After they reached New York, they then traveled on to Canada, to Chicago, to Galesburg, Illinois, and then on to Kansas. The Sutor Brothers were: William, who was born in Ireland; John, also born in Ireland; Martin, born in Canada; and Henry, born in Illinois. The earliest records known today show the Sutor's located in the Rooks County area in the late 1870s. There are accounts of them visiting t
he land offices in WaKeeney and Kirwin. The "Sutor Ranch" was initially acquired by a timber claim and purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad. The land was given to them by the government for the purpose of building a railroad. It is believed that the headquarters was located on John Sutor's claim. The group of trees located one mile south is where Henry made his claim, and to the southwest of that is where Martin's timber claim was located. The original cottonwoods are now dead or are mere skeletons of their original size, structure and beauty, as is well indicated by the remains of a few stumps and debris. As time progressed, the Sutor Brothers, Martin and Henry, better known as Mart and Hank to their close friends, were the builders of the present day Ranch. Both were bachelors and were highly esteemed by all who knew and did business with them. William Sutor lived near by and raised a large family of whom nine children lived to adulthood. Earl Sutor, my Great Grandfather, was the youngest of thirteen children. As Mart and Henry grew older, it became Earl's lot to help them considerably with the shipping of hogs and cattle and to help out with various ranch operations. All this took place during the late 1920s and early 30s. Finally, about 1937, when their estate was settled, Earl Sutor purchased the headquarters unit which he operated until his death in 1977. Earl's son, Darrell Sutor, (my Grandfather) operated the ranch from 1977 til sometime in the early 1980s when Chris Pelton leased it from my Grandparents for nearly 20 years. My husband, David came to Kansas to work for Chris thru an internship with Texas A&M where he was going to college at the time. Then in 1998 our family entered into an agreement to custom run cows and David then managed the cow herd. In the summer of 1999 David and I married and in 2008 we entered into a lease along with my mother, Darla Moore (Darrell and Joy Sutor's middle daughter) to operate the ranch. My Grandfather still continued to farm the farm ground until he went to the nursing home on his 90th birthday. My Grandfather had a hired man, Mike Murphy who worked for him for nearly 50 years, he did most of the farm work. Mike retired a few years after Darrell went to the nursing home. Joy passed away in May 2014 a day shy of their 71st wedding Anniversary. Darrell passed away in July 2016 just shy of his 96th birthday. In 2018 our family settled their estate. David & I took over the management of the farm ground & the grass the cows run on. We also purchased their home in the settlement.
-Dana Moore Pieper
