I suspect that Bailey Sutton is my 3rd great-granduncle which makes him a brother to my 3rd great-grandfather Thomas Sutton of Claiborne County, Tennessee, and Zacheus Sutton who settled in Scott County, Indiana. A few descendants of Bailey shared a story on Ancestry.com about one of his sons. It was published in many newspapers. Before I share the sad details, please consider updating your family tree if it has John Sutton and Nancy Coleman as the parents of these men. Ponder this, the 1813 tax list for Lee County, Virginia shows Bailey and Smith Sutton as the only two Sutton’s there. They are also defendants in a lawsuit in 1815. Smith is also much older than Bailey. So where are the sources for John Sutton and Nancy Coleman? Hmmm…onto the story.
Bailey’s son, George Washington Sutton, age 16, appears on the 1850 Claiborne County, Tennessee census in subdivision 7 (p. 53 on Ancestry and Uncle Thomas is on p. 100) along with his parents and siblings. The following year he became a married man as he wedded Martha England in Claiborne County. The marriage was performed by James Cheek, J.P. By 1860, he is employed as a laborer, head of his own household, and the father of six in subdivision 9, Claiborne County. His personal estate is $125. At the age of 27, he enlisted in the infantry for the Union during the War between the States. George survived the war and mustered out on February 23, 1865. Sadly, the 1870 census will be his last enumeration. He and Martha have eight children in their household ranging from 5 to 18 (three girls and five boys). He is working in a shoe shop with a personal estate of $200. He applied for a military pension on May 7, 1878.
The newspaper presses were turning and the hacks writing their stories on January 17, 1879, when the body of George W. Sutton, a native of Tazewell, Tennessee was found. The story published in The Memphis Evening Herald wrote that his body was found about four miles from Hall’s Gap with a rifle ball through the skull. Another story mentions that the body was found near the house of Mr. John Warren with a load of 10 d. nails in his head (I believe this was meant to be John Weaver who owned the tavern where George had spent the night). The suspects names are Ike Stapleton and a man named Ferrill and goes onto say Sutton was a shoemaker by trade from Tazewell, Tenn. but goes out peddling liniment. They say he is an unoffending and sober man.
Halls Gap Station 1879
Source: shop.old-maps.com
The papershake.blogspot.com has posted a few more articles about the murder.
January 24, 1879:
Sutton, Ferrell, and Stapleton spent the night at John Weaver’s (5 or 6 miles from Crab Orchard), “a frail damsel being the object of their visit.” Hmmm… Sutton left the next morning and Ferrell followed with the intention to kill and rob him. The deed was done, and Sutton’s pockets were emptied, and his body dragged from the road to the woods. Fortunately, the shot was heard. Ferrell apparently returned to Weaver’s with blood on his coat and said it was from a rabbit he had killed. Stapleton and Ferrell were arrested and questioned. Stapleton admitted that he knew Ferrell was going to murder George. Ferrell was held without bail.
Now picture this, the reporter writes of threats of lynching the prisoner as it was the most brutal murder that happened in Lincoln County, Kentucky. The writer goes onto say that Ferrell acts like a wild man, pacing his cell ever and amen, apparently fearful that a moment’s rest would be too much for his over-burdened conscience as to leave but little doubt that he is not wrongfully accused. Ferrell is described as a young man of passably fair exterior and not looking the person capable of such a deed.
An acquittal was published on February 7, 1879, for Jacob Weaver, Sarah Jane Weaver, Ike Stapleton, and Elizabeth Stapleton who were arrested as accessories to the murder of George. Apparently, Ferrell told them he planned to kill Sutton and then informed them that he had done so, and they were afraid to report it. Nice.
On Friday, May 2, 1879, John Ferrell was convicted of the murder of George Washington Sutton and given a life sentence. It is thought he was given leniency for confessing to the murder. However, another story was published on August 8, 1879, informing us that William Barnett, Moses, Barnett, and John Ferrell, life prisoners, and James Martin and Jos. Lambert, sentenced for five years, had escaped from the Penitentiary. Moses, Martin, and Lambert were captured but the others were at large. Still yet another story on August 15, 1879, describes John Ferrell’s conviction and blames the jury for the escape as it says, “Ferrell would have long since dangled from the end of a rope, instead of being loose, seeking whom he may destroy.”
September 5, 1879, a reward is offered by the Governor of $250 and another of $100 by the Keeper of the Penitentiary. One-week later Ferrell is captured in Hawkins County, Tennessee and now in his “old quarters at Frankfort.”
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| Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort 1846-1860 Source: Wikipedia |
“July 2, 1897, Pardoned. – John Ferrill, who killed a shoemaker named Sutton in the East End [of Lincoln County] in 1879 and got a life sentence, has been pardoned. The reasons given for his pardon are his long imprisonment, his bad health and his heroic behavior on the occasion of Fires and other disasters in the prison.”
According to the author of the papershake blog, Governor Bradley’s list of pardons indicated that Ferrell was pardoned on June 29, 1897, from the Eddyville Penitentiary.
It is such a shame that George survived the Civil Way only to be shot down by a thief. For those who descend from this line, I would encourage you to order the court documents regarding his murder as they are probably available. Also, if you are a male Sutton of Bailey Sutton's line, please consider submitting a Y-DNA kit to Family Tree DNA. Thank you!
In remembrance of a life taken much too soon.
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