My Genealogy Hound

William O. Sutton, who is intimately connected with the farming interests of Mount Vernon Township, is a descendant of an old American family, of English ancestry, and the son of William C. Sutton, who was born in Kentucky and followed farming in that State until twenty-five years of age. He came to Lawrence County, Mo., about 1844 or 1845, and here married Miss Ellen Williams, the daughter of Samuel Williams, who was the son of Judge John Williams, the first settler of the county, and for whom Williams’ Creek was named. Judge Williams moved from Middle Tennessee in 1831; his widow still resides on the old farm, and is now seventy-eight years of age. The Judge built a log house at the head of Williams’ Creek, and made the first improvement in the county. He brought with him eight or ten negroes. He married Miss Elizabeth Smith, and they became the parents of sixteen children, twelve of whom lived to be married, and seven of whom are now living: Ellen, John, Samuel, William, Thomas, George, Mary A. and Sarah. Ellen, the eldest of the family, and the mother of William O. Sutton, furnished the facts for this sketch. She was born in Middle Tennessee in 1827, and was four years of age when she came with her parents to Lawrence County. Mr. Williams was a prominent man in those days, and was appointed judge of the county court. He was a Democrat and a Union man during the war. Four of his sons, John, Samuel, James and William, were in the Union army. Judge Williams and his wife were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died at the age of seventy-one in the year 1875. He was considered quite wealthy in those days, and was a man whose judgment was respected. Mr. and Mrs. Sutton reared a family of eight children, but were the parents of fourteen children: J. W., Nancy, Julia A., William, Martha, George, Francis G. and Coral. Mr. Sutton was a religious man, but belonged to no church. He was a man of property, owning 600 acres of land, and was one who stood well in the community. He was in the State Militia during the war, and lived to be fifty-four years of age. He was an old line Whig in politics, and afterward affiliated with the Republican party. Mrs. Sutton is sixty-one years of age, is a woman of remarkable intelligence, and well preserved for her years. Since the death of Mr. Sutton she has kept the family together, and has given each a good common-school education. Her son, W. O. Sutton, was born on his father’s farm in 1856, and, like his brothers and sisters, received a good common-school education. He grew to manhood on this farm, and married Miss Alice E. Plumlee, the daughter of Zachariah and Margaret J. (Jackson) Plumlee, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Sutton, like his father, was a Republican in politics, and an industrious farmer. He owned eighty acres of land. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.