Lewis and Davis: Remembering the Tutt Brothers
- Brandon Broughton
- 2 hours ago
- 19 min read
Two half-brothers are buried side-by-side in Maple Park Cemetery. One died young, shot dead in Springfield's public square in 1865. The other lived for another 35 years, during which he became one of Springfield's most esteemed citizens.
Despite their shared paternity, these two men led drastically different lives. Both shaped Springfield and its history, but their respective impacts differ in nature and scale.
One was a former Confederate soldier who arrived in Springfield in the wake of the Civil War. Period sources describe him as a habitual drinker, gambler, and criminal. He was killed in a dispute with a friend over a few dozen dollars and a pocket watch. Today, he is a minor character in Wild West legend.
The other was the son of an enslaved woman and her owner. Despite lacking a formal education, he died one of Springfield's wealthiest and most popular residents. He was an enterprising businessman, a leader in local politics and fraternal organizations, and a civic-minded philanthropist. Today, he is typically mentioned only in relation to his half-brother, if at all.
The first, Davis Tutt, rests beneath a newer headstone of polished marble, with text and engraved images commemorating the moment that he was fatally shot by "Wild Bill" Hickok.
Beside him is a lopsided monument, its surface crusted with lichen, beneath which lies the grave of Lewis Tutt.
The contrast between the state of these monuments and the lives of the men buried beneath them raises questions: Why do we remember what we remember? Why have Davis Tutt's final violent moments taken precedence in our history over Lewis Tutt's lifetime of community building?
To answer these questions, we must first try to unearth the historical reality of these half-brothers. Who was the historical Davis Tutt beneath the legendary Hickok-Tutt shootout? And who was Lewis Tutt—once a pillar of the community, now faded into obscurity?
This is the story of two half-brothers from Arkansas, their lives in Springfield, Missouri, and their place in our memory.
Davis
Born in 1839 in Yellville, Arkansas, Davis K. Tutt was the sixth of Hansford "Hamp" Tutt's eleven legitimate children. In addition to farming, Hansford ran a combined grocery store and saloon in town. The 1850 federal census indicates that the Tutt family enslaved six people: a man, a woman, and four children.
Davis Tutt was brought up amid violence. According to historian George Hart, various members of the Tutt family had vied for political control in Marion County, Arkansas, for years. Their long-time opponents were the Everett family. The rivalry between the Tutts and Everetts erupted into a bona fide feud in 1844, when a friend of the Tutts seriously injured an Everett man at a political meeting. Over the next six years, fourteen men were killed in what is now known as the Tutt-Everett War. The hostilities came to an end in September 1850 with the killing of Hansford Tutt. Davis would have been ten or eleven years old when his father died.
Davis came of age shortly before the onset of the Civil War. In February 1862, Davis joined Company A of the Confederate Army's 27th Arkansas Infantry. His service record ends abruptly, with the muster roll for March and April 1863 remarking that Davis had been sent on detached service as a brigade wagon master. Due to manpower shortages, enlistees in the Confederate forces were mandated by conscription law to serve for the duration of the war. However, Greene County Court records indicate that Davis was living as a civilian in Springfield in January 1864, long before the end of the war. It would appear, then, that Davis either deserted the Confederate Army in 1863 or received some sort of discharge, the records for which are now lost.
Either way, by January 1, 1864, Davis had arrived in Springfield, where he quickly found himself at odds with the law. According to court records, Davis and two other men unlawfully bet a total of one dollar (equivalent to about $21 in 2026) while playing poker on New Year's Day. In the next year and a half, Davis would be charged again with illegal gambling, as well as with resisting arrest.
According to a diary entry written by Albert Barnitz, military commander of the Springfield post in 1865, Davis was "the son and support of a widow lady here," referring to Nancy Tutt. It is unclear how Davis earned an income while in Springfield, or how much of it came from gambling, but if he was financially supporting his mother then this would suggest that the financial standing of the Tutt family had deteriorated in the years since Hansford's death.
While in Springfield, Tutt cultivated a fateful friendship with former Union scout James Butler Hickok—better known today as "Wild Bill." Barnitz writes that Davis and Hickok were "in the habit of appearing on the streets with two revolvers strapped in on their belts" and that the two had been "intimate for years," suggesting that they may have even known one another before their respective arrivals in Springfield. He further describes Davis and Hickok as "desperados" and gamblers. Of course, this friendship would prove fatal for Davis.
The Hickok-Tutt shootout has been embellished substantially in the sixteen decades that have since transpired. By referring to eyewitness testimony, court records, and other sources from the time of the event, we can arrive at a rough sketch of the shootout as it actually occurred.
At some point before 5 PM on July 21, 1865 (traditionally the evening of July 20), Davis and Hickok played cards at the Lyon House, a hotel that stood on South Street. Davis had recently been fined $100 for resisting arrest and possibly another $22.50 for gambling. If Davis were financially supporting his widowed mother, he would have been under significant pressure to pay his fines and stay out of jail. Perhaps this is why Davis called in a debt owed to him by Hickok at the gambling table. Davis claimed he was owed $35; Hickok countered at $25, and Davis raised the debt to $45. During this exchange, Davis came into possession of Hickok's pocket watch.
At 5 PM on July 21, the men argued about the debt on the porch of the Lyon House. Two mutual friends attempted to de-escalate and briefly succeeded. Hickok allegedly stated that he "would rather have a fuss with any man on earth than" Davis, who had "accommodated me more than any man in town." The four men agreed to drink and set the matter aside.
Within the hour, for reasons that remain unknown, the goodwill between Hickok and Davis had vanished. Witnesses recalled Hickok waiting near Robertson and Mason's store (today the location of the Coffee Ethic) as a crowd gathered, anticipating a fight. Davis walked into the square from its northwest corner; Hickok moved either into the square or west toward its southwest corner. Davis was east or southeast of the courthouse (now the site of the Heer's Building) when Hickok shouted at him about the watch. Of the eight witnesses interviewed by Coroner J. F. Brown, multiple saw Davis reach for his pistol first and believed he fired first.
Davis missed. Hickok did not. Davis staggered onto the courthouse steps and was dead within minutes. He was either 25 or 26 years old.
On July 22, Hickok was charged with murder. Two days later, that charge was amended to manslaughter, likely due to testimony that alleged that Davis had shot first and that Hickok had fired in self-defense.
Between August 3 and August 5, Hickok stood trial for the shootout. The 1865 Missouri Constitution mandated that any person who sought to serve on a jury or practice law swear an oath that they had not committed any of 86 actions which were considered tantamount to supporting the Confederacy. As such, the killing of Davis Tutt, a former Confederate, by James Butler Hickok, a Union scout, was tried by a judiciary consisting of Unionists and Union veterans. While this fact doesn't necessarily mean that the outcome of the trial was predetermined, it does raise questions about the impartiality of the proceedings. The fairness of the trial will likely remain a matter of speculation, since the court transcripts are now lost. After ten minutes of deliberation, the jury acquitted Hickok, and he walked away a free man.
Davis Tutt was initially buried in the original city cemetery, once located at the intersection of Campbell Avenue and State Street. In 1881, Lewis Tutt had Davis's remains moved to an unmarked grave in the family plot at Maple Park Cemetery. Davis's grave remained unmarked until 1991, when the Downtown Springfield Association had a red granite headstone erected in conjunction with the annual Wild West Days festival. The back of the headstone features images of a firearm, a pocket watch, and playing cards—items associated with the last days of Davis Tutt's life.
Lewis
While less has been written about Lewis Tutt than his half-brother, more information about him survives. That said, we know very little about Lewis Tutt's early life. Even the year of his birth is uncertain. His headstone attests that he was born in 1827. Other sources variously claim that he was born in 1833, 1835, 1840, or 1844.
What we can say with confidence is that Lewis was born into slavery in Yellville, Arkansas. He was the son of Hansford Tutt and an enslaved woman, the identity of whom has been the subject of some speculation. Hansford Tutt's will, written in 1850, mentions an enslaved woman by the name of Millie and asks that she be sold upon Hansford's death. At the time of the 1850 federal census, the Tutt family owned just one woman, who was nineteen years old. Two mixed-race boys, a twelve-year-old and a four-year-old, were enslaved by the family at this time.
If Millie were Lewis's mother, then he would have been the four-year-old child listed in the census, making his year of birth 1846. This would also mean that Millie gave birth to Lewis when she was around 15 years old, and that she was likely separated from her child at the posthumous wishes of her owner. Later sources would state that Lewis was raised by Hansford's wife, Nancy, further suggesting that Lewis did not grow up with his biological mother. That said, it is possible that Lewis's mother was not owned by Hansford, or that she had passed away or been sold prior to the 1850 census.
Despite lacking a formal education, Lewis became "proficient in agricultural pursuits" as a young man, according to a biographical sketch in the Pictorial and Genealogical Record of Greene County Missouri. By the onset of the Civil War, Lewis "had charge" of the Tutt family farm, where he remained with Nancy until Union forces left Marion County, Arkansas. Likely fearing violence from pro-Confederate Bushwhackers who ran rampant after the withdrawal of Union forces, Lewis and Nancy fled to Springfield. Nancy would return to Arkansas shortly after the end of the war, but Lewis elected to remain. The two remained on warm terms for the rest of Lewis's life.
On August 17, 1865, less than a month after Davis's death, Lewis married Emma McCullah. Based on biographical information about Emma's brother, Fleming, we can reasonably assume that she was born into slavery in Polk County, Missouri, in the latter half of the 1840s. Census records indicate that, like Lewis, Emma was of mixed-race ancestry.
Lewis initially made a living in Springfield working for various city merchants, such as W. C. Hornbeck. In 1877, Lewis opened his first business: a cigar stand outside of the Metropolitan Hotel, which once stood on College Street. By 1883, Lewis owned a grocery store on Boonville Avenue, at what is now the office of the Missouri Legal law firm. One writer for the Springfield Daily Leader wrote in 1890 that Lewis, "a man of indomitable will, sagacity, and foresight," was "building up a splendid trade" whose "customers are largely among the whites." That same year, Lewis pivoted to real estate, selling and renting properties to both Black and White Springfieldians. According to historian Kimberly Harper, Lewis was among the wealthiest African-Americans in the city in the 1890s.
However, Lewis did not dedicate himself commercial enterprises alone. As early as 1870, he was participating in local politics. Initially, Lewis aligned himself with the Radical Republicans, a faction of the Republican Party which prioritized racial justice, universal suffrage, and a militarized Reconstruction of the American South. By the end of the 1870s, however, the Radical faction had disintegrated, its goals for Reconstruction largely unmet. Nevertheless, Lewis remained active in Republican politics, acting as a delegate for multiple district and state conventions. He additionally served as an election judge and a grand juror multiple times. Lewis made Springfield history in 1874, when he was appointed as the city's first Black police officer.
Lewis put his wealth and political sway to use through various philanthropic efforts. He donated funds toward the construction of the Perkins Grand Opera House, an entertainment complex that featured a theater, two music halls, and seating for 1400. The Opera House stood at the corner of Boonville and Central from 1888 to 1896, when it was destroyed in a fire. Lewis also contributed financially and logistically to efforts to bolster Springfield's railroad infrastructure.
Alongside his wife, Lewis was a major figure in Springfield's African-American faith community. He and Emma were longtime members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Lewis was a trustee. The two were said to have "assisted in the building of all the colored churches in Springfield" in 1893.
Shortly after his arrival in Springfield, Lewis was encouraged by Davis to pursue membership in a Masonic lodge. This was another endeavor in which Lewis found tremendous success. He was one of the organizers of a local chapter of the Eureka Lodge Prince Hall Masons, a fraternal organization for African-American men, and a member of a Kansas City commandery of Knight Templars. Lewis was apparently connected to the Knights of Pythias, too, because in 1886, he embarked on an international trip to Toronto to attend the fourteenth session of the Knights of Pythias's Supreme Lodge. In 1889, Lewis was appointed district deputy by J. H. Pelham, grand master of the state lodge. In this role, Lewis oversaw lodges in Greene, Lawrence, Jasper, and Newton County.
Taken as a whole, Lewis Tutt appears in the historical record as a catalogue of achievements. He was a businessman, politician, faith leader, philanthropist, and a friend to many Springfieldians.
On the evening of January 13, 1900, Lewis Tutt was, unsurprisingly, working. At around 7 o'clock, while traveling across the city to collect rents from his various properties, Lewis collapsed. He was taken to a nearby home and died shortly thereafter. "Heart trouble" was cited as the cause of death. Depending on when Lewis Tutt was born, he was between 53 and 73 years old.
The funeral services for Lewis Tutt were held on January 16, 1900 at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Lewis was given a Masonic service, with J. H. Pelham presiding. A reporter for The Springfield Republican wrote that "Mr. Tutt's high standing as a citizen made him a host of friends, and no doubt the funeral will be one of the largest ever held in Springfield."
After the service, Lewis was interred in his plot at Maple Park Cemetery. Emma Tutt lived another 22 years before being buried by her husband's side.
Memory
It is not conjecture to say that society has remembered Davis Tutt more than it has Lewis. For instance, digital collection of historical Springfield newspapers returns a combined 394 results for all of the variants of Davis's name (Davis, David, and Dave), and 229 for Lewis/Louis.
On Google, the gap is even starker: the combined search results for Davis's name yield over 125,000 results, versus fewer than 4,000 for Lewis, many of which do not pertain to our subject.
The fact is that Davis is better remembered for instigating a gunfight in the public square and getting shot by someone who eventually became famous than Lewis is for decades of community building.
Why is that?
Part of the reason may be that the kind of life Lewis led is not one that lends itself to mythology. A gunfight on the square is an exciting spectacle. Grocery stores, church committees, and senatorial conventions are harder to hold in the mind. Perhaps the breadth of Lewis's achievement makes it more difficult for him to stick in our collective memory, since his biography lacks a single anchoring moment. This could be why some writers have focused on Lewis's appointment as the city's first Black police officer, even though he only served on the police force for a year. It's a framing that provides a defining event for the life of a man who worked until the literal moment of his death.
Davis Tutt's violent final moments are easier to mythologize. As Hickok was transformed by dime novels and Wild West shows from a historical man to an American legend, Davis Tutt was elevated alongside him into the pantheon of Wild West outlaws. But this version of Davis Tutt is a shadow of the real man. The young man from a violent background, laid low by the circumstances of war and seeking to support his mother, is paved over by a pistol, a pocket watch, and a body on the courthouse steps.
The cultural explanation can only go so far, however, in explaining how we remember the Lewis and Davis. It cannot account for why a man whose funeral was expected to be one of the largest Springfield had ever seen has faded from the city's memory in the century since. The true cause behind this collective amnesia may be disturbingly local.
On April 14, 1906, the night before Easter, a lynch mob killed three Black men—Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and Will Allen—on Springfield's public square. Thousands looked on as these men were hanged, shot, and then burned. A writer for The Springfield Leader observed that "the police... were conspicuous by their absence during the operations of the mob," and that "the only interest the officers of the city manifested in the proceedings was that of curiosity." No convictions were made in connection with these murders.
Fearing further racial violence, many of Springfield's Black residents fled the city. In 1900, African-Americans made up 10% of Springfield, Missouri's total population. By 1910, the Black population of Springfield had declined by 12% while the total population increased by 51%. Numerically, the Black population of Springfield only returned to its pre-1910 figures by 1960. As a percentage of the total population, the city's Black population has yet to recover.
While Lewis Tutt was liked by both White and Black Springfieldians, his long-term membership in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Eureka Lodge indicates that he was deeply enmeshed within the city's Black community. Perhaps, then, the reason that Lewis Tutt faded into obscurity is because the community that would have preserved his memory was driven out by terror six years after his death.
These half-brothers, one remembered incompletely through Wild West mythology, and the other scarcely remembered despite his local prominence, present us with an opportunity to treat the past with more care and respect. History is not something that exists out there in the ether, waiting to be written down. All we know of the past comes from the writings and artifacts that have survived to the present, and those records are fragmentary, cryptic, and often unreliable. We don't even know what Lewis or Davis looked like, as no authenticated photographs exist of either man.
However, thanks to improvements in technology and easier access to historical sources, we are better equipped than ever to assemble the pieces of these men's lives into a fuller picture. We can remember them better, as human beings like us who lived in a world unlike ours. It is not about remembering Lewis more and Davis less. One does not erase the other.
In one instance, though, that may have been exactly what happened.
Davie
There is another grave in the Tutt family plot.
On October 16, 1866, Emma Tutt gave birth to her and Lewis's only child—a son. Little information about this member of the Tutt family persists.
We do know that as a young man, Lewis and Emma's son attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and that like his father, he was involved with a local Masonic lodge. We also know that he passed away in 1890 at the age of twenty-three from a disease of the lungs.
Lastly, we know that he appears to have been named after his uncle. Sometimes he was David Tutt. On the gravestone that he shares with his father and mother, he's Davie.
The epitaph on Davie's side of the headstone has been weathered substantially. In her work on Springfield's Black history, Katherine Lederer writes that visitors to the cemetery often mistook Davie's grave for Davis's, since the latter's headstone was not installed until 1991. As a result, for more than a hundred years, anyone who came looking for Davis found Davie instead. Many of those visitors made rubbings of the grave, gradually eroding the message it bore. Because of this, the words that Lewis and Emma saw fit to bury their son under are now largely illegible.
We don't have to accept that. After clearing the gravestone of organic growth, I photographed the epitaph. By altering the image, I was able to discern a few words in the inscription and discover that it is a variation on a common 19th-century epitaph. Knowing this, we can fill in the gaps and coax this message out of obscurity.
If we assume an ABAB rhyme scheme for the inscription, then Davie Tutt's epitaph likely reads:
Dearest and only
son, thou hast left us
and thy loss is deeply
felt;
'Tis the Lord that has
bereft us
Of one we loved so well
Four members of the Tutt family are buried together at Maple Park. They are entangled in our history and distorted in our memory. Despite our best efforts, our image of these people—of everyone who came before us—will always be incomplete.
Let's try to see them anyway.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to:
Whit Gillenwaters for her guidance on gravestone cleaning and for generously supplying cleaning materials
Ashley Morrill for her assistance in planning the gravestone cleaning process
Mullin Evans for her consultation regarding the content of this article
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