Surgeon and songwriter Brewster Higley VI was born in Rutland in 1823, the grandson of Brewster Higley IV, a veteran of the American Revolution and founder of Rutland. He began studying medicine at age 18 and opened his first practice in Pomeroy, later moving to Indiana and then to Kansas in 1871. In 1872 he wrote the words to the famous Western song "Home on the Range," which became the state song of Kansas in 1947.