Tuolumne County

Biographies


 

 

 

FRED SUTTON

 

 

            Fred Sutton, who is actively associated with the business interests of Sonora and is a member of the city board of trustees, was born in Cambridgeshire, England, December 25, 1853, and is descended from an old English family.  His father, Moses Sutton, was born in Cambridgeshire, September 5, 1821, and spent the days of his childhood and youth in that country.  Arriving at the years of maturity, he wedded Miss Mary Hall, and unto them were born twelve children ere they left the “merrie isle.”  In 1869 the family came to the new world, locating at Lockport, New York, and the following year emigrated to Sonora, California.  Subsequently, however, the father and part of his children returned to Illinois, where he purchased a farm and there spent his remaining days, departing this life October 29, 1897, at the age of seventy-six years.  His estimable wife passed away in Illinois, September 24, 1881, when fifty-eight years of age.  They were Episcopalians in their religious faith, and in the various communities in which they resided they were held in high esteem.  Representatives of the family still reside in Illinois, while Charles Sutton is a farmer of Tuolumne County, California.

            Fred Sutton, the subject of this review, pursued his education in the schools of England and in Lockport, New York, and for sixteen years he was engaged in general merchandising in connection with his uncle, Josiah Hall.  Since coming to Sonora he has engaged in mining and has also been interested in the real estate and insurance business.  He is now one of the owners of the Excelsior mine, the Street mine, the Gross mine and the Bell mine.  The Excelsior mine has produced four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.  Mr. Sutton is a man of excellent business ability and of resourceful capacity, and his efforts have not been limited to one line.  He is now the agent for the Firemen’s Fund, a fire-insurance company of San Francisco, and for a number of other reliable companies.  He is also actively engaged in the real estate business of Sonora, and in this line of business he has contributed not a little to the substantial upbuilding and legitimate progress of the attractive city in which he makes his home.  In all his dealings he is thoroughly reliable, his name being synonymous with integrity in business affairs.

            In his political views Mr. Sutton is a Democrat.  He keeps well informed on the issues of the day, and was elected a trustee of his town in 1900, and is now filling that position with ability and fidelity.  Socially he is connected with the Knights of Pythias of Sonora, in which he is serving as a keeper of the records and seals.  He is also a member of the Chosen Friends, in which organization he is holding the office of counselor.  With every advance movement in the town during the period of his residence here he has been prominently identified, being recognized as one of the leading and most enterprising businessmen of the place, and as one who has contributed liberally, and with enthusiasm, to every cause which has had as its object the growth and prosperity of Sonora.

 

 

Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.

Source: “A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern California”, Pages 513-514. Chicago Standard Genealogical  Publishing Co. 1901.

© 2010  Gerald Iaquinta.

 

 

 

Tuolumne County Biographies

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