JOHN HUNTSMAN LUTTS was born on April 5, 1870 in New Jersey, to George W. Lutts and his wife Anna. The 1880 Census shows the family on Fillmore Street in Camden's Eighth Ward, and reveals George Lutts worked as a printer. The family then included two daughters, Mary and Sarah, and the George Lutts' mother lived with them. The family remained in the Eight Ward into the mid-1890s. The 1890-1891 City Directory shows both men at 566 Van Hook Street. They both had moved to the neighborhood of South 5th Street and Bridge Avenue by 1896.

John H. Lutts married Fannie E. Cavis around 1892. A daughter, Eva, was born in January of 1895. 1896's City Directory states John Lutts worked as a hosiery dyer and lived at 436 Bridge Avenue. The following year's directory gives an address of 523 Bridge Avenue. The 1899 Camden City Directory shows that he and Fannie lived at 422 Taylor Avenue, and that he was employed in Philadelphia as a dyer. 

John H. Lutts was appointed to the Camden Fire Department later in 1899.

The 1900 Census shows the Lutts family at 110 South 5th Street, a short walk from his job at Fire Headquarters, North 5h Street and Arch Streets. Fellow Camden Fire Department member David Andrews lived at 104 South 5th Street, Camden police officer Julius Bosch around the corner at 511 Mickle Street, and city constable J. Fred Voight at 527 Mickle Street. On August 25, 1900 a son, John H. Lutts Jr., was born. another son, Raymond, came later. The 1906 City Directory shows John H. Lutts at 456 Clinton Street.

On December 17, 1909 John H. and Fannie Lutts were divorced. The 1910 Census, which was taken on April 18, 1910, shows John H. Lutts, his daughter Eva, and the two younger children, John H. Lutts Jr. and Raymond, living at 422 Taylor Avenue. Their next-door neighbor was brother firefighter Harry Hankins and his wife Sarah.

On March 17, 1910 he was serving at Fire Headquarters, when a call came concerning a fire at the Reeves Garage in the 100 block of North 7th Street. Shortly after arriving on scene,

gasoline in the building exploded. John Lutts and future Chiefs of Department Peter B. Carter and John H. Lennox were slightly injured.

City Directories show that John Lutts was promoted and made Captain at Engine Company 6, Front and Linden Streets, by 1914. He was then living at 528 Royden Street. He served in this capacity through at least 1929.

By 1918 John H. Lutts had remarried. He lived with his wife Sarah and son Raymond at 306 South 5th Street, two doors away from Dr. Wilson Gill Bailey, who resided at 302 South 5th Street. They we still there in 1920. By 1924, John and Sarah Lutts had moved to 456 Royden Street. They were still there when the Census was taken in April of 1930. Next door at 458 Royden Street was Camden policeman Nathan Pettit. Just a few doors away, around the corner at 613 South 5th Street, lived another Camden firefighter, Leonard Megee. Former Camden chief of police James Tatem lived at 615 South 5th Street, and Albert Fogg, a clerk at Camden's City Hall, resided at 617.

John H. Lutts Sr. retired from the Camden Fire Department in 1933. He and his wife Sarah had moved to 2025 Bryn Mawr in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. Sarah Lutts apparently passed away in the early 1940s. John Lutts had remarried by the time the 1943 Camden City Directory was compiled.

John H. Lutts Sr. died at his Haddon Heights home on April 28, 1953. He was survived by his children and a third wife, Mary W. Lutts.

Philadelphia Inquirer
June 18, 1907