The Diplomat From Saugatuck- Warner P. Sutton- Part Two

Warner P. Sutton and wife Lois Andrus Sutton, had one son White, and three daughters, Saida, Ethel and Enid. White received a law degree and went to practice in Hawaii where his brother-in-law William Whitney (Saida's husband) was a judge. Enid married W. F. Swan. Ethel, author of the biographical sketches about her parents, married Carl R. Kimball, Madison, Ohio, who served as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Continued from Ethel Sutton Kimball's biographical sketch:

"In Saugatuck, the Bird family were our near neighbors and good friends. White was most friendly with Harry and Carl Bird, and in very recent years Carl has written some incidents that he recalled about Papa. They are very natural, and I quote;

"I doubt you will remember the incident as well as I. I have remembered it because I think it is as fine an example of diplomacy and the use of English as I have heard. Two years, at least, he and Dad and you and I would go upriver (Kalamazoo river) with a flatboat on a wagon. Floating down, we would camp a couple of nights.

"One camp we struck near a farm owned by an old character by the name of Jeff Boyle. Jeff seldom saw anybody, so he came over to visit us and was full of talk, punctuated by a lot of swear words.

"I forgot to mention that we always had an extra person; and this trip it was Wilfred Lindsay, the Congregational minister, a Canadian and as fine-looking a man and personality as I ever knew.

"Most men would have said, 'This man is a preacher, so you had better cut it out.' But your father said, 'Mr. Boyle, this gentleman we have with us is a Minister of God, so the rest of us have refrained from swearing while he is here.' This did not hurt anybody and filled the bill."

"Another note from Carl Bird:

"Dad sent me over to ask your Dad if he wanted to go 'upriver' another season.

'No. I have found that the greatest pleasure comes in making out the list of things needed. So, I have decided to make out the list and stay at home. "'

Another note from Carl Bird:

"Here is one more story about your father which should be set down to show something of the man he was.

"He had a fine sense of humor, a fine command of English, and loved the few friends he allowed himself to make.

"He sent my Dad a wrack of antlers from a Mexican buck. Dad had a man at the 'yard' (shipyard) make a beautiful walnut shield on which the antlers were mounted, with a few coat-hooks, and hung it in the hall of the 'big house' as a hat-and-coat rack.

"When your Dad came up from Mexico, Dad led him into the front hall to show him the result, with me, the small boy, trailing along behind. After they had admired and discussed the piece, Dad finally asked him, 'Did you shoot the deer?' 'Oh yes, I shot the deer. I paid a Mexican fifty cents for the privilege of saying that I shot him.'

"I have since thought that the short personal contact I had with your father, at an early, impressionable age, had a great influence on my own personality.

"He was gentle and had a soft voice, but behind it all was the command and authority of the schoolmaster which he had been."

"At an Alumni Banquet, there was an alumna of that first high school class which Papa taught in Saugatuck; she must have been very old; she paid tribute to Professor Sutton using almost the same words that are in Carl Bird's letter -- "His gentle manner, his voice, and his complete command."

The full text of Ethel's sketches can be found at the SDHS web site at:

Warner Sutton and Lois Sutton

-submitted by Chris Yoder