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City of Sutton
Celebrates Its 65th Anniversary
Sutton has
been the center of old-time associations. Like a gallant lady, she has thrown
discretion to the wind and is telling the world how old she is.
For three
days, September 26, 27 and 28, Sutton celebrated in an old-time pioneer spirit,
her sixty-fifth anniversary of her incorporation as a village, along with an F.
F. A. stock and poultry show sponsored by the Sutton Commercial club.
Luther
French, Sutton’s first white settler, who came in 1870, must have felt that he
had all creation to himself, as he looked at the broad, lonely prairies. At
least that year he surveyed and laid out the original township of Sutton.
His dug-out was built on the east bank of School creek, south of the Kansas City and Omaha
railroad bridge. Traces of the excavation are still visible. His abode, which
sheltered his motherless brood of six youngsters, was lined with brick and had
a tunnel out-let near the creek-bottom, for use in case of an Indian attack.
First Postmaster.
Luther
French was Sutton’s first postmaster in 1871, and the first caucus in Sutton
township was held in the French dugout (now marked) in the fall of 1871.
Edward
French, youngest child of Luther French and Sutton’s first citizen, was present
at Sutton’s sixty-fifth birthday anniversary—a man unusually hale and strong
for his seventy years. He has lived in or near Sutton since the early arrival
of the French family in 1870.
On 1871,
Sutton consisted of three saloons and one little supply store, all in tents and
depending mostly on the railroad graders for business, as the Burlington was
winding its way laboriously through the great Midwest wilderness. Gradually,
frame shacks took the place of tents and a freight car was used as a depot.
This freight car carried the number 124 and was painted on a bleached buffalo
skull which was suspended from a pole attached to one end of the car. Eleven
families were in existence at that time, and home life had become an
established fact.
In October
of that same year, Clay county was organized. Of the 89 votes cast, 56 were for
Sutton for the county-seat. As the county had no money and no assessments had
been made, all county business was done on credit. The business for the county
was conducted in the office of R. G. Brown, Sutton’s first lawyer. In 1879, the
county seat was removed to Clay
Center.
Sutton in
1873 comprised 41 houses, nearly all devoted to business of some kind, and
became the center of trade in the territory between the Little Blue and the Platte rivers.
In 1874 the
town was incorporated and a village government organized. The names of Clark –
Dr. Martin, V. B. Clark, and his brother Isaac, the Brown brothers, R. G., and
Marion F., W. H. Gray, John M. Gray, G. W. Bemis, all early pioneers who helped
make Sutton history, were added between ’71 and ’73.
In 1873 a
colony from southern Russia,
near the port of Odessa
on the Black Sea, came to Sutton and settled
in the town and adjacent country. It was the first German migration, headed by
three strong leaders, Henry Griess, John Grosshans, and Henry Hoffman,
numbering fifty-five families.
Mrs.
Margaret Nuss (Mrs. Geo. Nuss), W. F. Grosshans, H. F. Grosshans, Leonard and
Wilhelm Roemmich, all children of that first German migration in 1873, were
present at Sutton’s sixty-fifth birthday party.
Mrs.
Margaret Nuss, 76 expressed in the few words that she spoke to the large
anniversary audience Tuesday afternoon, a wealth of patriotism when she said, “I
am glad I live in America.
I am glad I live in Sutton. I am proud that Sutton is my home,” and it has been
her home ever since she came as a little eleven-year old girl in that first
German migration of 1873.
Third Migration.
In the
third migration, 1875, Christian Nuss, 91, grandfather of Dr. H. V. Nuss of
Sutton, arrived. Mr. Nuss is unusual, physically and mentally, for a man of his
age. Christian Nuss Tuesday, with a steady hand signed the pioneer register.
In age Mr.
Nuss is the oldest resident of Sutton.
Mrs. Edith
Clark Challburg, the daughter of Dr. Martin Clark, known as the pioneer doctor
of Clay county, who came to Sutton in 1871 represented her family at Sutton’s
anniversary. Mrs. Challburg was the only descendant present of a member of the
first board of trustees appointed for Sutton in 1874.
No history
of Sutton would be complete without marked reference to Dr. V. M. Clark and his
brother Isaac N. Clark, long residents of Sutton and who did much for the
development of Sutton down through the history of the town. The two Clark brothers purchased in 1871 the unsold portion of
the town site of Sutton. This they afterward had resurveyed and plotted and set
apart four blocks for a public park which was dedicated as Clark Square and was deeded to the city
of Sutton.
Two
sisters, early pioneer women of Sutton, Mrs. Ada Gray Bemis of York, and Mrs.
Eugenie Gray Carvey of Sutton, daughters of H. W. Gray, Sutton’s early pioneer
lawyer, were present at the celebration. Mrs. Carney, 86, remarked at her
introduction that the big Easter storm of 1873 and the spectacular grasshopper
raid of 1874, along with other minor catastrophes failed to impress her young
mind, but she has been known to remark that never had she seen anything more
beautiful than when the old wagon and ox-team reached the bend in School creek
that September afternoon of 1872, and a picture gorgeous in color and setting
flashed before her young eyes.
Mrs. Ada
Gray Bemis, for many years a resident of York,
came to Sutton in 1871, as the wife of a young Iowa lawyer, G. W. Bemis. Mrs. Bemis, 91, is
today a slender, frail, old lady—an old lady with a golden memory. She held an
interesting position on the anniversary program. Being Sutton’s first
music-instructor, she delighted the audience Tuesday afternoon with old-time
piano selections all played from memory.
Mrs. Oscar
Swanson gave an interesting demonstration with her spinning-wheel, of weaving
yarn. Mrs. Swanson arrived in Sutton in the year 1871, arriving on the first B.
and M. train, the first woman to step from a railroad coach in Sutton. Her
spinning wheel came from Sweden
over 75 years ago.
Mrs.
Georgiana Steinmetz Serr came to Sutton as a little girl in 1871. She was
present at Sutton’s birthday party and told the large audience that she
attended the first school held in Sutton, the building standing today as the
Cronin grain and coal office.
For the
historical program Tuesday afternoon, Dr. A. E. Sheldon, secretary and
superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical society, addressed the men,
women and children who had come together to pay homage to the early pioneers of
Sutton. He talked on the history-making epic of Sutton and Clay county,
touching on names of early pioneers who helped to contribute toward the town
and county’s advancement.
Dr. Sheldon
was introduced by N. G. Bender, son of Jacob Bender, Sutton’s pioneer implement-dealer, who came to Sutton in August, 1875, and whose business still
contributes under the name of Jacob Bender and Son.
The program
was as follows:
“America,”
by S. H. S. band and audience.
Invocation
– Rev. W. H. Wright
“Love’s Old
Sweet Song”- S. S. H. boys octette (in costume).
Welcome –
Mayor J. M. Welch
“Old Song
Medley” – S. S. H. octette (in costume).
Introduction
of guests of honor, 1870-’74—Mrs. A. W. Clark
Vocal
solo—“Volga Boat Song.” Ralph Claus (in Russian costume).
Mrs. Oscar
Swanson, 1871 (arrived on first B & M train.)
Vocal solo
– Irene Anderson (Swedish costume).
Piano solo
– “Music of Ye Olden Days,” Mrs. G. W. Bemis, 1871.
Address—“Heroic
Period of Sutton History,” Dr. A. E. Sheldon, secretary Nebraska State
Historical Society.
Recognition
of Pioneers of ’70-‘79
Vocal
solo—“Lullaby” Ellie Marie Sgeridan (German costume).
Spinning
wheel demonstration –Weaving yarn, Mrs. Oscar Swanson.
Vocal
solo—“The Old Spinning Wheel,” Betty Willes (Colonial costume).
“Auld Lange
Syne”
“Star
Spangled Banner”
The success
of the historical program for Tuesday afternoon is due largely to Mrs. A. W.
Clark, chairman of that committee.
Harry
Rothrock, city attorney, and general chairman of the anniversary celebration,
spoke at the conclusion of the program relative to the two-days program that
followed.
The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln,
Nebraska) October 8, 1939
Transcribed
and Contributed by: Ida Maack Recu
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