Sutton's War with the Burlington Railroad

The railroad was important on the prairie, probably critical to the success of every settlement that tried to become a town. Sutton’s fight to secure its railroad and a station is almost a classic tale.

The Burlington & Missouri Railroad laid its first rail in Sutton on August 12^th, 1871. Mr. Wilsey, an attorney from Crete representing the railroad met with Luther French in his dugout and negotiated a contract deeding a right-of-way through town to the railroad in exchange for the promise of a Sutton depot.

The railroad parked a boxcar in Sutton and called it a depot. It was known as “124” and that number was painted on a bleached buffalo skull nailed to one end of the car.

Shortly after that, Mr. French sold his interests in Sutton to the Clark brothers. This deed was filed before the French-railroad deed voiding the agreement for the depot and apparently upsetting railroad officials.

These officials denied the existence of the town of Sutton and certainly of any station. The fact that Sutton had a number of saloons seemed troublesome too. And the claim dispute between homesteader Vroman and alleged claim jumpers, Maltby and Way was a complication as well.

In December, the railroad moved the boxcar depot with the buffalo skull to a new town 4 miles east called Grafton, site of four houses and a general store of Marthis & Robbins.

                                   

The town citizens deputized Mr. T. Weed in January, 1872 to go to Crete offering the railroad one-half of the unsold Clark, Maltby and Way eighties plus Maltby and Way threw in twenty acres of their best land for the depot: Col. Doane representing the railroad wanted two-thirds of the unsold lots and the depot land. The deal fell through.

I. N. Clark was negotiating with other railroad representatives at the same time with no better success. Winter was setting in and the settlers were dependent on the railroad for fuel and food. The town’s love-hate relationship with the railroad was well underway.

Accounts of this story often include another “issue”. Railroad officials had a “call system” in mind for naming stations alphabetically as they moved west – Ashland, Berkes, Crete, Dorchester, Exeter, Fairmont, Grafton, etc. No Sutton.

An important revenue source for the railroad was the U.S. Mails. But train crews would not stop to pick up and leave mail at Sutton as stopping would enable passengers to get off and on the train making the stop a “station”. Mail car workers and postmaster A. C. Burlingame worked out a system in which mail was thrown from the moving train and mail bags were grabbed from Burlingame’s hands. Soon Burlingame tired of this dangerous procedure and just left the mail in his post office, as was his right.

Burlingame reported all this to the Postal Department and the government ordered that the railroad was responsible for getting mail from Burlingame’s post office to their station in Grafton at a cost of $400 a year.

The railroad response was to put up a crane opposite Gray’s lumber yard expecting the postmaster to hang his mail bag so they could grab it as the train went by. A few days later the mail car worker spotted the first bag on the crane and grabbed it only to be nearly pulled from the car by the weight – of a dead dog in the bag.

Next, the railroad’s watering tank near Harvard was dry and the company offered to stop at a tank near Sutton and have the mail exchanged there. This required the Post Office to provide the mail carrier to the water tank under the rules.

Sutton settlers’ patience finally ran out. One night they took teams to Grafton where they had previously purchased every building including the general store. The next morning the train crews found just one company-owned building at the Grafton site, not even old “124”.

George Bemis memorialized that night’s work with a poem, “Grafton to Sutton”. Visit www.suttonhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com to read the poem.

Sutton got its depot in 1873. The buffalo skull from “124” was preserved by the Sheridan family. Max and Regina Leininger promised “Aunt Nellie Sheridan” that some day it would become a Sutton Artifact in a museum. You can visit the skull in the front porch at the Historic House at 309 N. Way Ave. just a few dozen yards north of where that first mail bag surprised the fellow in the mail car.

This posting first appeared as an article by Jerry Johnson in the December 2009 issue of Sutton Life Magazine, 510 West Cedar, Sutton NE 68979

I. N. Clark, Mr. Sutton

In downtown Sutton, north of the tracks and on the west side of Saunders Avenue, in the midst of row of red brick buildings sits a single gray, almost white building. High on the face of the building is the inscription “I N CLARK” referring to Isaac Newton Clark.

Few individuals get to face the challenges and opportunities of building a town. A long list of skills, knowledge, experience and talent were needed to develop a new town. Legal expertise was needed to formalize land ownership and to create and organize the town and its government. Brokers were needed to handle property exchanges. Merchants had to build stores, find sources of goods and create a business. Some products had to be manufactured locally. New towns needed all kinds of people. Sutton got I. N. Clark.

Isaac Newton Clark was born near Cleveland, Ohio on June 18, 1836. He left the farm to attend a Teachers’ Institute at Hiram College where he received his certificate from James Garfield, President of the college, and later President of the United States. Clark taught school and farmed in Ohio and Illinois until June, 1861 when he enlisted and was mustered into the Twenty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Within a few months, an inflammation seriously limited the vision in his left eye and he was honorably discharged.

He returned to Ohio and in September, 1863 married Miss Mary Miner, a twenty-five year old teacher with eleven years experience. The young couple moved to Champaign, Illinois where he farmed and helped form Hensley Township where he was Town Clerk, Assessor and Collector. Clark farmed until 1871 when he and a younger brother Martin, a physician, headed west to find a new location for a business. At the end of the Burlington & Missouri Railroad in Nebraska they found Sutton.

I. N. & Dr. Martin Clark also found Luther French in Sutton who’d recently formed the town on his homestead. French had 400 unsold lots which Clark brothers purchased for $4000. On November 1, 1871 they opened the first store on the railroad west of Crete. They then built a building 20X60 feet in which Dr. Clark opened a drug store and ten days later, Isaac opened a hardware store. This building was called the Clark House and later became a hotel and rooming house. By the fall of 1872 the hardware business had grown to warrant yet another building. 

The drug and hardware businesses were vital to the early development of the town with customers from throughout the surrounding areas. Among those customers were the Omaha Indians. A band of about 400 Indians camped on School Creek on their annual hunt and traded with the Clark hardware store for ammunition, hunter’s and trapper’s outfits and supplies. This roving band returned annually for several years afterwards camping near town for days and trading. The Indians campsite was in a popular picnic area for Sutton. It sat on about twelve acres of the French/Clark property where School Creek made a horseshoe bend. Negotiations began as early as 1872 to donate this area to the city for a park. The legal transfer of the park did not occur until 1883 but that’s another story, but a good one involving the railroad and a stubborn lady who loved trees. A monument in the center of the City Park commemorates the Clark brothers’ generosity to their adopted town.

As Sutton developed, Isaac Clark took on additional roles. He was elected a member of the Board of Village Trustees in 1876. Later that year when Sutton became a town, he was the first mayor and was reelected in 1878.

The Methodist Episcopal Church decided to build a new church in 1876 and chose Mr. Clark as Chairman of their Board of Trustees. He organized the Sutton Brick Company manufacturing bricks for that structure and others in the area. The kiln factory remains a Sutton attraction today, though fairly well hidden out on the north edge of town.

Dr. Martin Clark and I. N. Clark’s property was quickly sold off to new arrivals in town. I. N. Clark pursued the real estate business vigorously developing the Clark Addition to the west and later a Second Clark Addition. His modestly named Glen Lake development on a branch of School Creek was used for boating and fishing and yielded hundreds of tons of ice annually, the primary source for the town. Glen Lake was later more properly named Clark’s Pond.

I. N. and Mary Clark had five children. Twins Harry and Davie were born in Illinois though Davie died in their first year. Myra and Albert (Bertie) were also born in Illinois and Roy was born in Sutton. Myra graduated in Sutton High’s first class in 1884 and Bertie graduated two years later. The Chancellor of the State University attended Myra’s graduation and a special test that was given to her to determine if local graduates qualified for higher education. She was the first to enter the State University with no further examination. Bertie continued in business in Sutton including operating the ice business for twenty years. He identified his occupation in the 1910 census as “ice dealer”. He married Mayme Wieden, perhaps the most interesting woman of early Sutton. She became deputy postmaster immediately upon high school graduation in 1894. There was almost no religious, social, civic or educational activity that she wasn’t deeply involved in.

The Clark residences became Sutton landmarks. Isaac and Bertie’s houses still grace West Cedar Street. Isaac’s, the more modest, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an example of Gothic Revival architecture. Bertie’s house is a somewhat more substantial structure across the pond which looks down on that pond where Bertie collected and marketed his ice each winter.

All frontier towns need a variety of skilled and talented people. They needed merchants, developers, entrepreneurs, realtors, builders, politicians and visionaries. Sutton had a number of people who fit into some of those roles. But in Isaac Newton Clark, Sutton had all of those in one guy.

Mary Minor Clark died in 1916 at the age of 78. Dr. Martin Clark and Bertie Clark both died in 1922. Isaac Newton Clark died in 1927 at the age of 90. Mayme Wieden Clark lived to be 88 and died in 1963.

The Sutton Historical Society is honoring the founders and early settlers of Sutton with a sidewalk of inscribed commemorative bricks at the Historic House on Way Avenue. Everyone is invited to honor their own family members, especially those of the pioneer era by joining the society in this program. You are also invited to “adopt” or help to honor our important founders, like the Clarks, who have no descendants still living. The program is the major museum fundraiser and will provide much-needed repair of the sidewalk. Bricks are one hundred dollars each or three for $225. 


This posting first appeared as an article by Jerry Johnson in the October, 2009 issue of Sutton Life Magazine, 510 West Cedar, Sutton, NE 68979

Sutton, the Sudden Settlement

The early settlement of the Sutton community burst onto the prairie much like a coiled spring. When Luther French located his homestead as the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 2, Township 7, Range 5 on March 14^th, 1870, a lengthy prologue had already been written.

The Platte and the Blue Rivers had been thoroughfares for westward travelers for decades. As early as 1843, as many as 1000 emigrants passed through present-day Clay County on the way to Oregon, a stream of migration that continued until 1869. A surge of gold prospectors dashing across the plains beginning in 1849 turned into a steady migration of California settlers. Over 40,000 Mormons used a trail north of the Platte River between 1847 and 1860 on their trek to Salt Lake City. And the Central Pacific railroad was completed in 1869. Military posts and way stations were positioned along the trails and rails providing protection and support. Transportation and communication links through south-central Nebraska were robust and active.

The uprising of plains Indians in 1864 along the Big Blue and Republican Rivers marked their last desperate effort to stem the tide of settlers. The U.S. Army was able concentrate on securing the West after the end of the Civil War in 1865. The end of the war also released thousands of soldiers who had just learned that there was life beyond Dad’s farm back East. Statehood came to Nebraska in 1867 and the stage was set for a major population explosion on the plains.

Luther French lit the fuse for the town of Sutton. His claim became the site of the town and we recognize him as our first settler. The area of the claim is bounded on the north by Ash Street and on the west by James. The south side slices the north downtown business district a bit north of Cornerstone bank and the east end of this “80” is just past highway 6.

Did you think homesteads were 160 acres? You’re right, generally. An exception was for claims within “railroad land”. Railroads received an incentive from the government for building on the frontier. Alternating sections for 10 miles on either side of the track were deeded to the railroad which could sell that land to fund the enterprise. So the government gave the railroads ten square miles of land for each mile of track laid. Or 1.21 acres per foot of track, a tenth of an acre for each inch…, you get the idea. Within each strip of railroad land, homesteads were 80 acres.

The second homesteader in Sutton was James C. Vroman who filed for the 160 acres just south of French’s claim. Vroman’s claim stretches from the north business district to a bit south of Myrtle Street. “What?” you ask. “How did Vroman get 160 acres?” Well, the first exception had a second exception. Veterans could claim 160 acre homesteads even within the railroad strip. Got it? Well, Vroman didn’t, but more on that later.

We’re now into the spring of 1871. Luther French sowed some wheat on his claim. Hosea W. Gray, his son John, son-in-law George Bemis and W. Cunning and his wife arrived and settled in. A few days later Mr. P. McTighe put up a board shanty and sold groceries and whiskey, the community’s first business. Kearney & Kelly, P. H. Curran and Martin Higgins quickly opened their businesses too, three saloons. These first businesses were on Main Avenue where downtown Sutton was originally intended to be located. The particular nature of this neighborhood led to its unofficial name of “Whiskey Row” and to a subsequent effort by the more upstanding town’s folk to relocate downtown to Saunders Avenue. The Burlington railroad had a hand in the move, but that’s another story.

Other business commenced but we need to return to our soldier-homesteader. Vroman was short of money so after filing his claim he went to work on the railroad further west. Homestead rules allowed a six month lag between filing a claim and when the claim must be occupied. However, John R. Maltby and William A. Way came from Crete and each filed their own 80 acre claim on Vroman’s quarter, or they “jumped the claim” as it was then called. Maltby and Way contested Vroman’s claim in Lincoln and in Washington. Vroman didn’t know of this action, didn’t show up and his claim was canceled. Hence, today Sutton has a Maltby Avenue and a Way Avenue but no Vroman Avenue.

The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad arrived in School Creek, as the community was first named, on August 1, 1871. On August 10^th John Maltby suggested that Luther French survey his claim into a town site of 600 lots and name the new town “Sutton” after Sutton, Massachusetts, Matlby’s back-east home.

On August 23, 1871, Thurlow Weed brought a carload of lumber from Lincoln to start the first lumber yard. John Gray’s load of lumber arrived a day later to become the second yard. R.G. Brown built a small building on Saunders Avenue on November 1, 1871 beginning the move of the business district from Main Avenue. This building was used as the first court house for the newly organized Clay County.

Luther French arrived on the banks of School Creek in March, 1870 to raise some wheat. Settlers began arriving early in 1871 and by that November French’s homestead had become a rapidly growing town and the county seat. It had a railroad and a booming business district and the coiled spring had been unleashed.

This posting first appeared as an article by Jerry Johnson in the September, 2009 issue of Sutton Life Magazine, 510 West Cedar, Sutton NE 68979

Sutton: Small Town, Large Story

The story of Sutton, Nebraska began less than 140 years ago, just three years after Nebraska entered the union.  The story of Sutton is a pioneer story, an agricultural story, a business story and a success story.  But mainly it is a people story.  There have been visionaries, entrepreneurs, immigrants, opportunists, and even a scoundrel or two.  But mainly the story is about hundreds of hard-working merchants and farmers, their employees and their families. 

The early days of Sutton’s history was surprisingly well documented.  The governor asked that a Centennial History be compiled for the Fourth of July in 1876.  Dr. Martin Clark contributed Sutton’s six-year story to that history and read it at the town’s own July 4^th celebration.  Just six years later, A. T. Andreas published a History of the State of Nebraska telling the stories of each county and town in the state.  The Sutton section is full of details and contains biographies of several of the pioneers in town.

A huge two-volume History of Hamilton and Clay Counties appeared in 1921.  One volume is a fine history of the two-county area. The second volume contains almost 250 biographies of early settlers and the “movers and shakers”. 

The next several decades did not enjoy quite the attention at those first years.  In 1968 Anne and Nellie Sheridan compiled the pioneer story of John and Ellen Sheridan.  “Along the County Line” was written by Rita Joyce Haviland and Jeanette Joyce Motichka from that work.  That story of a pioneer family that settled along the Clay-Fillmore county line includes a wealth of material about Sutton filling in some of the information void of those decades.

Many Sutton area pioneers came from the Eastern part of the state, neighboring states and points further east.  European immigrants played a big part in the local settlements.  Germans, Swedes, Danes, Bohemians, Czechs and Irish concentrated in certain towns and villages throughout the plains.  The largest single immigrant group to Sutton was the Germans from Russia.  Their story in Sutton has been well documented by Theodore C. Wenzlaff and James R. Griess.  Jim Griess published “The German-Russians: Those Who Came to Sutton” in 1968.  Ted Wenzlaff followed in 1974 with “Pioneers on Two Continents, The Ochsner-Griess History and Genealogy”.  Just last year, Jim Griess updated his book producing an ambitious volume of well over 300 large-format pages. These works distinguish Sutton as an important location in the story of this particular immigrant group which settled from the Dakotas into Kansas and Colorado. 

Don Russell and the Clay County News published a Pictorial History of Sutton in 1977.  This volume of almost 100 pages of early photos gives us a visual history of early Sutton.

As many as five or six newspapers have been published in Sutton which provides a week-by-week chronicle of details about Sutton happenings. Then there are the many unpublished diaries, letters, family histories, etc. that add much to our understanding.

Early citizens of the town of Sutton were intensely social creatures.  Numerous lodges thrived in the small town.  The people were far more mobile that you might suspect.  Four or five trains stopped in Sutton, each way, daily, and people hopped aboard for Lincoln, Omaha, Chicago, St. Joe, Denver, the coasts, even Europe on a near regular basis. 

The townsfolk receive good coverage in the old newspapers, the farmers – not as much.  We need to dig a bit deeper to learn the story of that crucial element of Sutton’s history. But it is worth it.

This posting first appeared as part of an article by Jerry Johnson in the August, 2009 issue of Sutton Life Magazine, 510 West Cedar, Sutton, NE 68979.

George Bemis's poem, "Grafton to Sutton"

Sutton’s first struggle to survive was a struggle against the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. The story ended when a few Sutton settlers quietly purchased all but one of the buildings in Grafton, the railroad’s choice for the local town, and towed the depot to Sutton one night with a couple of teams.. This Grafton was just four miles east of Sutton; the present town of Grafton was settled later further to the east.

George W. Bemis celebrated this event in 1872 with a poem that was published in the State Journal the next year.

GRAFTON TO SUTTON.

"What a clanking of hammers and ringing of saws;

 How they sound through the valleys and ring in the draws;

 Oh! Sutton is growing, in the midst of the fray,

 With the city of Grafton only four miles away.

"How the B. & M. engines shriek, whistle and squall,

 And send forth the order that Sutton must fall;

 How they thunder and mutter and groan night and day,

 With the city of Grafton only three miles away.

"Then came Mr. Marthis, and thus he did say,

 'I am tried of Grafton; if only I may,

 I'll come down to Sutton, without delay.'

 Soon Grafton will be only two miles away.

"Then started the wagons and horses and men,

 The steeds, how they foamed, as a whip now and then,

 Came down on their sides, near the close of the day,

 With the city of Grafton only one mile away.

"Then rushed down the hill the black and the gray,

 Close followed the crowd to have sport on the way,

 And the shout that went up at the end of the fray,

 Said 'The city of Grafton is in Sutton to-day.'"

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When Sutton had an Army

The Andreas’ History of the State of Nebraska by A. T. Andreas in 1882 is a great source for information about the early days of Sutton. The book was published but 12 years after Luther French dug his hole in the bank on School Creek making Sutton’s first decade perhaps its best documented.

Deep in the chapters on Clay County and Sutton is Part 8 including “Orders and Societies”. Here we learn that the early Sutton folk, at least the town folk, were a clubby bunch. There were several lawyers, doctors and businessmen (yes, mostly men) who came from established communities in the east where they had been active in the “orders and societies” so they naturally created new chapters of old, familiar organizations.

Andreas lists the Freemasons plus a Lebanon Chapter, IOOF plus an additional IOOF higher order, Grand Army of the Republic, Knights of Honor, a Military Company and Scientific Association. The same names appear in multiple organizations, but for a few hundred adult men, these guys were social creatures.

But what does it mean for a 1880’s small town to have a “military company”? Andreas spelled it out very well.

Company B of the First Regiment of the State Guards was formed on November 15, 1878 with forty members: “…Sutton’s sons whose proclivities bent in the direction of the chivalrous and heroic…” Officers were W. J. Keller, Captain; J. S. LeHew, First Lieutenant; and G. W. Bemis, Second Lieutenant. At the time Andreas wrote the piece, Keller was Lieutenant Colonel of the First Regiment and LeHew was Judge Advocate General on the Governor’s staff. The company was supplied with uniforms, guns, etc. and was the first such uniformed and equipped company in Nebraska. The company had its own armory for munitions storage.

So, what did they do? Actually, they were twice activated.

The company was ordered to arms in the summer of 1880 in response to a riot at the smelting works in Omaha. After three days the situation subsided and the company discharged.

On March 8, 1882 the First Regiment was activated to put down the strike among graders on the Burlington & Missouri Railroad again in Omaha. This time the duty lasted twelve days as the company guarded the graders’ camp. There were no open hostilities. The company seems to have acquitted itself well as Andreas reports that, “as an indication of the merit of this body of men, they were specially appointed to remain in the suppression of the strikers, and were the last company to be discharged for duty”.

As of the writing of the Andreas book the officers were: W. D. Young, Captain; F. C. Matteson, First Lieutenant; George C. Roys, Second Lieutenant; J. H. Johnson, First Sergeant. The company met for drills each Saturday evening and held target practice once a month.

It would be interesting to dig deeper into the nature of such military companies. The general concept suggests a relationship to earlier citizen forces or to the National Guard structure. It even is consistent with the famous phrase, “well-regulated militia”. A quick and limited search for corroborating, or further information was unsuccessful. I’d appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with these military companies.

John R. Maltby, Sutton Pioneer and 19th Century Adventurer

There have been a number of “characters” in Sutton’s past but drawing on almost 138 years of local history a few real Doozies stand out. My favorite Doozy is probably Mr. John Roger Maltby. Again, we are indebted to Nellie and Anne Sheridan for preserving this story in their book, “Along the County Line”.

John Maltby was born in Maine in 1830 but his father, Reverend John Maltby moved the family to Sutton, Massachusetts in 1834 where the elder Maltby served the First Congregational Church for 26 years. Yep, the younger John later gave Sutton its name. At age twenty-two, Maltby departed on a fifteen-year adventure that included seven unsuccessful years in the Australian gold fields, auctioneering in India, working on the first trans-Atlantic undersea cable and a bit of wandering about the United States.

While in London on the cable gig, John met and married Matilda Mary Cooke, a convert and very devout Catholic. After two years of faith-based difficulties John returned to the US, sans Matilda. After stays in San Francisco and New Orleans Maltby tried selling washing machines in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, IN 1865! He learned that the war-torn Confederacy was a poor market for high-ticket consumer products.

Meanwhile, back in London, Mary decided to join John and not finding him in Massachusetts, tracked him down in Louisiana in 1866. A year later their Boston hardware business flopped. John then left Matilda with his sister and went to Omaha where he built a track and organized horse races (you can’t make this stuff up). He dabbled in some land deals, cattle deals and fur trapping before poking around School Creek in May, 1871.

Maltby’s next adventure is well documented in Sutton’s history and we’ll save it for another day. Briefly, he and William Way “jumped” the claim of Mr. J. C. Vroman to organize much of today’s Sutton real estate. Vroman disappeared and we have Maltby and Way Avenues.

In September, 1872 Maltby took a business trip back east, ostensibly as part of the Sutton-Burlington depot dispute but actually to see Matilda and offer her a new life in the West. She agreed. London to Boston to Sutton. Quite a “Life Story”. But there was more to come.

Maltby was an early mover-and-shaker in Sutton: judge, school superintendent and in the midst of the social circles. But in 1877, just six years after finding School Creek, John, this time with Matilda, moved again but only a few miles to Fairfield. They were now both pioneers in organizing the town and the Catholic Church.

John died in 1895 and Matilda, almost penniless returned to Sutton and became the town’s librarian. She died in 1912 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

The Sutton Museum is proud to display several items of Matilda Mary Cooke Maltby include dresses and her wedding gloves and shoes thanks to Regina Leininger and others with the foresight to preserve these artifacts from our history. See them at the museum Sundays from 2 to 5 PM or by appointment. Contact Jerry Johnson at 773-0222 or jjhnsn@windstream.net for more information.

The Boar's Nest

We have been researching the names, ownership and locations of business enterprises throughout the history of Sutton and recently came across the story of the “Boar's Nest”. The Boar's Nest gets our nomination for the short list of interesting businesses in Sutton in the early 20th Century. What makes it interesting? We'll get to that.

John R. Bender, Sutton’s Football Hero from a century ago

What could be the connection between Sutton and the Kansas State Wildcats? Answer: a native of Sutton selected that name for the K-State athletic teams – while coaching the football team in 1915.

John R. Bender was a 1900 graduate of Sutton High and lettered in football at the University of Nebraska in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904. He is one of only two players listed in the NU football media guide as having lettered five years – eligibility standards have changed since that era.

Bender was a star halfback graduating as the leading scorer in Nebraska football history. The 1902 and 1903 teams were dominate teams outscoring their opponents 186 – 0 and 291 – 17. Bender was a captain on the 1903 team.

Bender’s coaching career began at Washington State in 1906 and 1907 where he coached both football and basketball very successfully.

The Wikipedia entry for John R. Bender indicates that he coached at Haskell Indian Nations University and St. Louis University from 1907 to 1911. I haven’t confirmed the Haskell connection and am skeptical of it. Wikipedia also states that he was an American Indian and his nickname was “Chief Bender”, and cautions us not to confuse him with the other “Chief Bender”. Albert “Chief” Bender was an American Indian who played major league baseball about the same time. My guess is that the writer has confused them.

The 1900 census for Sutton Township shows John R. Bender to be the 18-year-old son of Jacob Bender along with three sisters and a brother, Gustaf. Jacob and John’s grandparents are all indicated as having been born in Russia. John Bender’s ethnic heritage is no mystery to most of us in Sutton today. He was not a Native American.

St. Louis University does claim Bender in the history of coaches including the tale that he had a physical resemblance to a popular charm doll of the time called a “Billiken”. The Billiken was an elf-like thing with pointed ears, named after William Howard Taft copying the Teddy Bear that was named after Theodore Roosevelt. The Billiken didn’t catch on as well as the Teddy Bear, or as the Kewpie doll that followed.

The St. Louis fans began to call John Bender’s football team, “Bender’s Billikens” and the name is still used by St. Louis University today.

Bender became head football coach at Kansas State in1915 where he is credited with initiating two long-standing traditions, Homecoming and the Wildcats nickname. His team had a 3-4-1 record and before the 1916 season he moved to the University of Tennessee as the Tennessee coach took his K-State job. Tennessee had an 8-0-1 record but World War I interrupted athletics during 1917 and 1918. Bender also coached basketball at Tennessee.

John Bender, son of Jacob Bender in this story is not the John Bender, son of Jacob Bender and born in 1915. The first Jacob Bender was born in 1854 in Russia. The second Jacob Bender was born about 1885 in Germany and immigrated in 1907 with his wife Catherine (or Kathryene – the 1920 and 1930 census vary)

A third Jacob Bender was born about 1895 in Russia and came to Sutton in 1912 to join his brother Henry J.

Sutton’s TWO Medal of Honor Honorees

Sutton, Nebraska is proud to have a connection with two Medal of Honor recipients, Orion P. Howe and Jacob Volz.

Orion Howe was with the 55^th Illinois Infantry at Vicksburg in the Civil War. His Medal of Honor citation reads: “A drummer boy, 14 years of age, and severely wounded and exposed to a heavy enemy fire from the enemy, he persistently remained upon the field of battle until he had reported to Gen. W. T. Sherman the necessity of supplying cartridges for the use of troops under command of Colonel Malmborg.”

Howe was born in Ohio and entered service in Illinois. The award was not issued until April, 1896 while he was practicing dentistry in Sutton. You’d be correct if you guessed that he was the youngest of all award winners at the time of the incident that led to the award. You’d also be correct if you thought his story would make a good book, or two. The “Diary of a Drummer Boy” by Marlene Tarq Brill is an imagined diary of Orion Howe. G. Clifton Wisler’s “The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg” is a historical novel based on the life and service of Orion Howe, his father and younger brother, Lyston.

Our other honoree is Jacob Volz, Jr., born June 23, 1889 in Sutton and died in 1965 in Portland, Oregon. He was the son of Jacob and Cornelia Volz of the Germans from Russia migration. His citation reads: “While attached to the U.S.S. Pampang, Volz was one of a shore party moving in to capture Mundang, on the island of Basilan, Philippine Islands, on 24 September 1911. Investigating a group of nipa huts close to the trail, the advance scout party was suddenly taken under point-blank fire and rushed by approximately 20 enemy Moros attacking from inside the huts and other concealed positions. Volz responded instantly to calls for help and, finding all members of the scout party writhing on the ground but still fighting, he blazed his rifle into the outlaws with telling effect, destroying several of the Moros and assisting in the rout of the remainder. By his aggressive charging of the enemy under heavy fire and in the face of great odds, Volz contributed materially to the success of the engagement.”

Clay County can claim a connection with a third Medal of Honor award. Capt. Nelson Holderman, a WWII recipient was born in Trumbull (spelled Trumbell on his citation).

Sutton - Home of the Round Baler

Sutton enjoys a number of distinctions or “Claims to Fame” among of which is the invention of the round baler.  The Clay County Historical Society included that story in their Summer 1984 newsletter so the tale may be ripe for repeating.  The story also appears on a couple of internet sites, including that of the Patent Office.

The invention of the round baler is credited to Hugh Luebben and his sons Melchior and Ummo of Sutton.  Work on the invention may have started as early as 1892 with the patent being issued in 1903 or 1905.

The origin of the idea for the baler was described by a William Watts who arrived in Nuckolls County in 1874 and reported that fuel was often in short supply during the harsh winters.  He said, “The buffalo chips were gone, coal was not to be had, and our prairie was devoid of wood.  We began using straw as a source of fuel, twisting it roughly into the shape of a rope which could then be rolled into a ball and burned in a stove.”  The Luebben’s adopted and mechanized this process to build a device that attached to the back of a threshing machine and shaped the straw into round bales.

The Machine - Sutton's own contribution to agricultural mechanization.

This first device was not successful as it had, in today’s engineering terms, a low MTBF – Mean Time between Failures – it kept breaking down.  A later, improved model was a standalone machine with its own engine and worked for hay and alfalfa and a capacity of four to seven tons per hour.

The Luebben’s arrived in Sutton around 1890 where Melchoir was as a banker with the First National Bank of Sutton.  By 1900 he was bank president and among the town’s elite drawing mention in the local newspapers for social activities as well as his business endeavors.  Ummo Luebben appears to have provided much of the inventive genius for the baler while Melchoir handled the financial arm of the enterprise.

A side story of the baler’s invention involves the Melchoir’s financial dealings in support of the baler and a $79,000 question that led to the closure of the bank in 1910 and ten year sentence for elder Mr. Luebben.  The scandal also involved a Mr. Masters of a Harvard bank who was still fighting his conviction in 1921.  After Melchoir Luebben was released from prison he moved to St. Louis and then to California.

Ummo was not impacted by the scandal and continued working on the baler.  He moved the business to Lincoln in 1910 and to Omaha in 1920.  The company produced from two to sixteen machines a year from 1920 to 1940 when Ummo sold his company to Allis-Chalmers.  He continued to work on the baler until his death in 1953.  As of 2000, Allis had sold over 77,000 round balers.

Sutton’s round baler invention is identified by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers as one of their 50 Historic Engineering Landmarks.  That list is at: http://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/luebben-round-baler-31.aspx along with a video describing the invention.

Another reference appears at agupdate.com   (Blog entry updated July 10, 2019.)

Sutton enjoys a lesser connection to another of those 50 landmarks, the UC-Blackwelder Tomato Harvester.  The item only briefly describes this dual-pronged invention.

Early attempts to automate tomato harvesting resulted in smashed tomatoes and lots of red juice on the ground.  A three-way partnership between the University of California at Davis, Blackwelder Implement and the H. J. Heinz Company tackled the problem.  While the Blackwelder engineers worked on the machinery, UC-Davis developed a thick-skinned tomato that would withstand the mechanical picker.  Heinz ketchup processors had a major financial stake in the project and the Heinz representative to the project was Homer Anderson of the Tracy, California Heinz plant.  Homer was born in Saronville, Nebraska in 1910.

The Anderson family was among the first from our area to migrate to California in 1919.  As farms became larger and farmers became fewer, Sutton Germans migrated to Lodi, California and Saronville’s Swedes chose Turlock as their new home.

My source for the tomato harvester story?  Several delightful conversations with my father’s first cousin, Homer Anderson during the 21 years we lived in Tracy, California.

Wolfe School, District #55

The WolfeSchool, District #55, was originally located near Fairfield in Clay County, Nebraska operating until 1963. The School was made available to us by the Clay County Fair Board. The land was a part of the Sutton Park and was deeded to the Historical Society for the School. We thank all who helped us obtain and move the school.

The School is furnished and equipped much as it was during its operation.

We have three objectives for the school:

o Illustrate a typical one-room country school houseo Provide a setting for educational programs for children and adultso Host a country school museum with resources and information about the 67 rural schools of Clay County and additional schools throughout the area.

We hope that the school provides our visitors, especially youth, with an accurate glimpse of what it was like to attend a rural school in Nebraska.

John & Emma Gray Historic Home

John and Emma Gray built their retirement home next to their original Sutton home in 1908. The house served as the home for several Sutton families for several years until the Unterseher’s converted it into Aunt Emma’s Tea House. The tea house was well known in the area and a popular destination for nine years.

The Unterseher’s restored the house beautifully and upgraded the home’s electrical, plumbing and heating and A/C for their tea house. The house was a prime candidate for the historic home that the Sutton Historical Society was looking for to preserve.

The home is furnished with typical household furnishings and antiques from the 1900 period. John Gray was a lumberman and he installed distinctive woodwork and cabinetry that is intact and remains in great condition.

The Gray Historic Home is the centerpiece of the Sutton Historical Society’s museum complex.

Open Sunday afternoons and by appointment...

The Sutton Museum complex is open Sunday afternoons from 2 – 5 PM or by appointment: call 402-773-0222 for information. Additionally, there is often someone at the museum on weekdays when visitors are also welcome. Just check the OPEN/CLOSED sign in the window of the Historic House.

The Museum complex includes three buildings at the North Way location:

- The John & Emma Gray Historic Home

- The museum (original Gray home and recently the Schinzel house)

- Wolfe country school, District #55