William Irvin Utterback (1872 - 1949)

Born 11 Oct 1872 in Elmdale, Montgomery, Indiana, United States

Ancestors

Died 15 May 1949 at age 76 in Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

William was born 11 Oct 1872 on a farm near Boston Store (Elmdale), Indiana, 12 miles northwest of Crawfordsville in Montgomery County. ^[1] He was the son of John Walton Utterback and Martha Hannah Miller. ^[2] He married Bessie Ruby Austin on 14 Jun 1905 in Buchanan Co., Missouri. ^[3] (She was the daughter of Dr. J. M. and Anna (Nash) Austin and was born 1 Aug 1877 in St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., Missouri.) ^[1]

William and Ruby had the following children (with numbers from The Utterback Book): ^[1]

1. (#3085) William Irvin ("Irvin") Utterback, Jr., b. 18 Mar 1907, d. 18 May 1998.
2. (#3086) Anna Martha Utterback, b. 4 Oct 1908, d. 1 Jan 1990; m. Thomas L. Clendenning.

William had a B. S. degree from Wabash College (1901), an A. M. degree from the University of Missouri (1915), was a teacher in rural Schools (1890-1901), a teacher in Indiana High Schools (1901-1904), and a teacher of Zoology at St. Joseph (Missouri) High School (1905-1907 and 1911-1917). He was also the first president of The School of the Ozarks (1907-08), a teacher of biology at Westminster College (1908-11), head of the Department of Zoology at Marshall College (1919-?), a member of Chi Beta Phi (a scientific fraternity) at West Virginia Academy of Science, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Knights of Pythias, of the Institute of American Genealogy, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was the author of "The Second Triangle", "The Naiades of Missouri", "The Great Life Cycle", etc. ^[1]

William is probably best known, however, as the author of the 1938 book, Utterback history and genealogy of the Utterback family in America, 1622-1937: Family record of Herman Utterback and his descendants, (1622-1937) (also known as "The Utterback Book"), used extensively as a source for Utterback genealogies. Unfortunately, in this book, he incorrectly places multiple descendants of one ancestor under another, Herman, in his determination to have Herman as the single "fountain head" from whom all American Utterbacks descended. ^[4] Benjamin Clark Holtzclaw later corrected these mistakes in his 1964 book Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia 1714-1750. ^[5] Visit this page to see Holtzclaw's corrections and the differences in table format.

From a 1983 Biological Sketch: ^[6]

William Irvin Utterback was born 11 October 1872 on a farm near Crawfordsville, Montgomery Co., Indiana. His father, John Walton Utterback, represented the seventh generation of Utterbacks in the United States. The Utterback family tree, in the new world, has its roots in one Hermann Otterbach, a native of Trupbach near Siegen, Germany, who with forty-one other German immigrants set foot on the Virginia coast in April, 1741. This small group of coal miners and iron workers established the settlement known as Germanna, Virginia. They were given land and conferred tax-free status in return for settling in the outlying areas around Williamsburg and acting as a barrier between marauding Indians and the civilized townfolk of British descent. This hardy German stock soon became well known for qualities such as industriousness, literacy and religious endeavors. Early records mention that nearly all members of the colony could read and write.

Very quickly the new arrivals became anglicized in ways, speech and names. Hermann Otterbach became Herman Utterback. The name has remained unchanged and the line continued unbroken to John Walton Utterback (1850-1897). John Walton married Martha Hannah Miller (1854-1936) on December 14, 1871, and ten months later she bore a son christened William Irvin Utterback.

Young Utterback exhibited a propensity for learning, and at the age of eighteen years acquired teaching certification. In the fall of 1890 he began, in a rural Indiana elementary school, a teaching career which would span fifty-five years. In the year 1905, having earned a B.S. degree from Wabash College in 1901, Utterback moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, and took a position as high school biology teacher, a post he would hold intermittently until 1917. At the direction of the Bishop of the Presbyterian Church of Missouri, Utterback traveled in 1907 to Arkansas. He established, and became the first president of The School of the Ozarks (presently The College of the Ozarks), a Presbyterian denominational school. The years 1908-1911 were spent as an instructor of biology at Westminster College; the following six years (1911-1917) were important in the development of Utterback's scientific career. During this period he returned to his position as biology teacher at St. Joseph High School, but more importantly he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Missouri. Utterback was granted the A.M. degree in 1915, having done a good portion of his graduate work under the direction of Dr. George Lefevre. During the summers of 1913-1914 he had the opportunity of working at the U. S. Fisheries Lab, Fairport, Iowa, where he learned a great deal about freshwater mussel biology and also did much of the work that led to the publication for which he is today most remembered, "The Naiades of Missouri," published in 1916. These middle years of his life were the most productive scientifically and a steady flow of papers, all having to do with the biology of naiades, resulted.

Other significant events in his life occurred during this period. He married Bessie Ruby Austin (1877-1938) in 1905, and from this union came a son William I., Jr. (1907) and a daughter Anna Martha (1908).

In the fall of 1917 the Utterback family moved to Spokane, Washington, where William was again employed as a high school biology teacher at Lewis and Clark High School. Mrs. Utterback was apparently adversely affected by the climate of the Spokane area and Utterback was forced to again relocate.

On October 24, 1919, Utterback accepted a position at Marshall Normal School (presently Marshall University) in Huntington, West Virginia, for which he was paid the princely sum of $2,000 for a ten-month academic year. Professor Utterback from this time forth adopted the Huntington area and remained at Marshall University until his retirement at the age of 73 in 1945.

Professor Utterback was, for many years, the only biologist on staff at Marshall. Old newspaper clippings indicate that he was an interesting, efficient and dedicated staff member. His teaching load included Comparative Anatomy, Embryology, Zoology, Invertebrate Zoology and other courses as student needs dictated. He also served as advisor to pre-medical students.

His advancing age and heavy course load seems to have reduced his energies given to outside research, (?) scientific publications were produced during the Marshall years. Professor Utterback was a devoutly religious man and was an elder in the Huntington First Presbyterian Church. His religious beliefs often showed even in his scientific works.

"Yet in the last analysis we scientists, who deal so much with the material and natural law, may lose sight of the spiritual and supernatural in the fact that the GREAT JEHOVAH (the SELF-EXISTENT ONE) is the Alpha and Omega whether we consider Evolution in the life history of the individual or even of all Phyla."

Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Naiaden. 1928.

While it is true that the production of scientific papers waned in the later years, he did not stop writing. In two books and several lesser publications he sought to document his ancestory (The Utterback Family 1622-1937), and to bring together his religious beliefs and scientific thinking. Through the book "The Second Triangle" and a lesser publication "The Great Life Cycle" Professor Utterback brings together the concepts of Evolution and Special Creation. His thesis states that Seth, the third born of Adam and Eve, carried the God-created line and blended it, through marriage, with the line of Anthropoid human beings which had evolved through time outside the Garden of Eden.

I have in my possession a mimeographed booklet titled Single Verse Poems produced by Utterback about 1930. The following four line verse attests to the conflict which garnered much of his thinking in later life.

Special Creation and Evolution

Special Creation is mutation

By God's almighty hand

Evolution is Revolution

Through laws at HIS command.

Utterback the Man

Professor Utterback was deeply involved in many other aspects of community life. He held memberships in the A.A.A.S., the West Virginia Academy of Science, Chi Beta Phi and the American Institute of Geneology. In addition he was an active member of the local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, working through the ranks to become chapter president in 1942.

Utterback epitomized the early American naturalist and corresponded regularly with such distinguished biologists as Drs. F. C. Baker, R. E. Coker, A. E. Ortmann, V. Sterki and W. H. Dall, as well as Thaddeus Surber, Bryant Walker and L. S. Frierson. In the summer of 1913-14 he surveyed, in a row boat, three hundred miles of the Osage River of central Missouri; a feat which seems overwhelming in light of present day thinking and technology. The enclosed picture of Utterback in full field regalia says a great deal about Utterback the naturalist.

Upon retirement Professor Utterback moved to Los Angeles, California, where he lived with his daughter until his death on May 16, 1949. The professor was buried May 20, 1949 in Woodmere Cemetery, Huntington, West Virginia.

Publications of William Irvin Utterback

• The Myth of the Manitou. The Wabash (local newspaper). Crawsfordsville, Indiana. (No date available.)

• 1914 Mussel Resources of Missouri. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. Econ. Cir. #10. pp. 1-6.

• 1916 The Naiades of Missouri. Univ. of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, pp. 1-200.

• 1916 Breeding Records of Missouri Mussels. Nautilus 30:13-21.

• 1916 Parasitism among Missouri Naiades. A^ner. Mid, Nal. 4:518-.521.

• Circa 1920 The Second Triangle. Gorman Press, Boston. 80 pp.

• 1927 The Great Life Cycle. Gentry Bros. Printing Co., Huntington, WV. One oversized printed page.

• 1928 Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Naiades. Proc. W. Va. Acad. Sn. 2:60-67.

• 1930 A new genus of freshwater mussels (Naiades). Proc. W. Va. Acad. Sci. 4:66-69.

• 1931 Sex behavior among Naiades. Proc. W. Va. Acad. Sci. 5:43-45.

• 1933 New glochidia. Proc. W. Va. Acad. Sci. 6:32-36.

• 1937 The Utterback Family 1622-1937. Gentry Bros. Printing Co., Huntington, WV. 470 p.

Selected Additional Readings

• Johnson, Richard I. 1969. The Unionacea of William I. Utterback. The Nautilus 82:132-135.

• Fuller, S. L. H. 1974. Neglected papers on naiades by W. I. Utterback. The Nautilus 88(3):90.

Census Data

1880: Coal Creek, Montgomery, Indiana, USA ^[7]

Age 7. Includes father, John W. Utterback (29, farmer), mother, Martha (24), and brother, Frederick (5). All listed born in Indiana.

1910: Fulton Ward 2, Callaway, Missouri, USA ^[8]

Age 37, English teacher at college. Includes wife, Bessie R. (32, born in Missouri), and children William I. Jr. (3, middle initial mis-transcribed as E., born in Missouri), and Anna M. (0, born in Missouri).

1930: Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia, USA ^[9]

Age 57, teacher at college. Includes wife, Ruby (52, born in Missouri), and son, W. I. Jr. (23, teach at public school, born in Missouri).

1940: Ward 7, Huntington, Gideon Magisterial District, Cabell, West Virginia, USA ^[10]

Age 67, widowed, geology teacher at state college. Includes son, William I. Utterback, Jr. (33, commercial photographer, born in Missouri).

Death

Died: 15 May 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA. ^{[11] [12]}

Buried: Woodmere Memorial Park, Huntington, Cabell Co., West Virginia, USA. ^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Utterback, William Irvin. Utterback history and genealogy of the Utterback family in America, 1622-1937: Family record of Herman Utterback and his descendants, (1622-1937) (Marshall College, West Virginia, Gentry Bros, 1937), pages 271-272 (#1622).
2. ↑ Utterback, W. I. Ibid, page 160 (#626).
3. ↑ "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991," database with images, FamilySearch : 4 November 2017, William Irvin Utterback and Bessie Ruby Austin, 14 Jun 1905; citing Marriage, Buchanan, Missouri, United States, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; FHL microfilm 007424548.
4. ↑ Utterback, W. I. Ibid, pp. 33-34.
5. ↑ Holtzclaw, B.C. Ancestry and Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia 1714-1750, Harrisonburg, Virginia, The Germanna Foundation, 1964 , pp. 491-492; see also the "Corrections in the Utterback Genealogy in America" section, pp. 488-491.
6. ↑ Taylor, Ralph W. "A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM IRVIN UTTERBACK (1872-1949)", THE NAUTILUS, January 31, 1983, Volume 97(1), Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 25701. Pages 13-16.
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch : 7 September 2017, William Utterback in entry for John W Utterback, 1880; citing enumeration district ED 89, sheet 206B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d), roll 0300; FHL microfilm 1,254,300.
8. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch, William I Utterback, Fulton Ward 2, Callaway, Missouri, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 29, sheet 4B, family 107, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 774; FHL microfilm 1,374,787.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch, W I Utterback, Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 28, sheet 14B, line 73, family 319, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2529; FHL microfilm 2,342,263.
10. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch : 15 March 2018, William I Utterback, Ward 7, Huntington, Gideon Magisterial District, Cabell, West Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 6-50A, sheet 11A, line 8, family 200, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4398.
11. ↑ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch : 26 November 2014, William Irvin Utterback, 15 May 1949; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Find A Grave, memorial page for William Irvin Utterback (11 Oct 1872–15 May 1949), Find A Grave: Memorial #44202419, citing Woodmere Memorial Park, Huntington, Cabell County, West Virginia, USA.