John Sutter went as a young man to Franklin, Illinois, about 1855. He lost his mother early in life and had no home until he made one for himself. His father, however, reached the venerable age of ninety-three years, passing away in Lee county, Illinois. In that county John Sutter married Margaret Thomas. In the year 1875 they became residents of Story county, Iowa, settling in Washington township, two and a half miles south of the Iowa State College, where they resided until 1895, when they sold that farm and removed to Maxwell. Both died, however, in Lincoln Nebraska, the mother on the 6th of December, 1908, when seventy-two years of age, and the father on the 4th of April, 1909, at the age of eighty years. He had followed the occupation of farming throughout his entire life and thus provided for the support of his fifteen children, ten of whom reached mature years, while nine are now living.
Frank Sutter was only eight years of age when the family left Illinois and came to Story county. He remained upon the home farm with his parents until 1889 and then went to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he remained for two years. He devoted two years to general farming and afterward worked in railroad shops for a year. He then returned to Iowa, settling in Kelley in 1892. He was employed in the tile factory for about a year and in 1893 took charge of the home farm, which he cultivated and improved then again took up his abode in Kelley and for five years worked at the carpenter's trade during the summer months, while in the winter seasons he aided his father-in-law, H. A. Cook, in the management of the elevator and grain trade. In the spring of 1901, he went to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he remained from the 16th of April until the 24th of December engaged in carpentering, threshing and elevator work. In the spring of 1902, however, he returned to Iowa, settling in Pocahontas county, where he followed carpentering until August, after which he engaged in buying grain for two years. On the 1st of April, 1904, he went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he followed farming and carpentering during the summer and in August of that year returned to Kelley taking charge of the elevator for the B. A. Lockwood Grain Company. He remained in that connection for six years and eight months but on the 16th of March, 1911, he became interested in the hardware and implement business. He is also interested to some extent in real estate, owning dwellings, business property and vacant lots in the town.
On the 21st of February, 1889, Mr. Sutter was united in marriage to Miss Belle Cook, who was born in Story county, August 20, 1870, and is a daughter of H. A. and Jennie Cook, natives of Quincy, Pennsylvania, where they were married. In 1864 the father enlisted for service in the Civil war and after the close of hostilities came to Iowa in 1866 taking up his abode in Story county. The last two years of his life, however, were spent in Polo, Illinois, where he died January 23, 1909, in his seventieth year. He devoted many years