DUTTON, MATTHEW, was born April 5, 1778, in Windsor county, Vt. He spent his early life as a school teacher, and about 1818 entered the ministry in connection with the Congregational church. He never became a settled pastor, but all his ministerial work was done as an evangelist, several years of the time in Tennessee and some in Virginia. In 1834 he engaged in teaching and occasional preaching at Decatur, Ill. Elizabeth Williams was born March 22, 1791, in the town of Sharon, Litchfield county, Conn. She was married March 10, 1811, in northern New York, to David Carpenter. They had two children in the State of New York. JOHN WILLIAM, born Mar. 4, 1811, went to sea at 16 years old. His second voyage was on board the ship Warrenton. The vessel was lost and no a soul on board saved. THOMAS P., born March 8, 1813, married April 1833, in Duchess county, N. Y., to Julia A. Wing. He died suddenly June 2, 1854, near Sullivan, Moultrie county Ill., leaving a widow and six children.

David Carpenter died in New York, and his widow went to New York City and taught school until July, 1834, when she went to Decatur, Ill., to visit two of her brothers. Rev. Matthew Dutton and Mrs. Elizabeth Carpenter were married Nov. 15, 1834 in Decatur. They moved to Morgan county and a year later to Sangamon county, arriving at Mechanicsburg in July, 1838. Both being teachers, and in the absence of any school system, they built a school house and lived and taught in it for about twelve years. It was a frame building, plastered outside and in, and was almost snow white. Nearly all who are now heads of families in the vicinity of Mechanicsburg received their education in that home. Rev. Matthew Dutton died Feb. 23, 1857, and his widow (1874) in her eighty-fourth year resides in Mechanicsburg.