William Henry Tutt

Born in Augusta, August 31, 1823, Dr. William Henry Tutt became a name recognized throughout the country as the Physician who created several medicines.  During the nineteenth century, many of these remedies were believed to have beneficial effects, including Tutt’s Liver Pills. A graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, Tutt practiced medicine for many years.

 

During the 1800s, many physicians were also Pharmacists. Tutt decided to become a merchant/manufacturer of patented medicines. The first advertisement for Tutt as a wholesale and retail druggist appeared in the Augusta Chronicle in April 1845. Two years later, he was appointed to the Board of Health by the Mayor and would continue to be active in the community in many ways, including several years on the City Council.

 

In 1847, he married Harriet Remson Beall of Lincoln County. They had four daughters and two sons. In June 1860, he announced that he had given up his interest in the drug store in Augusta.  His brother,     B. F. Tutt would take over.  

 

Tutt moved with his family to New York to expand his wholesale drug business there. Unfortunately, the Civil War began only months after the family’s arrival and while William was able to obtain travel passes for his family to return South, he was delayed. Historian Edward Cashin explained to Mr. Tutt’s predicament and noted that he basically escaped from the North by getting passage to Bermuda, then through the blockade, and finally overland to Augusta.

 

By 1863, he was once again advertising a drug store in the newspaper. After the war, Tutt devised a plan to expand the Augusta canal. Although it did not happen until after he left the city again, he was correct that a larger canal would boost manufacturing and the economic growth of the city.

 

In 1872, the Tutt family returned to New York again to manufacture medicines, this time staying over fifteen years. He remained in New York until 1888, becoming quite wealthy in the process. He returned to Augusta in 1888 and began to invest some of that wealth in the development of the city. As one of the backers and promoters of the Augusta National Exposition that fall, Tutt believed that Augusta could attract wealthy Northerners to the city in the cold months of winter. He bought acreage from the Anne McKinne Winter estate and built the Grand Bon Air Hotel which still remains on “The Hill” in Summerville.

 

His vision of Augusta as a winter destination became a reality for the next four decades. It brought some of the country’s most successful industrialists and politicians of the late nineteenth century for several months each year to the community. The Bon Air introduced golf to the city. This winter colony was an economic and cultural boon to Augusta’s economy. When William Tutt died March 15, 1898, he was a Revered Citizen of the Augusta Community.