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PRIOR W. SUTHERLAND
was born in Indiana ten miles from Rockville on the twenty-second day of October, 1843. For sixteen years he llved in this same county, with the brief interlude of two years spent in the northern portion of the state of Illinois. In 1859 he came with his parents to southern Illinois where they settled on a farm in Lukin township. At this time the war cloud loomed dark on the horizon. When it burst Mr. Prior was but seventeen years of age. Having lived
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much in the open, and being sturdy of stature, he looked much older so that he was admitted to the service of his country. He enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Indiana regiment, company six, known as the regiment of A. P. Hovey, a high private of the rear rank. During three years the young soldier saw much active service. At the close of hostilities, he returned to Lukin township and learned the father's trade, that of the plasterer. On July the sixteenth, 1865, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Vandamant, a resident of Lawrence county. Nine children were born to them, of whom two boys and three girls are all that remain. The daughters are Amazetta, Ella and Delia. The sons, H. C. Sutherland and Sherman Sutherland have been of much assistance to their father in his agricultural interests. On the third day of April, 1883, the wife and mother was called from her earthly duties. Mrs. Sutherland was a woman devout in her religious beliefs, a member of the Christian church as is her husband. Mr. Sutherland is quite well known locally as a lecturer on religious subjects, sometimes himself filling the pulpit. He frequently holds protracted meeting in various parts of the country.
He is a man of strong convictions with decided views in politics as well as in religion. He is a stalwart Republican of the old school, a supporter of the administration, a �stand patter who stands pat.�
On the thirtieth of January, 1887, Mr. Sutherland again assumed the responsibilities of matrimony. The second Mrs. Sutherland was Emma J Rigall of Lawrence county. She is now the mother of four children: Rosamond, Bessie, Leona and Trissie. Mr. Sutherland has been able to amply provide for his large family having besides a large and growing business, a farm of proportions worthy to be called a ranch, and this in the southwestern part of Lawrence county.
His father, Asa Sutherland was born near Frankfort, Kentucky, in February of 1812. When twelve years of age, with his brother's family he located in Park county, Indiana. Here he grew to manhood and learned the plasterers trade. On New Years day of 1835, he won in marriage Mary E. Harlan, whose father came to Indiana from South Carolina, The Harlan family had lived in the south for several generations, having come to America from Ireland before the Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Asa Sutherland were the parents of nine children of whom Prior W., the subject of this sketch is the fourth in line. In 1859 they left Indiana for southern Illinois where they spent the remainder of their lives, At the beginning of the late war, Mr. Sutherland answered the third call for vohinteers, but was refused on account of his years, being then something more than fifty years of age. Quite contentedly, he plied his trade and tilled a bit of land until his death in February of 1881. Mrs. Sutherland lived until her seventy-fifth year, passing away in 1889. Both were followers of the Christian church in which faith they reared their family.
The Sutherland family are direct descendants of the Scottish Duke of Sutherland. Three sons of the Duke, so goes the tradition, came to the Colonies in an eariy day and from them sprang the Sutherlands of the new world, stronger and sturdier, in many respects than was the old stock. P. W. Sutherland is therefore of Scotch-Irish parentage; a further fact of a rather unusual nature is that all the Sutherlands in America trace back to that landing of the brothers at Charleston, S. C., before the Revolutionary war, and the same history applies to the Harlan family landing pre-Revolutionary, and all of the name belong to the one family of Harlans.