Cattle Business

In a blog post dated July 12, 2013 I wrote about my great grandfather John J. Sutor, Sr. and his brother Henry T. Sutor and Martin Sutor. I want to add some detail to that story based on a recently discovered letter. First a little background. Martin Sutor was born on September 3, 1854 in Haldimand County Ontario Canada and Henry T. Sutor was born on March 19, 1861 in Galesburg, Illinois. The Knox College directory indicates Henry attended there for the 1879- 1880 school year. It appears that after the end of the 1880 school year at Knox he and Martin went to Kansas to seek their own way on the American prairie. They became farmers and cattle ranchers. We knew that the two brothers in Kansas shipped cattle back to Illinois to be corn fed and sold in the Chicago market. We don't know when that started but we do know in 1901 it was happening. Since the letter seems routine it is reasonable to assume that this was not the first time they had sent cattle east.

I put an image of the envelope in for a couple of reasons. First, the top image is the front. Note the postmark of Fairbury, Illinois. The letter was mailed from Zurich, Kansas on November 11, 1901. It was apparently mistakenly routed to Fairbury instead of Wataga. The image of the back of the envelope was interesting because it is stamped November 14, 1901 indicating that was when the letter was received in Wataga. I had not seen an envelop stamped indicating when it was received.

Martin indicates to his brother John they are leaving Kansas on Tuesday, November 12, 1901 with three 36 foot cars holding a total of 75 head of cattle. They will take a short lay over in Kansas City to rest the cattle and expect to arrive in Wataga on Thursday. It raises the question. Would John be surprised? The letter was mailed on the 11th with the expectation it would arrive on time before the cattle did on Thursday. Since the letter took an unexpected side trip to Fairbury it arrived the same day as the cattle. The Sutor farm in the Wataga area was about 2 miles by road from the train tracks and possible siding. It would require several men to drive the cattle from Wataga to the farm. It seems maybe things wouldn't have gone as smoothly as expected. There were other issues to be considered. John had married Emma Parsons on November 22, 1900. She gave birth to their first son Martin Parsons Sutor on November 21, 1901. So the cattle are coming to the farm and Emma is great with child. 

So we know that in 1901 the Sutor Brothers in Kansas and Illinois were involved in shipping cattle from the great plains of Kansas to the fertile corn country of Illinois to be grain fed and eventually shipped to and sold through the Chicago Stock Yards. A short letter but a vital piece of family history.