Born in Lexington, Massachusetts on May 29, 1775, just over a month after the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in that village, Nathan Cutler was, appropriately enough, the son of a farmer.
Although of modest means, Cutler was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1798 and admitted to the Worcester County Bar in 1801. In 1803 he moved to Farmington, Maine where he spent the rest of his life and became one of that town’s most solid citizens.
He represented Farmington in the General Court in 1809, 1810, 1811 and 1819, in the latter year being elected as a delegate to Maine’s first Constitutional Convention.
Elected to the Maine Senate in 1828 and 1829, he served as President of the Senate in 1829 and it was during that year that he temporarily became Governor of the State upon the death of Enoch Lincoln.
Reelected to public office as County Treasurer for Franklin County in 1838 and again in 1842, he represented Farmington for one last time in the Maine Legislature in 1844.
It appears from the written evidence left to us that Nathan Cutler was a shy and introspective man. An avid reader, he maintained a large and eclectic library for his own use while being one of the founders of the Farmington Academy.
Rather dry and diffident in manner, Cutler was undistinguished as an advocate but maintained a successful law practice on the strength of hard work and the confidence which he enjoyed in the community.
Although he was to live on for another nineteen years, his health began to decline in the early 1830’s, causing him to withdraw gradually from public life.
He died on June 8, 1861, "under the burden of eighty-six years, which he carried with meekness and honor."