Marsena E. Cutts

Who was Marsena E. Cutts?

Marsena Edgar Cutts was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer and teacher from Iowa.

Born in Orwell, Vermont, Cutts attended common schools in his native village and later attended St. Lawrence Academy in Potsdam, New York. He moved to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin in 1853 where he taught school for two years and studied law. He moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa in 1855, continued to study law and was admitted to the bar the same year, commencing practice in Montezuma, Iowa. He was prosecuting attorney of Poweshiek County, Iowa in 1857 and 1858, was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives in 1861 and served in the Iowa Senate from 1864 to 1866. Cutts was again a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1870 to 1872 and was Attorney General of Iowa from 1872 to 1877.

In 1880, Cutts ran as a Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives for Iowa's 6th congressional district. He won the Republican nomination, and the Democratic and Greenback parties united behind a single opponent, Democrat John C. Cook. After a very close general election, Iowa's State Board of Canvassers concluded that Cutts had won 106 more votes.