The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 822

JOHN H. SUTTON.

John H. Sutton, who in partnership with his son is the owner of thirty-three
acres near Grandview devoted to the raising of apples and pears, was born in
Crass county, Illinois, August 21, 1848, a son of Nathan and Ann (La Mar)
Sutton, the former a native of New Jersey, while the latter was born in Indiana.
The paternal grandfather was Benjamin Sutton, who was one of the first settlers
in Cass county, Illinois, where he purchased eighteen thousand acres of land on
the Sangamon river. He built the first flour mill in that locality and people
came for many miles to patronize the mill. Nathan Sutton served as a chain
carrier for Abraham Lincoln when he did surveying in that part of Illinois. He
afterward concentrated his efforts and attention upon agricultural pursuits and
was extensively engaged in farming. He was identified with all the pioneer
experiences of his part of the state, living in Illinois at a time when he had
to drive hogs forty miles to market. He was not only well acquainted with
Abraham Lincoln but also with Duff Armstrong, whom Lincoln cleared from the
charge of murder. On one occasion Mr. Sutton witnessed a fight between Abraham
Lincoln and Ashley Hickey. The latter thought that he was the "best man" in the
county and picked a fight with Lincoln when the latter was surveying. Lincoln
knocked Hickey down and rubbed smartweed in his eyes. Later Hickey told Mr.
Sutton that he and his five sons were voting for Lincoln because he was the only
man who could rub smartweed in his eyes. This was an instance when Lincoln used
the only argument -- brute force -- that would have any effect.

John H. Sutton remembers seeing Lincoln as a boy while spending his youthful
days in Illinois, where both his parents resided until their life's labors were
ended in death. The son acquired a public school education and engaged in
farming with his father until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when in
response to the country’s call for troops he joined the army, enlisting as a
member of Company K of the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Fourteenth
Regiment. He helped lay the last pontoon bridge built during, the war, this
being constructed across the Alabama river at Montgomery, Alabama. Later he
engaged in farming in his native state until 1879, when he removed to Merrick
county, Nebraska, where he purchased farm land and engaged in the raising of
grain and stock. He was quite prominent in that locality and served for four
years as sheriff of his county. He contributed to the early development and
upbuilding of that region and planted the first twenty acres of corn ever raised
in the county.

It was in the year 1904 that Mr. Sutton arrived in Yakima county and for two
years he made his home at Fruitvale. In the spring of 1907 he and his son bought
seventeen acres on the north slope of the Grandview orchard tracts. They were
the first to locate in the neighborhood and the land which came into their
possession was all wild, covered with the native growth of sagebrush. This they
cleared away and during the first year built thereon a shack, but as time passed
on they added more modern improvements, converting their place into a valuable
ranch property. In 1914 they erected a large and beautiful residence upon the
farm and they now have thirty-three acres, all planted to apples and pears.

In 1867 Mr. Sutton was married to Miss Hannah A. Ogden, a native of Illinois and
a daughter of Mathew Ogden. She passed away in 1883 and in 1884 Mr. Sutton was
joined in wedlock to Miss Mary E. Teegarden, whose birth occurred in Orange
county, Indiana. Her father, William Teegarden, was killed in the battle of
Prairie Grove during the Civil war. Her mother long survived and passed away in
Los Angeles, California, in January, 1917, her death resulting from an operation
for cancer. Mr. Sutton's children born of the second marriage are: Ora, who is
now residing with his father and who married Blanche Harmon; and Elta, the wife
of Dr. Lew Christopherson, of Silverton, Oregon, by whom she has one daughter,
Mary.

Mr. Sutton is well known in fraternal circles. He has membership with the
Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Highlanders and he also proudly
wears the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of the Grand Army of
the Republic. He joined the Baptist church in Illinois in January, 1861, and was
baptized in the Sangamon river. He has since been an active worker in behalf of
the church, doing everything in his power to promote its growth and extend its
influence. He has assisted in building four different houses of worship, three
in Nebraska and one in Yakima, and at all times he has been a generous
contributor to the support of the church. In politics he is a republican and for
many years he served as county supervisor while in Nebraska. In Washington,
however, he has preferred to concentrate his efforts and his energies upon his
business affairs and today his orchard is valued at more than a thousand dollars
per acre. He has closely studied modern scientific methods of developing his
trees and the results achieved have been highly satisfactory. His efforts have
been most intelligently directed and his enterprise has placed him far on the
highroad to success.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.