Martin P Sutor

Martin Parsons Sutor was born on November 21, 1901 and died on November 28, 1978. It was a life well lived in my opinion. Today you get to go on a little ride down Uncle Mart memory lane. Technically Uncle Mart was my great uncle since he was my grandfather's oldest brother. Uncle Mart was a farmer, businessman, former Illinois State Representative and liked to drink a bit and chew tobacco.

That is Uncle Mart in a 1950's campaign photo.

Growing up from time to time we would go over and work on Uncle Mart's farm. Like my grandfather Uncle Mart always had several dogs. Several means more than 3 but usually less than 10.
One of my favorite memories of Uncle Mart was working on his farm one afternoon with my dad and younger brother David. We were scooping corn out of a bin into an auger to load a truck. In between loads we would have a few minutes to cool off and catch our breath. During one of the breaks Uncle Mart came up to David and I and said the following. "Would you boys like to bury some old bitch?" We assured him that we were there to help in any way we could. He had several dogs and we figured one had died and he needed a hole dug. We went to the barn and got shovels and he had us put them in the trunk of his car. We thought that was a bit odd but then again it was Uncle Mart. We rode about 2 miles into Henderson, Illinois and he pulled to the north side of town into the cemetary. The graveside services were just being completed on top of the hill on the far corner from where we sat. After all the cars left Uncle Mart drove us over. We watched the casket being dropped into the vault and the lid put on. When everything was done he told us to get busy and fill up the hole. So on the resume is grave filler.

Another time when we were helping pick corn Uncle Mart came out to the field to pick up Dad, our hired man Homer, David and I. Dad and Homer got in the car first and sat in the front seat. It was a two door car and I thought that was a bit odd. I went to slide into the back seat and backed out. I told Uncle Mart we would walk the half mile to the house because we were young and needed the exercise. I closed the door and off they went. My brother David started giving me a hard time about it and why did I turn down a ride to the house for lunch. I told him when I went to get in the back seat one of Uncle Mart's dogs was eating a rabbit. I really didn't want to share the seat with that mess.

I want to include two newspaper articles in closing. Jack was Uncle Mart's donkey. While Uncle Mart was a state representative in the Illinois House of Representatives he took Jack to Springfield. Jack went into the State Capitol Building, up the elevator and onto the House floor. Uncle Mart was one proud democrat.