Born too soon
While browsing for some family obituary data, I found this gem.
If only he had been born in our day and age, he would have had his own television show...
No, I did not make any of this up.
May 22, 1885
Clinton Public
Death of an Eccentric Man.
Samuel NUTT died in Farmer City yesterday afternoon, at two o'clock. Mr. Nutt had been sick for some time but refused to have a physician prescribe for him. Of late years he had been a religious enthusiast and finally he came to the belief that he was a prophet sent from God to reform the world. To show that he was endowed with power from God, he determined to fast for forty days in order to cure himself of his bodily ailments. At the end of thirteen days he died. His family nor his friends could not persuade him to partake of food or have a physician prescribe for him. Samuel Nutt was sixty-three years of age.
He had been a resident of Farmer City for about fifteen years. He was an Englishman by birth. Till some four or five years ago he was a confirmed drunkard, and although he was an expert workman-his trade being that of a plasterer and a designer of plaster decorations-his family had a hard struggle for a livelihood. After his reformation he turned his thoughts to the subject of religion and devoted every spare moment to the study of the scriptures, till he finally became fanatical on the question. During the past three or four years he wrote a great deal for the Farmer City papers over the signature of "Samuel Nutt, the Spirit of Truth," and from the wild character of his writings and conversation one could see that his mind was unbalanced. He was always ready to discuss the scriptures with anybody. For the past year or two he took up the cudgels against ministers and churches on the score that they were leading the people into error and became as rabid in his denunciation of orthodoxy as he was before in favor of it. He was an eccentric man.
He leaves a wife and four children, and his only property is a house in Farmer City, worth about $700, and the printing press and type which he used for the publication of his paper, which he called The Spirit of Truth. Mr. Nutt did all the writing, type setting and press work on his paper during the hours in which he was not employed at his trade, and the paper was sent free to anybody who would read it or take it out of the post-office.