SUTHERLIN, Walter - Putnam

This community was shocked on Friday to learn that Walter Sutherlin had died at midnight. While he has been having some trouble with his throat it was not generally understood that his condition was seious. The funeral at Brown Valley Christian Church on Sunday afternoon was one of the most numerously attended ones ever held in this section, testifying to the general esteem in which he was held. Rev. Mr. Brumfield, his former pastor, conducted the services. The following obituary was read: "Today, we are called upon, by the most solemn admonition, to regard the uncertainty of human life, the immutable certainty of death and the vanity of all earthly pursuits. The last offices we pay the dead are useless things except as they constitute lessons to the living. our friend, Walter Sutherlin is alike insensible to our sorrows and our ceremonies. It matters not now to him whether two or three gather to perform this funeral ritual, or that hundreds should assemble to deposit him in his last resting place. It is of little moment how, or in what manner his obsequies are performed, whether the cold winds chant his requiem, or if it be accompanied by rare and costly music and the minstrelsy of many voices. He has gone to accomplish the fearful destiny of all our race, and his body, wrapped in the profound slumber of the grave, to be resolved into its original elements. Walter A. Sutherlin was born in 1872, having but recently passed his fifty first birth anniversary. Though he has seen more than half a century of time we regard him as in the prime of life; and to us who are left it seems that he has laid down the tools of life in the midst of his labor and has departed on his lontg journey. He was born on a farm south of Russellville and has spent his entire life in that community or near it. His parents were John W. and Amanda Sutherlin; the father departed this life in 1905 while his aged mother remains to mourn his departure. She still resides on the farm where her 11 children were born. For several years he spent his time attending school and teaching school. He attended school in Russell Center Russellville, Ladoga, Upper Alton, Ill and DePauw Univ. For five years, in his early manhood he taught in his old home school at Russell Center, and it is said that he met many and difficult and perplexing situations successfully without resort to corporal punishment. After teaching at Russell Center he took a position at Russellville where he was quite as successful as before. in 1899 he was married to Miss Pearl Inge for 24 years this worthy couple have lived an ideal life of industry and labor for the welfare of the community. Though both were fond of children this couple were denied the blessing of children except for the 3 little infants who have waited all these years to welcome their father to this home in Heaven. But "Uncle Walter" as he is affectionately known to more than 30 nieces and nephews, has more than made up for the care he would have given his own children by the kindness and thoughtful attention he has paid to them. And in this connection it seems entirely appropriate to read a message which came to Mr. Sutherlin from a distant state. It read, "Our hearts are very sad over the sudden news of Uncle Walter's death. We are glad to have pleasant memories of happy hours spent with you and him. We admired and loved him and feel that we have lost a true friend. Our most sincere sympathy is with you in your great bereavement. Very sorry that we cannot be with you." Besides the wife, mother and nieces and nephews, Walter Sutherlin leaves to mourn 4 brothers and one sister and a host of more distant relatives, neighbors and friends. His business activities were numerous and varied; at the time of his death he was Pres. of the Browns Valley Bank. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, of the Order of the Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias and other fraternal orders. In 1907 he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church and was soon made a trustee of the new congregation at Browns Valley. The building in which this service is being held today is in a very definite way, a monument to his memory as he was very closely identified with it from its inception. For 8 years, or to the constitutional limit of the term, Walter Sutherlin served as trustee of Browns Valley. His 10 years of service as a teacher together with his keen judgment and his real interest in the welfare of his community combined to make him an unusually successful and competent official; his work was of such high order that he won the commendation of the state school officials for the administration of his office. His death occurred shortly after midnight or at the very beginning of the new day on Aug. 31, 1923. Thus endeth the short and simple annals of a prince among men, one of God's noblemen."