Reverend Harry Trumbull Sutton
Professor Harry Trumbull Sutton
This photo was found int he archives of the Congregational Church of Austin. There was no identification. After many years of searching, Mel Oakes did a Google image search and discovered this was Professor Sutton, who was also a minister that supplied at various churches across the country. He was a professor at Texas Christian College for four years and maybe lectured at the church in Austin.
Rev. Harry Trumbull Sutton
Harry Trumbull was born on 20 September 1867 at El Paso, Illinois. He was the grandson of Samuel Sutton of Virginia (later Illinois) and the second of four children of Critton Sutton. He was bereaved at age 6, when a tree fell on Samuel.
Harry was said by a relative to have gone to school “everywhere and all the time. He was one of those whose idea of a good time was sitting down and studying the dictionary. He loved words and loved a good conversation.” He studied at Nevada Christian University, at Northwestern Christian College, and at Drake University.
He began preaching in 1889, at a Church of Christ in Milford, Indiana. He was a supply pastor at many small churches and had some connection with the Disciples of Christ denomination; his family records are preserved by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.
Mainly, he taught speech at several small colleges, his 11-year tenure as head of the Department of Eloquence at Cotner College being his longest time at any one place.
Sutton wrote much poetry, efforts which his relatives considered to be “pretty bad.” Only some of it was ever published.
Mrs. Sutton, née Lola Miksch/Mix, was a pianist and singer who had studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. They met while performing on the Chautauqua Circuit. After their marriage, they settled down at Cotner in order to raise a family.
While at Cotner, Sutton gained a regional reputation as a speaker, name-recognition which led him to enter politics. Soundly defeated in his quest for Governor of Nebraska in 1906, he never tried again.
Harry Sutton died in 1962, aged 95 years, while living in the Florida “Penny Homes” community for retired clergy.
Miksch Sutton: Artist, Scientist, and Teacher. University of Oklahoma Press. (George
Sutton was the Pennsylvania State Ornithologist.). Located by Adam Seaman
Harry Trumbull Sutton was a minister and a teacher at Cotner College in Bethany when his son, George, was born — the chairman of the Department of Eloquence, a wonderful name that at any college today would be the “Department of Speech” or “Communications.” But “Eloquence” was befitting the times and the man. Harry was a master at recitation of the works of Shakespeare and frequently travelled to perform his recitations as well as to preach at various churches. He taught two years in Oregon: four years in Texas Christian University; and the remainder of his time teaching in Bethany College in Bethany, WV. In 1906, Harry ran for governor of Nebraska on the Prohibition ticket, though he lost by a considerable margin. He wrote many poens which were widely circulated in religious publications. His wife, Lola Anna Mix, was of Moravian ancestry. She had been born Lola Anna Miksch, but when her family moved to Minnesota during her teens, her father changed the family name to its phonetic spelling “Mix” in order to better fit in. Although she used the name “Mix” during her tenure at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, she never really approved of the change. To perpetuate the family name, she gave each of her children the middle name”Miksch.” Harry and Lola had travelled with the Chautauqua program in the 1890s, Harry lecturing and Lola leading songs and playing the piano. Lola was 30 when they settled down in Bethany and George was born. Throughout her life she taught music and occasionally English. Son, George, certainly came to share his father’s eloquence and his mother’s love of music. George became a celebrated ornithologist at Cornell. Their daughter, Dorothy Miksch Sutton was a child psychologist. Daughter Evangel Miksch Sutton Park was an art teacher.