingston rejected Mary Ann as vengeance. Cutler wrote: “Hunt Stone surmises that L. cheated M.A.W. to revenge an insult of that kind once offered to one of his Uncles by one of her Aunts.”

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p.203.

According to Culter, Tapping Reeve said that if gossip of Livingston “disappoint[ing] 6 ladies” prior to Mary Ann was true that “the wretch ought to be prosecuted.” In this period lawsuits could be brought against men who broke engagements. Cutler believed Frederick Wolcott should sue Livingston. He wrote, “M.A.’s feelings may be nice upon the point but her delicacy ought not to prevent his punishment especially since her family is not rich.”

After the “cruel affair,” Culter said Livingston was leaving for France and wrote “It has been reported that L. says ‘he will go to Europe with a light heart.”

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p.198.

In 1823, Livingston married Caroline de Grasse de Pau in France. She was the granddaughter of the fabulously wealthy Comte de Grasse, who had been the commander of the French Fleet during the decisive battle at Yorktown in the American Revolution.

Four years later, in 1827, Mary Ann married Asa Whitehead, a lawyer of Newark, NJ and close friend of her sister Elizabeth’s husband.

George wrote in his “Journal” about some surprisingly licentious behavior in Litchfield:
“Walter S. Franklin, Esq., says there was kissing done at Charlotte Landon’s wedding -- singular for so stiff & prudish a place as L...Miss Mary Ann thought she was near being swallowed at the kissing bout which has been held in L... They say Helen was all but kissed to death at the Landon’s.”

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p.203; 207.
[more][less]

1819

Graduated from Yale College in 1816.

Lawyer; Political Office

Litchfield, CT in 1820

In 1820 he went to New Haven, CT to read the law with a Mr. Daggett.

Postmaster (Venus, IL) 1829
Commissioner of the County (Hancock County, IL)

Ledger. "Journals of the Barr - Litchfield County." Litchfield Historical Society.; Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849), 16.

Gould, William Tracy, et al. Biographical Sketches of the Members of the Class of 1816, Yale College. T. J. Stafford, 1867.; Bateman, LL D., Newton and Paul Selby, A.M. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois. Chicago: Musell Publishing Company, Publishers, 1900.