WI BIO - Dane Co - SUTHERLAND, Chester
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 319-321

Chester SUTHERLAND, who during a long and useful life resided in Dane County, 
Wisconsin, as a pioneer, was born in Batavia, Genesee County, New York, 22 
January 1817. His father, Joshua, was, it is thought, born in Dutchess 
County, New York, and from the best information at hand, emigrated to Canada 
with his brother Isaac in 1801, and one year later removed to Genesee County, 
New York, where they were among the first settlers. He bought timbered land 
and cleared a farm and spent the last of his days in that county.

The maiden name of the wife of the above good man [Joshua SUTHERLAND] was 
Sarah WOLCOTT, who was born in Vermont. She survived her husband for some 
time and came West to spend her last years with her children in Dane County. 
She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. TRAVIS. The maternal grandfather 
of our subject was Erastus WOLCOTT, who was born 01 January 1767, and spent 
his last days in Michigan. The maiden name of his wife was Sally DUNHAM, 
born 10 March 1767, and died in Michigan.

Our subject was reared on the farm and attended the common schools. He 
learned the trade of carpenter, and in 1841 he emigrated to the Territory of 
Wisconsin. He then visited his farm of 160 acres which he had previously 
bought, but spent the winter in Milwaukee, then returned to Madison [Dane 
County] and worked at his trade until 1845. He then settled on his farm, 
where he engaged in farming, and here resided until his death on 09 June 
1889. When he first came here the country was very sparsely settled, and but 
a few miles from the capital city [Madison], land was for sale at $1.25 per 
acre. Deer were yet plentiful, and thus the settlers were well supplied with 
meat. There were no railroads and the farmers had to haul their grain to 
Milwaukee. [The first railroad ran from Milwaukee (Milwaukee County) to 
Waukesha (Waukesha County) in 1851. The railroad across the state to Prairie 
du Chien (Grant County) was completed in 1857.]

On 21 September 1845, he [Chester SUTHERLAND] married Miss Sarah A. ROOD, who 
was born in Jericho, Chittenden County, Vermont, 07 March 1825. Her father, 
Orlin ROOD, was born in the same town, and his father, Thomas D. ROOD, the 
eldest son of Asriah and Lydia (DRAKLEY) ROOD, was born in Lanesborough 
[Berkshire County], Massachusetts, 15 December 1787. He married Sarah, 
daughter of James BRADLEY, who died [p 320] 28 January 1838, aged 
seventy-four years. In October 1838, he removed to Chicago, lived there 
until 1842, when he came to [the Territory of] Wisconsin and settled with his 
son Orlin at Hazel Green [Grant County] and Monroe [Green County].

Asriah ROOD was born in Stafford [Tolland County], Connecticut, about 1744. 
In 1750 he was married to Ruth PRIME, who died in 1765. He was married 
again, to Lydia DRAKLEY, in 1766. In 1775 he emigrated into the woods of 
Vermont with a large family of small children, locating at Jericho 
[Chittenden County], on Onion River, and the following year was driven out by 
the Indians and returned to Woodbury [Litchfield County], Connecticut, where 
he remained for one year, thence removing to Lanesborough [Berkshire County], 
Massachusetts. He remained here until March 1783, when he started again for 
the Onion River country. He proceeded to Rutland [Rutland County], Vermont, 
by ox teams, where he built a raft, and drifted down Otter Creek [a creek in 
Addison County, Vermont], to Middlesburg [Middlebury in Addison County, 
Vermont?], where there was then no house. He got his family into a log house 
at West Haven [Rutland County, Vermont], where he left his wife and two 
daughters, and with his sons and the ox teams without wagon proceeded through 
the woods by marked trees to Jericho [Chittenden County, Vermont], where his 
wife and daughters soon joined him. They built a cabin, cleared land, and 
went to farming. In 1791 a Congregational Church was formed. Asriah ROOD 
was elected its only Deacon, which office he held until his death, 28 
February 1795, when his son, Thomas D., was elected to succeed him, with 
Reuben LEE as assistant. Lydia, wife of Asriah ROOD, died 01 May 1798. The 
father of Asriah ROOD was a resident of Stafford [Tolland County], 
Connecticut; was a soldier in the French and Indian war; and died at the 
latter place, at the age of eighty-seven.

The father of Mrs. SUTHERLAND was reared in Jericho [Chittenden County, 
Vermont], and there married and resided until 1836, when he emigrated West 
and stopped a while in Michigan, and then moved to Illinois, where he took a 
contract on the canal then in course of construction, extending from Chicago 
[Cook County, Illinois] to Peru [LaSalle County, Illinois]. They came by way 
of teams to Lake Champlain and the Champlain canal to Troy [New York], and 
then via Erie Canal to Buffalo [New York], and then by the lakes to Chicago. 
The family spent the winter in what is now the city of Chicago, and in the 
spring moved to Joliet [Will County, Illinois]. He continued at work on this 
canal for about four years, when the project failed and he lost very heavily. 
He then came to Madison [Dane County, Wisconsin]. While his family lived 
here he was in the pineries engaged in the lumber business. 

Finally the family of our subject joined him and they lived there a few 
years, and then removed to Ohio and settled at Cambridge, where his wife 
[Sarah A. (ROOD) SUTHERLAND] had inherited a large estate. From there he 
went to Williamsburg, Callaway County, Missouri, and died at the home of his 
youngest son there. The maiden name of his first wife, the mother of Mrs. 
SUTHERLAND, was Abigail GEER, who died in the town of Jericho [Chittenden 
County], Vermont. Three of her children were reared: Sarah, Anson, and 
Galen. The father reared one son, Robert D., by his second marriage.

Mrs. SUTHERLAND still occupies the home farm. She has six living children: 
Henry J., Quincy O., George G., Albert W., Frank M., and Anna E. Mr. 
SUTHERLAND was a successful farmer, at one time owning 325 acres of land all 
in one body. Politically he was a Republican and filled various offices of 
trust. He was one of the three County Commissioners when Columbia and Sauk 
Counties were combined [governmentally] with Dane. He also served as Town [p 
321] Superintendent of Schools, as Collector and as Justice of the Peace. He 
was an intelligent man and labored hard and spent freely of his means to 
educate his children. All of them attended the Wisconsin University and two 
of them graduated, and all hold his memory in reverence.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly