Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Clute, Lemuel 1901
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net December 28, 2009, 1:41 pm

Ionia Daily Standard, 19 Apr 1901

The Well-Known Ionia Lawyer Passed Away on Thursday.

In the death of Lemuel Clute there passes away an honest man.  It is a 
remarkable fact that in the many high business, social and political relations 
and positions of responsibility through which he passed, suspicion never 
breathed a calumny against his integrity.  He closed an eventful life in an 
eventful period, without a blemish to destroy its symmetry.  He detested sham 
in all its forms.  Public life with him was not an ambition, but a duty, and 
wherever his lot was cast, his whole soul was enlisted.

As a practitioner at the bar his career was eventful and successful, but it was 
in his private life that he was the more fortunate.  The circle of his 
friendship was wider, for it went beyond the lines of a set or a party.  
Personal integrity, a great kindness of heart, a wide human sympathy, and a 
pure home life were virtues that all accorded to him.

A stroke of paralysis a little over a year ago excited the solicitude of his 
friends, and no doubt turned his own thoughts toward the solemn hour.  He did 
not, however, allow this danger to cloud his spirits or drive him from the 
activities of life.  Indeed, the last year of his life seemed to be quite full 
of gladness and labor.  It seemed to him better to expend the days that 
remained in useful labor rather than in vain complainings.  He was a man of 
strong will power and refused to go to bed until Tuesday.  He was unconscious 
since Wednesday.

Mr. Clute was born of Dutch parentage in New York 66 years ago.  He became a 
sailor at 20, and visited all parts of the globe including the Phillippines.  
At 24 he came to Ionia and went to school to his brother, Oscar Clute.  He 
studied law with Hon. Albert Williams, and soon after opening an office of his 
own, had as a student, Hon. V.H. Smith, who afterward became a business 
partner.  All have practiced law here ever since.  The profession of the law 
was more to him than a livelihood.  He was a thoughtful student of the 
philosophy of the law.  He voted for Lincoln, but in the Greeley campaign 
became a Democrat.  He joined the Prohibitionists when the party was organized 
and remained a “prohi” until ’96, when he went back to the Democrats.  He was 
one of the best known lawyers in Michigan, and had a reputation for honesty, 
and in the days of Cooley, Christiancy and Campbell, acquired and ever since 
held, a large practice before the Michigan supreme court.  Though the 
Prohibition and Democrat parties nominated him for state and county offices 
several times, he never held public office.  He was a strong campaigner, 
however, taking the stump in every contest throughout the state.

Mr. Clute was married in 1861 to Ellen McPherson, the wife who survives him.  
Five children, also survive:  William K., Lucy, Richard, Robert, and Monroe.  
His living brothers and sisters are Oscar, now a Unitarian clergyman in 
California, James M., a marine engineer in New York, and Mrs. Delia Swift of 
Greenville.

The funeral will be attended on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, from the M.E. 
church.


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