Knut, Sargeant Prentiss, 1855-1939

Sargeant Prentiss Nutt (who later changed his name to the old spelling, "Knut"): Mississippi lawyer and Democratic politician. He was born c. 1854, one of the eleven children of Dr. Haller and Julia Nutt. Dr. Haller Nutt, a wealthy cotton planter at Natchez, Miss. In 1860, he began the construction of his mansion Longwood, designed by the architect Samuel Sloan. A Union sympathizer, Dr. Nutt suffered tremendous losses during the Civil War. After his death, his widow filed a lawsuit against the Federal government in an attempt to recover some of the damages. Sargeant Prentiss attended the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar at Natchez in 1878. He then practiced law in Washington, D.C., pursuing the settlement of the war claims of his own family and the claims of many other southerners. In 1896, he married Lily Barret who died in 1898, a few days after giving birth to their daughter Lily Knut Brown. Mrs. Knut willed her large estate to her daughter; later the will became subject of much litigation in which father and daughter opposed each other. Prentiss Knut was treasurer of the Mississippi Democratic Association in Washington.