James Dillard Dutton is a main character in 1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story. He is the first U.S born patriarch of the Dutton Family. He is a homesteader aiming to make a living in Montana with his wife Margaret after leaving a life of poverty behind to look for a better future.
Biography[]
Years before the war, James leaves his brother Jacob behind in New York City, seeking to expand and later meets Margaret there. In 1862, 22 year old James is a Civil War Veteran from Tennessee who is fighting in the Confederate States Army as a conscripted Captain in Archer's Brigade (either in the 1st, 7th or 14th Tennessee) of A.P Hill's Division. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, Second Manassas and Antietam. At the Battle of Antietam, known to him as Sharpsburg, he fights and is knocked unconscious. Waking the next day he is shocked at the sight of the carnage of America's bloodiest day. Shell shocked he passively surrenders to Union General George Meade and spends 3 years as a prisoner of war. In 1865 he is reunited with his wife Margaret in Tennessee. Later that year Elsa Dutton is born. In 1878 their second child, a son John Dutton I is born. Five years later the Dutton family leave Tennessee due to poor living conditions and set out to make a better life for themselves. James puts his family on the train to Fort Worth, TX and takes their belongings via wagon. the Dutton family elects to join and help Shea Brennan a Pinkerton Captain paid to transport a group of German Immigrant would be homesteaders along the Oregon trail in which his family ultimately settles in Montana due to circumstances along the way. In 1886, Spencer Dutton is born. In 1893, shown in a flashback, 10 years have passed since the family settled, James is the patriarch of a homestead in Paradise Valley, Montana and is a deputized ranger.
In 1893, James sends a letter to his older brother Jacob begging him to come to Montana from New York City and help him run the ranch. During a hunt for horse thieves, James was fatally shot and died just as he made it back to the Homestead. In early 1894, Margaret died from Hypothermia and leaves her two children to fend for themselves. Jacob arrives a while later to find John and Spencer alive but starved and scared.