BIO: Edward T. TUTEN, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 55-56

EDWARD T. TUTEN.  The influence of a journalist, though silent, is all-
pervasive, and in the United States, where the newspaper is the universal medium 
of information, not only on the events of the time but upon the principles and 
policies which move our vast social organism, it has more than once proved 
itself a mighty power.  In this work the subject of this sketch, as editor and 
proprietor of the Bellefonte Republican, has borne a worthy part, and the 
following brief biography will interest a wide circle with whom his name is a 
household word.
   The Tuten family originated in France, but migrated to Holland, whence in the 
times of King William our subject's ancestors moved to Ireland, settling at 
Belfast.  The first to come to America was John Tuten, our subject's 
grandfather, who followed the sea, and was mate of a vessel.  He was married in 
Boston to miss Sarah Partridge, a lady of English descent, and a sister of Sir 
Robert Partridge, of Boston.  John Tuten established his home in Boston about 
1800, but while on one of his voyages he was drowned at Archangel, Russia, at 
the age of thirty years.  He left one son, Robert P. Tuten, and two daughters, 
one of whom married Henry C. Smith, and lived and died at Nashua, N.H., while 
the other married David Wilson Putney and passed her last years at East 
Cambridge, Mass.  The widowed mother subsequently wedded James Luke of 
Cambridge, Mass., and her remaining years were spent at that place.  There was a 
large family of children by this union.
   Robert P. Tuten, our subject's father was born February 6, 1806 and grew to 
manhood in Massachusetts.  He learned the glass-cutter's trade, and at his death 
September 7, 1851 he was foreman of the cutting shop in the works of the New 
England Glass Co.  In politics he was an Old-line Whig, and he was a member of 
the Universalist Church.  His third wife, Nancy S. Smith, our subject's mother, 
was born at Deering, N.H., in 1819 and died in 1883.  She had seven children, 
one of whom died in childhood, and of the others Edward T. is the eldest, Nancy 
M married Alonzo S. Bruce, and resides at Mount Vernon, N.H.; Susan R. is a 
resident of Ayer, Mass.; Robert P. lives at Iron Mountain, Mich., and is editor 
of the Iron Mountain Range; Sarah T. is treasurer of the Ayer Savings Bank, at 
Ayer, Mass.; Esther P. resides in New York City.
   Mr. Tuten (our subject) was born September 1, 1842 at Cambridge, Mass., and 
his youth was spent at that place and in Mount Vernon, N.H.  He attended an 
excellent school and was fitted for college; but at this point his student life 
closed.  For some time he worked in the same glass works in which his father had 
been employed, and then he engaged in agriculture at Bedford, Mass.; but in 1873 
he moved to Bellefonte and purchased the Republican, which he has ever since 
edited with marked ability.  Its columns have always reflected his own sturdy 
Republican principles and for years it was the only paper of that political 
faith in the locality.  Although Mr. Tuten is very quiet in manner, he is firm 
and decisive in business dealings and as a citizen and a journalist he is ever 
responsive to the best interests of the place which he has chosen for a home.
  In February, 1870, Mr. Tuten was married at Brookline, Mass., to Mrs. Maria P. 
Gray, nee Fifield, who was born in 1834.  She passed to her eternal rest in May 
1894, leaving one son, Earle C., born December 4, 1870, now editor and publisher 
of the Bellefonte Daily News.  He is not married, and resides with our subject.  
Mr. Tuten is a member of the Unitarian Church and is affiliated with the 
I.O.O.F., Centre Lodge No. 156, holding the rank of Past Grand.