Eunice Powers Cutter

Eunice Nye Powers was born on October 16, 1819, in Warren, Massachusetts to Eunice (née Haskell) and Chester Powers.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|Cornish|1902|p=477}}{{sfn|Death record|1893|p=731}} Her father manufactured woolen products.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}} Powers' mother died when she was young and her father entrusted her education to an older brother, Daniel.{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1196}} After studying in Monson, Westfield, and New Haven, Connecticut, she returned to Warren and became the precept of the Quaboag Seminary in 1843.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{#tag:ref|Abolitionist and women's right's activist, Lucy Stone attended Monson Academy in 1841 and then Quaboag Seminary in 1842.{{sfn|McMillen|2015|p=16}}|group="Notes"}} On December 10, she married the physician Calvin Cutter,{{sfn|Marriage record|1843|p=157}} a widower, whose first wife, Caroline Hall, a daughter of Nathan Hall{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1196}} (or Nathaniel), had died in August 1842, shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Carrie.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1887|p=3}}{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1931|p=13}}{{#tag:ref|Caroline's gravestone reads "Caroline H., wife of Calvin Cutter, M. D., Murdered by the Baptist Ministry and Baptist Churches as follows:--September 28, 1838 Æt. 33. She was accused of lying in Church Meeting…" Her actual death is reported in the Boston Globe as having occurred on August 1, 1842, after having given birth on July 28, 1842, to Carrie.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1887|p=3}}{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1931|p=13}}|group="Notes"}} The couple would have two sons together, John Clarence and Walter Powers Cutter, though Walter died at the age of fourteen in 1871.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1910|p=45}}{{sfn|Death record|1871|p=315}}

Between 1848 and 1857, Cutter traveled with her husband and lectured to various women's groups throughout New England about health.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}} He lectured on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene to schools and colleges in thirty states during the same period.{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1197}} Calvin published a textbook Anatomy and Physiology in 1846, which was reprinted fifteen times before being revised in 1848 and 1852 with the assistance of his wife.{{sfn|Hoolihan|2001|p=241}}{{sfn|Nietz|1961|p=306}}{{sfn|Cutter|1871|p=Dedication}} Cutter published her first book, Human and Comparative Physiology in the early 1850s.{{sfn|Wright|1855|p=30}}{{#tag:ref|Reed noted that Nietz gives the date of 1854 for Eunice Cutter's first book, but states that the first book is undated and that the 1854 is a "stereotyped school edition".{{sfn|Reed|1992|p=54}} Wright indicates a slightly different name of the earliest text.{{sfn|Wright|1855|p=30}}|group="Notes"}} Whereas her husband published works for university-level students, Cutter's book was aimed at children.{{sfn|Reed|1992|p=54}} Hiram A. Wright, the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin described the book as "of the highest importance" for introduction to common schools for twelve year old pupils, to enable students to learn about their own bodies, function of organs, and proper hygiene.{{sfn|Wright|1855|p=30}} It was revised as Human and Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene in 1854 and reprinted in 1855.{{sfn|Reed|1992|p=54}} The book was divided into four parts, including in part one the circulatory, digestive, respiratory and vocal systems; in part two, the nervous system; in part three, the bones, muscles, and skin; and in part four, a question and answer review.{{sfn|Reed|1992|p=55}} The New York Evangelist described it as a concise, illustrated outline of the basic principles of health and the body, which was clearly presented and useful for schools.{{sfn|The New York Evangelist|1854|p=196}}

Cutter and her family moved to Kansas in 1857 and were active in the American abolitionist movement. Friends of John Brown, they were in favor of Kansas entering the union as a free state.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}} Newspapers reported through the 1930s that Cutter had made cartridges for the Battle of Osawatomie.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|The Atlanta Constitution|1919|p=12}}{{sfn|The Las Vegas Daily Optic|1930|p=2}} The battle took place on August 30, 1856,{{sfn|Goodrich|1998|pp=159–160}} and while some sources specify that though Calvin was there in 1856{{sfn|Soike|2014|pp=108, 232}} and she did not go to Kansas until the Spring of 1857,{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1197}} others show she was there in 1856.{{sfn|Soike|2014|p=232}} During their time in Kansas, she wrote dispatches, including a lengthy article "The Missouri River Pirates", which was first published in the Worcester Spy on July 19, 1856, and reprinted in the National Anti-Slavery Standard.{{sfn|Soike|2014|pp=58, 232}} After Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861, she delivered the news to colleagues in Chicago and then returned to Massachusetts.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|The Burlington Free Press|1861|p=2}}

As the Civil War had broken out, Cutter organized branches of the Soldier's Aid Society throughout Massachusetts. With her step-daughter, Carrie, they outfitted soldiers and provided all of the hospital supplies for the expedition led by brigadier general Thomas W. Sherman to secure Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island and then fully equipped the 21st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1931|p=13}} Calvin joined the 21st Infantry as the regimental surgeon, in October 1861 and prepared to sail with the Burnside's North Carolina Expedition to blockade the ports of the Outer Banks coastline.{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1197}}{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1931|p=13}} Carrie petitioned to remain with her father and was allowed to stay with him at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and then serve aboard the SS Northern, which was headed to Roanoke Island. When the Battle of Roanoke Island commenced, she assisted him in caring for the wounded.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1931|p=13}} The regiment engaged again at the Battle of New Berne in March 1862. Carrie again treated the wounded, but contracted typhoid fever and died on April 24, 1862.{{sfn|The Burlington Daily Times|1862|p=4}}

While her husband and stepdaughter were at the front, Cutter continued her work with the Soldier's Aid Society, until news of Carrie's death reached her and she withdrew from the work.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}} In June 1863, Calvin experienced severe heat stroke, which caused him continuing health problems. He resigned his post after the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864, and returned home.{{sfn|Hurd|1889|p=1197}} Thereafter, the couple engaged in updating Calvin's popular textbook, which was published as New Analytic Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene in 1870.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|Hoolihan|2001|p=242}}

After 1871, Cutter took full charge of the revisions of Calvin's work, with assistance from her son John who was studying to become a physician.{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1910|p=45}} Calvin died in 1872,{{sfn|The Burlington Free Press|1872|p=3}} but the New Analytic Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene was revised, and republished by J. B. Lippincott & Co., in 1871, 1873, and 1874.{{sfn|Hoolihan|2001|p=242}} According to John A. Nietz, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh,{{sfn|Kasica|2014}} the Cutters' textbooks were "the most widely used" school books prior to 1900,{{sfn|Nietz|1961|p=305}} primarily because they updated them often and they were easy to use both for students and teachers.{{sfn|Nietz|1961|p=307}} In 1879, Cutter published a history of the town of Warren and the following year began working on two histories of Worcester County, which were published after 1880.{{sfn|Stebbins|1891|pp=36–37}}{{sfn|Boston Evening Transcript|1898|p=2}}

Cutter died on May 10, 1893, at Warren, Massachusetts.{{sfn|Appletons' Cyclopædia|1894|p=546}} For decades after her death she was primarily remembered for her involvement with John Brown's anti-slave campaigns in Kansas.{{sfn|Wausau Daily Herald|1919|p=7}} When her son John died, he donated land in the town of Warren to be established as a memorial children's park in the memory of his entire family.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1910|p=45}} Her contributions to science were forgotten until the twentieth century, when geneticist Elizabeth Wagner Reed recovered the histories of twenty-two women who published scientific works prior to the Civil War in her book, American Women in Science before the Civil War (1992).{{sfn|Sheffield|2004|pp=88–89}}

• {{cite book |ref=none |last1=Cutter |first1=Eunice P. |title=Human and Comparative Physiology |date=n.d. |publisher=n.s. |location=Warren, Massachusetts}}{{sfn|Wright|1855|p=30}}
• {{cite book |ref=none |last1=Cutter |first1=Eunice P. |title=Human and Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene |date=1854 |edition=stereotyped school |publisher=Clark, Austin and Smith |location=New York, New York |oclc=10706176}}{{sfn|Reed|1992|p=54}} ([https://archive.org/details/61022100R.nlm.nih.gov/page/n4/mode/1up revised 1855])
• {{cite book |ref=none |last1=Cutter |first1=Eunice P. |editor-last=Marvin |editor-first= Abijah P. |title=History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Embracing a Comprehensive History of the County From Its First Settlement to the Present Time, With a History and Description of Its Cities and Towns |date=1879 |volume=2: L-Z |publisher=C.F. Jewett & Co. |location=Boston, Massachusetts |chapter=Warren |pages=437–455 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofworcest02marv/page/437/mode/1up |oclc=1804192}}{{sfn|Stebbins|1891|pp=36–37}}

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• {{cite book |last1=Cornish |first1=Louis H. |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=Alonzo Howard |title=A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwyqRbA-2ykC&pg=PA477 |date=1902 |volume=1 |publisher=Press of A. H. Kellogg |location=New York, New York |chapter=John Clarence Cutter |page=477 |oclc=1011810345}}
• {{cite book |last1=Cutter |first1=Calvin |title=New Analytic Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene: Human and Comparative: For Colleges, Academies and Families, with Questions |url=https://archive.org/details/newanalyticanato00cutt/page/n10/mode/1up |date=1871 |publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co. |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |oclc=16067573}}
• {{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Thomas |title=War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1861 |url=https://archive.org/details/wartoknifebleedi0000good/page/159/mode/1up |date=1998 |publisher=Stackpole Books |location=Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-8117-1921-6 |edition=1st}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hoolihan |first1=Christopher |title=An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFKvimYMHloC&pg=PA241 |date=2001 |volume=1: A-L |publisher=University of Rochester Press |location=Rochester, New York |isbn=978-1-58046-098-9}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hurd |first1=D. Hamilton |title=History of Worcester County, Massachusetts: with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofworcest02hurd/page/1196/mode/1up |date=1889 |volume=2 |publisher=J. W. Lewis & Company |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |chapter=Biographical: Calvin Cutter, A.M., M.D. |pages=1196–1197 |oclc=3713110}}
• {{cite web |last1=Kasica |first1=Marianne |title=Guide to the John A. Nietz Papers UA.90.F95 |url=https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AUS-PPiU-ua90f95/viewer |website=historicpittsburgh.org |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Library System |access-date=July 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723200945/https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3AUS-PPiU-ua90f95/viewer |archive-date=July 23, 2022 |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |date=May 2014 |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last1=McMillen |first1=Sally G. |title=Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic Life |url=https://archive.org/details/lucystoneunapolo0000mcmi/page/16/mode/1up |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-0-19-977839-3}}
• {{cite book |last1=Nietz |first1=John Alfred |title=Old Textbooks: Spelling, Grammar, Reading, Arithmetic, Geography, American History, Civil Government, Physiology, Penmanship, Art, Music- As Taught in the Common Schools From Colonial Days to 1900 |url=https://archive.org/details/oldtextbooks0000john/page/305/mode/1up |date=1961 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |oclc=930459319}}
• {{cite book |last1=Reed |first1=Elizabeth Wagner |author-link=Elizabeth Wagner Reed |title=American Women in Science before the Civil War |url=http://catherinecreed.com/assets/writings/women_in_science.pdf |date=1992 |publisher=University of Minnesota |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708160623/http://catherinecreed.com/assets/writings/women_in_science.pdf |archive-date=July 8, 2016 |chapter=Eunice Powers Cutter: 1819–1892 |pages=54–56 |url-status=usurped |oclc=28126164}}
• {{cite book |last1=Sheffield |first1=Suzanne Le-May |title=Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLWaoLBbtikC&pg=PA88 |date=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-0-8135-3737-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Soike |first1=Lowell J. |title=Busy in the Cause: Iowa, the Free-State Struggle in the West, and the Prelude to the Civil War |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/29308 |date=2014 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0-8032-7189-0}}{{subscription required|via=Project MUSE}}
• {{cite book |last1=Stebbins |first1=Solomon Bliss |title=Western 1741–1834, Warren 1834–1891, Massachusetts. An Account of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Warren, September 7, 1891, Including the Founding and Growth of a New-England Town |url=https://archive.org/details/western17411834w00steb/page/n86/mode/1up |date=1891 |publisher=Charles W. Eddy |location=Ware, Massachusetts |oclc=9493543}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=H. A. |author-link=Hiram A. Wright |title=Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Wisconsin for the Year 1854 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1L_lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA30 |date=1855 |publisher=Beriah Brown |location=Madison, Wisconsin |oclc=459151990}}
• {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Appletons' Cyclopædia|1894}}|author= |title=Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events, 1893 |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/appletonsannual68unkngoog/page/546/mode/1up |date=1894 |volume=XVIII |publisher=D. Appleton & Company |location=New York, New York |chapter=Cutter, Eunice Powers |page=546-547 |oclc=1157993277}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|Wausau Daily Herald|1919}}|author= |title=Centenaries of Famous Women |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106086208/wausau-daily-herald/ |access-date=July 23, 2022 |work=Wausau Daily Herald |date=January 8, 1919 |location=Wausau, Wisconsin |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Death record|1871}}|author= |title=Deaths Registered in the Town of Warren for the Year Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-One: Walter P. Cutter |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-622S-TCL?i=724&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AN7VD-TT5 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Massachusetts State Archives |access-date=July 22, 2022 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=August 1, 1871 |page=315 |id=volume 240, line 27}}{{subscription required}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Death record|1893}}|author= |title=Deaths Registered in the Town of Warren for the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Three: Eunice Powers Cutter |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-69C3-8WH?i=753 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Massachusetts State Archives |access-date=July 22, 2022 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=May 10, 1893 |page=731 |id=volume 438, line 28}}{{subscription required}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Burlington Free Press|1872}}|author= |title=Dr. Calvin Cutter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106089473/the-burlington-free-press/ |access-date=July 23, 2022 |work=The Burlington Free Press |date=June 24, 1872 |location=Burlington, Vermont |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Boston Globe|1910}}|author= |title=Dr. J. C. Cutter's Will |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106108918/the-boston-globe/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=The Boston Globe |date=May 15, 1910 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=45 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Marriage record|1843}}|author= |title=Marriages Registered in the Town of Warren for the Year Next Preceding May 1, 1844: Cutter/Powers |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-XKGB-Z5?i=339&cc=1469062 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Massachusetts State Archives |access-date=July 22, 2022 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=December 10, 1843 |page=731 |id=volume 7, line 5}}{{subscription required}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Boston Globe|1931}}|author= |title=Milford, N.H., Gave Civil War Heroine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75551477/carrie-cutter-boston-globe-5-30-1931/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=The Boston Globe |date=May 30, 1931 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Burlington Daily Times|1862}}|author= |title=Miss Carrie E. Cutter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106143947/burlington-daily-times/ |access-date=July 23, 2022 |work=The Burlington Daily Times |date=May 3, 1862 |location=Burlington, Vermont |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|Boston Evening Transcript|1898}}|author= |title=Mrs. Eunice P. Cutter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106086682/boston-evening-transcript/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=Boston Evening Transcript |date=May 11, 1898 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Boston Globe|1887}}|author= |title='Murdered by the Baptists' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106088572/the-boston-globe/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=The Boston Globe |date=June 28, 1887 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The New York Evangelist|1854}}|author= |title=New Publications |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_evangelist-and-religious-review_1854-12-07_25_49/page/n3/mode/1up?q=%22eunice+P+Cutter%22 |access-date=July 23, 2022 |work=The New York Evangelist |issue=49 |volume=25 |date=December 7, 1854 |location=New York, New York |page=196}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Burlington Free Press|1861}}|author= |title=The State of Kansas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106141466/the-burlington-free-press/ |access-date=July 23, 2022 |work=The Burlington Free Press |date=January 29, 1861 |location=Burlington, Vermont |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Atlanta Constitution|1919}}|author= |title=Today's Anniversaries |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106109954/the-atlanta-constitution/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |date=October 16, 1919 |location=Atlanta, Georgia |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Las Vegas Daily Optic|1930}}|author= |title=Today's Anniversaries |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106109991/las-vegas-daily-optic/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |work=The Las Vegas Daily Optic |date=October 16, 1930 |location=Las Vegas, Nevada |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}

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Category:1819 births

Category:1893 deaths

Category:People from Warren, Massachusetts

Category:19th-century American women educators

Category:19th-century American educators

Category:American abolitionists

Category:19th-century American women writers

Category:Educators from Massachusetts

Category:Writers from Massachusetts

Category:Activists from Massachusetts

Category:American women non-fiction writers