Collection Details:
Creator/Collector: Haller Nutt.
Date(s): June 28, 1845.
Size: 0.10 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, November 1971; Redescribed by Laura Heller, 2023.
Provenance: Purchase in 1971.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

Rights and Access:
Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Haller Nutt Letter, Z/1065.000/S, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Biography/History:

Haller Nutt was born February 17, 1816, on Laurel Hill Plantation at Rodney, Jefferson County, Mississippi, to Eliza Elizabeth Kerr (1785-1830) and Dr. Rushworth “Rush” Nutt (1781-1837). Haller had four siblings: Nail Nutt (1809), Rittenhouse Nutt (1810-1862), Eliza Ker Nutt (1825-1920), and Margaret Nutt (1830-1874). Laurel Hill Plantation, situated at the crossroads of Rodney and Red Licks roads, was built circa 1815 for Haller’s father, a prominent agriculturalist and scientist known for his improved agricultural implements. He also developed the Petit Gulf strain of cotton that became popular in the mid-1830s and was the first to harness steam power to operate cotton gins. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973.

Haller Nutt attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, from 1832 to 1835. After graduation, he returned to Laurel Hill and assisted his family with the management of the plantation. Haller married eighteen-year-old Julia Augusta Williams on December 22, 1840, at Evergreen Plantation in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. Julia, born on August 11, 1822, was the daughter of Caroline Matilda Routh (1798-1863) and Austin Williams (1795-1846). Haller and Julia Nutt had eleven children: Carrie Routh Nutt (1842-1867), Mary Ella Nutt (1843-1901), Fanny Smith Nutt (1846-1848), Haller Nutt, Jr. (1848-1899), John Kerr Nutt (1850-1921), Austin Williams Nutt (1854-1860), Sargeant Prentiss Nutt (Knut) (1855-1939), Julia August Nutt (1857-1932), Calvin Routh Nutt (1858-1909), Lily Frances Nutt (1859-1930), and Rushworth Nutt (1863).

Nutt’s vast holdings of plantations he acquired through inheritance or purchase. He owned what was known as Winter Quarters Plantation in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, where at least 153 enslaved persons were registered to Nutt. It consisted of about 1750 acres. The plantation was used as an overnight stopping point by thousands of Federal troops on their march to the landing at Hard Times Plantation in Tensas Parish on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Winter Quarters was the only plantation home of the fifteen along Lake St. Joseph left standing after the Union march. In 1978, Winter Quarters State Historic Site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Haller Nutt inherited from his in-laws the Evergreen Plantation, also in Tensas Parish, which was worked by at least 118 enslaved persons. He inherited Laurel Hill Plantation at Rodney, Jefferson County, from his father. He also owned the rural Cloverdale Plantation south of Natchez which provided fruits and vegetables, and he owned the cotton-producing Araby Plantation in Madison Parish, Louisiana. The cultivation of cotton, sugar cane, and other cash crops on these plantations brought him considerable wealth. Nutt owned nearly 43,000 acres of land and 800 enslaved persons, and he had made a net profit of more than $228,000 from agricultural enterprises in 1860. His fortune prior to the Civil War was estimated at more than three million dollars.

In the Spring of 1860, Dr. Haller Nutt commissioned Samuel Sloan, one of the most able of early American architects, to design a dwelling at Natchez. If the six-story octagonal structure had been completed, it would have been one of the nation’s most unusual and interesting homes. Nutt devised an elaborate system of mirrors to reflect sunlight down the towering central hall even to the basement level. He also planned devices to use solar heat in winter and to ventilate the house in summer by drawing in cool air at the lower level and exhausting it at the top of the building. All thirty-two major rooms open onto both the central hall and exterior loggias so that each has two exits and assured cross ventilation. With the outbreak of war, all the workmen quit the job to return to the North and it was never finished. The house was named Longwood.

On June 15, 1864, Dr. Haller Nutt died of pneumonia before the war was over. His wife Julia August Williams Nutt died on February 23, 1897, at Longwood, and was buried next to her husband in the Longwood Cemetery in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi.

Related Materials at MDAH:
Subject File: Haller Nutt, MDAH.
Sargeant Prentiss Knut Telegram (Z/2284/F), MDAH.
Pilgrimage Historical Association Collection: Nutt Family Papers (Z/1817), MDAH.
Nutt Family Collection (Z/1519), MDAH.
Routh-Williams-Smith Family Papers (Z/2172), MDAH.

Related Materials at other Institutions:
Haller Nutt papers, 1846-1860, and, Journal of "Araby" Plantation, 1843-1850, Natchez (Adams County), Mississippi and Madison Parish, Louisiana (Microfilm E381, part 1, reels 1-2), University of Chicago.

Scope and Content:

This collection consists of one letter signed by Haller Nutt dated June 28, 1845, Rodney, to the Braintree Manufacturing Company, Braintree, Massachusetts, regarding cotton gins made for him and his order for additional equipment.

Series Identification:

1. Series 1: Letter, Haller Nutt to Braintree Manufacturing Co., June 28, 1845.

   One letter in Haller Nutt’s handwriting, on both sides of the page, dated June 28, 1845, from Haller Nutt to Braintree Manufacturing Company in Massachusetts.

   Box 1, Folder 1

Box List:

Folder 1: Letter, Haller Nutt to Braintree Manufacturing Co., June 28, 1845.