History of the American Negro: West Virginia Edition

Thomas G. Nutter

174 history american negro organization and his church will, when done, represent an expenditure of $20,000.00, with a property valuation of $30,000.00. On June 28, 1907, Mr. Nickerson married Miss Carrie Nichols, of Ormond, Fla. They have one son, Joseph J. Nickerson, Jr. Mr. Nickerson has observed conditions in several states and he believes that all the race needs to promote its progress is an“even chance.” Naturally his favorite reading is along the line of his work, that is theological. After that he has a fondness for history. In politics he is a Republican, but takes no active part in political matters. Mr. Nickerson has served three years as secretary of the West Virginia Baptist State Convention and is highly regarded by the brotherhood. He has fought his way up unassisted by others. When he went to Richmond, to Virginia Union University, he arrived with only a dollar in his pocket. He was a thousand miles from home and a stranger in the city. During the first winter he went to Y. M. C. A. night school and won the Jefferson medal on hygiene that winter. He lost his parents at an early age, and was thus deprived of parental guidance and assistance. Thomas G. Nutter Hon. Thomas Gillis Nutter, attorney at law, legislator, and business man, belongs to that constructive type of citizenship which is the best asset of any community. The record of American business and professional life is replete with the stories of men struggling up from places of poverty and obscurity to places of large usefulness and service, and fortunately no race nor section has a monopoly here in this realm of individual struggle and achievement. So the reader will not be surprised to learn that Mr. Nutter has made his way from the ground up. He is a native of the sister state of Maryland, having been thomas gillis nutter 176 history american negro born at Princess Anne, in Somerset County, on June 15, 1876. His father was the late William Nutter, his mother Emma (Henry) Nutter. His paternal grand parents were Virginia Nutter and Caleb Nutter, and on the maternal side the grand parents were Peter Henry and Julia Henry. Young Nutter laid the foundation of his education in the public schools of Maryland. His parents were ambitious for him and he was also inspired by his teachers. At an early age he came to observe the local lawyers and to watch court procedure with interest, and these things aroused in him a desire to be a lawyer. He entered the law department of Howard University for his law course, winning the LL.B. degree in 1899. He was under the necessity of making his own way in school, but he never permitted that to discourage him or turn him from the course he had chosen. He taught for two years after the completion of his course and was principal of the school at Fairmount, Md. He was admitted to the bar in 1903 and located at Charleston, W. Va., where he has since resided and where he has built up a splendid practice, largely civil. He was for six years assistant land clerk in the office of State Auditor of West Virginia. Mr. Nutter practices in all the courts, State and Federal. He is attorney for the Midland Brick and Cement Company, and the S. W. Starks Improvement Company. He also looks after much of the legal business of the Peoples Exchange Bank.He was the moving spirit in the organization of the Mutual Savings and Loan Company of Charleston, with a capital of $125,000, and is Secretary Treasurer of same. This is the only bank owned and operated by colored people in West Virginia. Mr. Nutter is a member of the State Colored Bar Association of which he was at one time secretary. In politics Mr. Nutter is a Republican and, as a good citizen, takes an active interest in the councils of his party. He is now (1921) serving his second term in the West Virginia Legislature. Here he has been assigned to the judiciary committee, which is one of the most important committees in American legislative bodies. He has done notable work on this committee. He is author of a number of west virginia edition 177 important measures of a general nature as well as several bills affecting the race, among which...