Background
Rutt was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Rutt was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 1865 he moved with his parents to Atchison, Kansas where he attended Saint Benedict"s College (now Benedictine College).
He worked for several years at newspapers in Leavenworth, Kansas and Texas. He moved to Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1885 where he worked for the Saint Joseph Gazette working for John North. Edwards. In 1889 he attended a white minstrel show where the song "Old Aunt Jemima" was being performed.
The minstrels had red bandanas in their hair, and wore aprons.
He and Charles Underwood had recently bought the Pearl Milling company in Saint Joseph. They trademarked the image.
Unable to make it work they sold to the R.T. Davis Milling Company in Saint Joseph. Davis would hire Nancy Green to portray the character at the World"s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
In 1900 he was made editor for Gazette.
In 1902 he became managing editor of the Daily News which would become the News-Press. According to Saint Joseph newspaper lore at one point he would write an article in the morning Gazette and then refute it in the afternoon News. Rutt continued as editor until his death in 1936.
