Buena Vista County, IA
USGenWeb Project

After a long, active and useful life identified with the agricultural interests of Buena Vista county, Frederick E. Sutton is practically living retired in Sioux City, where he owns a nice residential property, but still gives supervision to his extensive landed interests. Mr. Sutton was born in Oxford, New Haven county, Connecticut, June 10, 1844, a son of Edward J. and Lucretia A. (Morris) Sutton, the former a native of Chittenden county Vermont, and a son of James Sutton, of English ancestry. Mrs. Sutton was born in Connecticut and by her marriage became the mother of three sons: E. M., who was married and spent his entire life in the east, passing away in 1907; F. E., of this review; and C. J., a resident of Chittenden county.

Frederick E. Sutton was quite young when the family removed from its native state to Vermont and there he was reared and educated, being given good school advantages. He remained on the home farm during the period of his boyhood and youth and farmed in Chittenden county for several years. In 1872, however, believing that the new and rapidly developing west offered more opportunities than east, Mr. Sutton removed to Buena Vista county, Iowa, and purchased eighty acres of land on section 13, Maple Valley township, on which stood a small house but was otherwise unimproved. He broke the land with an ox team and in due course of time had the soil in a fine state of cultivation, so that he harvested plentiful crops each year as a reward for his care and labor. He later remodeled his pioneer home and eventually replaced that structure with a modern two-story residence. He also enlarged the boundaries of his farm by adding eighty acres, so that the old home place now embraces one hundred and sixty acres of rich and valuable farm land. Moreover, he purchased twenty acres of land in Sulphur Springs, which tract is supplied with a good residence, also owning two business houses there, and in that city he made his home for several years. As his financial resources increased he invested in three hundred and twenty acres of land in Beadle county, South Dakota, which is improved with a fine dwelling and substantial outbuildings. For a long time Mr. Sutton was actively engaged in general agricultural pursuits but for the past few years has made his home in Sioux City, Iowa, merely looking after his invested interests, for the competency that he has acquired now enables him to rest from his former toil.

Mr. Sutton was married in 1864 to Miss Etta Smith, who was born and reared in Vermont. After a happy married life, covering a quarter of a century Mr. and Mrs. Sutton were separated by the death of the latter in 1889. Mr. Sutton formerly gave his support to the democratic party but is now a republican, casting his last presidential votes for Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. His activity in business has not only contributed to his individual success, but has also been a prominent factor in the development of Buena Vista county where he has so long made his home and although he now resides in Sioux City, where much of his interest centers, he still maintains a deep concern in the section of the state which he saw grow and develop from a wild region into a rich agricultural district and his labor was an important means in bringing this about.