Family of
John Sutherland
 

John Sutherland
 

John Sutherland, whose business experience at the outset of his career was in lumbering and who with the excepting of a few years had been identified with that industry and business ever since, had been an extremely useful citizen of Bay City, and lent his influence and effort to the promotion of every worthy cause and a number of projects for the material development of the community.
 

Mr. Sutherland was born in Lavaca, Texas, June 22, 1864. His father, George Q. Sutherland, a native of Virginia, came to Texas when a small boy and lived for a number of years at Sutherland Springs in Wilson County. When the war broke out he joined the Confederate forces under General Hood, but most of the time was on detail duty. After the war he returned to Lavaca County, took up stock farming, but died in 1868. His wife was Lydia Middlebrook, a native of Mississippi, who was brought to Texas in 1837. George Q. Sutherland and wife had four children; Anna, who died at the age of fifty-five, was the wife of L. B. Malden and had four children; John; George W., born in 1867, a stock rancher at Alice, Texas, married Sallie McDonald, a native of Bay City, and had three children; and Sarah, born in 1869, was the wife of L. T. Hilburn, a native of Fort Worth, contractor and builder and they had four children.

John Sutherland acquired his early education in the public schools of Lavaca county and also did a great deal of home study, and always followed the practice of reading and keeping in touch with public affairs. After school he worked three years in a lumber business. Later he acquired a third interest in a saw mill at Hooks Switch in Hardin County, but after a year sold out and established a lumber yard at Yoakum, where he was in business two years. Rockport also claimed him as a business man for two years, and for ten years he was a general merchant at Burne [Boerne?], Texas. For two years he was on the road as a traveling salesman for the William Cameron Lumber Company and in 1898 was in the lumber business at Bay City, this time in connection with the Alamo Lumber Company. Besides his financial interest in this business, he owned a large farm and had a home in Bay City.

He married , December 24, 1886, Miss Stella Anderson of Louisiana, daughter of S. H. Anderson. They had five children: Ethel M., born in 1888; Ibbie, born in 1890; George Q., born in 1892; Florence, born in 1894, and Johnnie born in 1896.

Ethel was the wife of C. G. Tippins, of Dallas, and they had a daughter, Ethel May. Ibbie was the wife of C. J. Roundsville, a depot agent at Hamilton, Texas, and had two children, Quinn and Stella Jane. George Q. was a farmer and stock man at Wadsworth, Texas, married Adeline Porter and had one son, John D. Florence was the wife of S.C. Creech, an automobile man at Waco, Texas, and their son, John S., died at the age of thirteen, and their other son, Sid, born in 1921. Miss Johnnie married Floyd Ehlenberg, a traveling salesman.

Mr. Sutherland was a Democrat in politics, member of the Baptist Church, and was a Royal Arch Mason. He was for fourteen years mayor of the city. While he was head of the city government the most important results in material improvement were accomplished, plans having been instituted and many projects carried out that placed the city among the progressive localities of the Gulf Coast.

Mr. Sutherland also served a number of years as President of the Chamber of Commerce, and during the World War as chairman of the Liberty Loan drives put the drive over the top in Matagorda County. He also organized a $100,000 hotel company for Bay City, serving as director of the Bay-Tex Hotel Company, and was instrumental in securing the establishment of a public library.

Texas Under Many Flags, Clarence W. Wharton, American Historical Society, 1930

Matagorda County Genealogical Society Publication, Oak Leaves, Vol. 8 #4, August 1989
 

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