The
man who named our small, quiet, rural Nebraska town was a flamboyant fellow
with a life story unmatched by any resident since. I welcome your nomination
for a candidate with a better life story.
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John Rogers Maltby, world traveler, adventurer, entrepreneur, promoter, maybe a bit of a
scoundrel, but the many who gave Sutton, Nebraska its name. |
John
Rogers Maltby was born in Sutton, Massachusetts and was living in Maine when he
left home in 1853 on a path that would lead to the community of School Creek in
south central Nebraska in 1871. The intervening 18-year trek from Maine to
Nebraska covered four continents involving a string of adventures that would
tax credibility in a work of fiction.
Both
of our Sutton histories by Jim Griess (“The German Russians, Those who came to
Sutton) and the research of Anne and Nellie Sheridan (Along the County Line)
included sections on the life of John Maltby and we’ll draw on them for this
discussion.
We
also have sources in thirteen boxes of material stored at the Nebraska State
Historical Society in Lincoln plus there is the internet. It’s both good and
bad news to have multiple sources, ambiguity being on the bad side of that
ledger. One account has his date of birth in 1830, another implies 1831 and his
Fairfield tombstone lists May 11, 1828. Sutton, Massachusetts Town Records give
August 17, 1828 as his baptism date, so there is that.
Whenever,
our John Maltby (III) was born to Rev. John Maltby Jr. and his wife, Margaret
Graves Jackson. The elder Maltby was an 1822 Yale graduate and was ordained by
the Andover Newton Theological School in 1826. He was the minister at the First
Congregational Church in Sutton, Massachusetts from 1826 until 1834 when he was
recruited by the newly-organized Hammond Street Church in Bangor, Maine serving
there until his death in 1860. One of our local histories reverses that move
and has him dying in Sutton, MA in 1860.
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This painting of Rev. John Maltby and his wife Margaret Graves Jackson is
owned by the First Congregational Church in Sutton, Massachusetts. These
are the parents of Sutton's John Maltby. |
Both
churches mention Rev. John Maltby on their current web sites. The Sutton church
has a valued portrait on Rev. and Mrs. Maltby. The original is in safe storage
and a replica is displayed in the church. We include that image here.
The
1840 Bangor census shows the John Maltby family to consist of ten persons: a
male age 40-49, one female 40-49, a 15-19 female, one 10-14 female, three 5-9
females and one under 5. There as one male 10-14 and another under 5. That does
not necessarily mean John and Margaret had eight children. There might have
been servants in the household. But our John was most likely the male age 10-14
in 1840. One of our local histories lists him as the oldest of five children in
the family. Family trees on ancestry.com list seven children with two dying
young. History could be a science but it tends toward art.
Margaret
Maltby died in 1852 and the next spring young John left Maine for the gold
fields of Australia. According to his passport application on March 4, 1853,
John Maltby was 23(?), 5 foot 9 ¼ inches tall, high forehead, hazel eyes,
Grecian nose, small mouth, round chin, brown hair, dark complexion and an oval
face. (It’s been a few years, but I do not recall that level of detail on the
modern passport application.)
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The First Congregational Church in Sutton,
Massachusetts and early benefactor of the
Federated Church in Sutton, Nebraska. |
Maltby
and a couple of friends sailed on the “Charter Oak” on April 18th
arriving in Melbourne in June. Gold. Australia. In 1853. Why? The California
Gold Rush is usually dated through 1858 or ’59 and was a lot closer.
Maltby’s
diary describes the distress of his friends during the rough voyage. It seems
they soon headed back but he stayed seven years engaging in numerous businesses
but the gold thing didn’t happen.
In
1860 John Maltby left the continent of Australia for Asia, India to be exact.
He was a merchant and auctioneer for two years then headed for Europe sailing
on the “Calcutta” for London.
Our
local histories lead us to believe that John arrived in London in May, 1862,
worked on the first Trans-Atlantic cable, met Matilda Mary Cooke from Surrey
and was married in December. And since history records that the trans-Atlantic
cable was completed in the summer of 1858 we have another reason for a trip to
Lincoln to auger in those 13 boxes.
Matilda
Mary Cooke, Mary or “Trot” as John called her, was 21 when she married the 34
year old John Maltby. She was a convert to Catholicism and he promised to
convert but never did leading to a subplot in this story.
Maltby
engaged in several brief business ventures for a couple of years in London
before leaving for
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The Church of Our Immaculate Lady of Victories
on the quiet Clapham Park Road in South London
where John Maltby and Matilda Mary Cooke
were married on December 18, 1862 - brought to
by the magic of Google Earth Street View. |
the U.S. in 1864, without his wife. (See above.) She was to
stay in London until he had enough money to send for her. He’d sought his
fortune in Australia, Asia and Europe; it was time to try North America.
His
path now took him to San Francisco and New Orleans. In late 1865 John Maltby
was the main man for the Challenge Washing Machine Company working the sales
territory of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. He was trying to sell
major appliances to households in the post bellum South. Not a sparkling
business plan.
He
did find enough money to send for Trot and they were to meet in Massachusetts.
She was delayed in getting there; he tired of waiting and headed back to the
south on a ship named “Republic.” The Republic ran into rough seas and sank out
from under him off the South Carolina coast. It is not clear how he managed to
survive the shipwreck, but somehow he did, went back to work and in 1866, after
two years of separation John and Matilda Maltby were united in Louisiana. They
went back to Massachusetts to a short-lived hardware store but by the end of
1867, she’d left him and he was in Omaha.
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John Maltby's 1853 passport application as he
left New England for Australia, Asia, Europe
and around the U.S. to get to Sutton, Nebraska. |
The
next jobs were with the Union Pacific, operating a store in Bushnell, Nebraska,
sign painter, wallpaper hanger, glass worker and a job in the California
Restaurant in Omaha. (Cook or waiter, one wonders.) And he built a track for
horse racing.
Now
it was 1871 and Maltby learned about a start-up community in the path of the
approaching Burlington Railroad, just his kind of situation but there was some
urgency to make it work.
Maltby
and a friend William Way discovered land straddling the railroad’s route but it
had been claimed by John Vroman. They may have intended to buy the property but
time was short and they couldn’t find him. They contested the claim and after
some legal maneuvering Vroman’s claim was cancelled as he had been absent. Way
claimed the north ½ of the Vroman land bounded by today’s James Avenue on the
west and a bit east of Highway 6/French Avenue on the east, a line through the
north business district on the north side and Hickory Street on the south. John
Maltby had the 80 acres to the south to just short of today’s Helen Street.
Old
Western movies tell us that claim jumping was an unpopular and maybe risky
venture. We’ve evidence that it was true
in Sutton, too. Jim Griess describes a petition by the good citizens of Sutton
dated March 25, 1872 that read, “Whereas certain notices have been posted in
divers places in the county concerning J. R. Maltby to leave this place before
the 26th …. on fear of death. And we citizens of this town … do
hereby offer a reward of twenty-five (25.00) dollars for the exposure and
conviction of the perpetrators of the said violation.” Among the petitioners
were I. N. Clark, Thurlow Weed, A. A. Corey and George Bemis, Sutton’s early
establishment.
As
in the case of the shipwreck, we don’t know how John Maltby survived this
situation but by mid-summer he had talked Luther French into breaking his
homestead into town lots and his suggestion to name the community “Sutton” was
accepted. When Clay County was formed in October Maltby was elected Probate Judge.
He later served as Police Judge for Sutton. William Way was on the first two
Boards of Trustees for the town. Nice recovery. Maybe they were just charming
men.
John
Maltby served the new town well in its “war” with the railroad including making
an 1872 trip back east to confer with Burlington officials about placing a
depot with mail service in Sutton, but that’s another story. He worked in a
side trip to Boston at this time and reconciled with Matilda. She joined him in
Sutton in January, 1873.
The
Maltby’s remained in Sutton into 1877 when they moved to Fairfield. Matilda
helped organize the new Catholic Church there and John was Chairman of first
Board of Town Trustees. He had a real estate business and engaged in other
enterprises including the invention of particular valve. His luck failed again as
his valve had been patented one year earlier.
John
Maltby had a full life but financial success eluded him to the end. He died a
poor man on March 24, 1895. Matilda returned to Sutton, taught French and music
and became the librarian at Sutton’s new library. She died in 1912 and is
buried in Calvary Cemetery. True to form, John is buried in Fairfield. The
Sutton Museum has Matilda memorabilia including her 1862 wedding dress and the
shoes, gloves and fan from her wedding ensemble.
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Sutton Pioneer Matilda Mary Cooke of London, England, Mrs. John Maltby. A lady with her own good story.
Several of her possessions are on display at the Sutton Museum. |
I
repeat my challenge from the beginning of this article. Do you have a nominee
for a Sutton resident with a more interesting and improbable story? If so, I
definitely want to hear about it.
Maltby
Avenue was named after him. He donated block 22 of his First Addition for the
Sutton Schools which served the community for many years before becoming the
site of the Nolde Center. He designated blocks 39 and 49 in the southeast part
of town for a park.
Members
of his father’s church from the early 1830’s learned that John had named his
Nebraska town after their Massachusetts community and that a new congregational
church was under construction in Sutton, Nebraska. They sent a donation to help
build the new church and made a gift of a silver communion service to their
sister church in the west. Those cups are prominently displayed in the entry of
the Federated Church today.
John
Maltby lived in Sutton, Massachusetts from birth in 1830 until the family
removed to Bangor, Maine in 1834 when he was only six years old. He grew up in
Bangor leaving for Australia in 1853 at the age of 23. Why did he name our town
Sutton? How close did we come to be living in Bangor, Nebraska, attending
Bangor High School and reading this in The Bangor Life Magazine?
Completely
unrelated but I must include that the athletic teams at the Sutton High School
in Massachusetts are the Sammies and the Suzies.
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This communion service was a gift from the First Congregational Church in Sutton, Massachusetts to the new church in
Sutton, Nebraska. The set is on display in the entry of the Federated Church. |
This article first appeared in the December, 2014 issue of Sutton Life Magazine. For further information about this publication, contact publisher Jarod Griess at neighborhoodlife@yahoo.com or 402-984-4203.
