Veteran of the Civil War

Colonel, commissioned Jan 23, '62, 98th Inf It was by his active efforts that the movement for a Wayne County Regiment was begun and prosecuted, as a graduate of West Point his military ability and his popularity made his name a rallying point. He died July 4, '62 of fever at New York city, remains buried at Wolcott, disease contracted in the Peninsula campaign.

Source: Military History of Wayne County, by Lewis H. Clark, 1883, p. 47

Source: Historical Souvenir Series No. 20
Wolcott, N.Y. and Vicinity
Copyrighted June 1905, "Grip," 109 Corning Ave., Syracuse, N.Y.
William Dutton was born in Watertown, Ct., Jan. 14, 1824, the descendant of an English Family that came to this country early in its colonial period, and of whom there was a long line of educators and Congregational clergymen, including a Governor of Connecticut who was William Dutton's uncle. When the subject of this sketch was fourteen years old he went to Mecklenburgh, then in Tompkins, now in Schuyler county, where he engaged in farm work summers and studied and taught winters.
At the age of eighteen years he received an appointment to West Point Military school through United States Senator Morgan of Cayuga county, going on foot to Aurora to solicit the honor from the Senator, without influence to support his claim. In 1846 he was graduated at that institution. While drilling a company on Staten Island he received a sunstroke which prevented him accepting a post in the United States army, located in California. That year he came to Wolcott to visit his brother, Chester Dutton. Having married about the time he left West Point he decided to make his home near Wolcott, and in March, 1847, he located on a farm near West Butler which he had purchased. Mr. Dutton's bride was Lucy J. Matthews, whose home was in Mecklenburgh. Their wedding occurred on June 24, 1846.
At the time Colonel - then Captain- Dutton came to Butler he and Mrs. Dutton united with the Presbyterian Church at Wolcott. Up to the time he left home for the army he was an active Church and Sunday school worker, being the superintendent of the Sunday school and elder in the Church many years and also conducting a Sunday school in the schoolhouse at Whisky Hill. While residing in Butler he taught school at times in the village of Wolcott and filled the offices of school commissioner for the county and justice of the peace.
In 1851 he moved on to what has since been known as the Col. Dutton farm at Wolcott which he purchased of the Underhill estate the same year. He was elected member of assembly that year and served a full term.
At the outbreak of the war, 1861-'5, he tendered his services to the Government and was accepted and appointed Colonel of the 98th regiment, New York volunteers, which he assisted in recruiting and drilling at Lyons. It was in April, 1862, that he was commissioned and went into active service. On July 4, 1863, at the home of an old classmate in New York he died, having been taken violently ill with typhoid fever at the battle of Fair Oaks, where he fell out of the saddle and was sent to the hospital, leaving many personal effects which fell into the enemy's hands.
Mrs. Wm. Dutton at the age of eighty-four still resides on the old place at Wolcott with her daughter, Mrs. A. J. Hovey and family. Julius, her son, also resides there. Seymour, another son, resides at Perth Amboy, N. J. Two sons, John and William, are dead.