josutton.html

Portland, Oregon - Its History and Builders, S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago-Portland, 1911
Page 354-5

JOHN SUTTON

In the early period of steamship navigation along the Pacific coast, John Sutton was well known as an engineer. He is remembered here by many of the early settlers as that type of hardy pioneers through whose fortitude and determination a new country is settled and developed to success.
He was born at St. Georges, Delaware, April 30, 1823. His father was Dr. James N. Sutton, a prominent man of the state of Delaware, and his mother was a direct descendant of the house of Stuarts of Scotland. She died when heir son was but two years of age. He was sent to a preparatory school and later attended the West Point Military Academy, where he was a classmate of Ulysses S. Grant. He afterward joined the United States navy and served for three years under his uncle, Commodore Newton. He was in the Mexican war while with the navy.
In 1850 Mr. Sutton arrived in California, where he engaged in a private shipping business with which he was connected throughout his entire life on the coast. He was in a number of wrecks, one on the Mississippi river before going to California. He finally lost his life at sea, on the 27th of January, 1873, when the ship George S. Wright went down with all on board. The boat plied between Portland and Alaskan ports, and the only bodies ever found were those of a cabin boy lashed to a chair and Major Ealker a paymaster in the United States army. Mr. Sutton showed a preference for Portland and invested in property there and used his influence, which was widespread, he having run at various times on vessels plying between Panama and Alaska, for the benefit of his home city.
In September, 1848, Mr. Sutton was united in marriage to Miss Anna Beatrice Dolan, a daughter of Charles Dolan of Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Sutton was born June 29, 1829, and died April 15, 1905. She kept their children together after her husband's death, educated them and gave they every opportunity possible. She had a family of nine, namely: Julia Ann, the wife of G. B. Wright, deceased; Margaret S., the wife of George J. Ainsworth, deceased; Mave, the wife of Otis Sprague, of San Francisco, California; James N., of Portland; Jennie K., the wife of Alfred Wheeler, of Nelson, British Columbia; John Grant, of San Francisco, California; Albert of Hood River, Oregon; Ada V., the wife of Arthur E. Bull of Boston, Massachusetts; and Herbert G. Sutton of San Francisco, California.