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TITUS SUDDUTH - But few men have done more to develop the agricultural interests of this State than this gentleman, who stands among the foremost of its energetic, enterprising and business-like farmers and stock-raisers. He is the largest landowner in Sangamon County, and one of the largest in Central Illinois, and is one of the wealthiest men of this section.

Mr. Sudduth was born near Mt. Sterling, Ky., February 23, 1829. He is the representative of a pioneer family of this county, his father, Thomas Sudduth, having come here as early as the spring of 1834. He was one of the early settlers of Fancy Creek Township, where he lived for many years. He was a native of the same State as his son, Winchester, Clark County, having been the place of his birth and December 25, 1797, the date thereof. He died in Springfield July 4, 1884. He had resided there for some years and was greatly respected for his virtuous and upright character by the people among whom he lived. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace, and he was connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church as one of its most zealous members.

The mother of our subject was a native of Kentucky and bore the maiden name of Margaret McCreery. She died March 10, 1880, at the venerable age of seventy-seven years. She was a devoted Christian woman of the Methodist faith, and was a church member nearly all her life. Four of the five children born of her marriage are now living.

Titus Sudduth received but little education, as he could attend school only occasionally in his boyhood days, but he had a bright, keen mind, and what he lacked in book learning he has since made up by observation and experience. He was reared on the old homestead until he was a little past sixteen years, remaining an inmate of the parental home until that time, and since then he has had his own way to make in the world. He began by working on a farm for $9 a month, and he had not worked long until his employer desired to engaged his services by the year, as he was so energetic and earnest in the performance of his duties and was ever faithful to the interests of his employer. He was always up and at his labors at a very early hour, never having to be called in the morning, and he went about his work as though he meant to accomplish something. He carefully saved his earnings and in a year or two purchase4d a team of young oxen and began breaking prairie and improving a small tract of thirty-eight acres of land which he had inherited. As soon as he was able he bought more land, which he cultivated and improved. He was also interested in raising hogs and cattle and fed nearly all his grain.

There has been scarcely a year when Mr. Sudduth has not purchased a tract of land since 1850. He has worked hard during his early life, was wise in economizing, spent his money wisely and always studied how to turn everything to the best advantage. He has been rewarded far beyond his expectations and has now nearly sixty titles of land. He owns ten thousand acres in all, all of which is well improved, is under a high state of cultivation and yields a good income. His home tract comprises thirty-three hundred acres, and he owns five thousand five hundred acres in Sangamon County, every acre of which is fine pasture land or is susceptible of cultivation. He has never sold but two or three pieces of land in his life, but has always been a buyer.

In 1877 when the country was suffering from the effects of financial depression, Mr. Sudduth decided to buy a large number of mule colts to stock up his farm, which enterprise was entirely original with himself and seemed novel indeed to his friends. He set three men at work buying mule colts in Central and Southern Illinois, and sent a fourth man to Kentucky, and in a short time he had purchased eight hundred colts which cost from $17 to $35 each averaging about $28 a head. Our subject kept these mules until they fully matured, when he found a ready market for them, there being at times as many as sixteen buyers on his farm at once, wanting matched teams. He sold some mules as high as $450 a pair, and for one pair refused $600. Those eight hundred mules proved a valuable investment to our shrewd far-sighted subject and netted him $40,000, with which he purchased a one-thousand acre farm, the income of which in eight years amounted to the original cost.

Mr. Sudduth is also extensively interested in raising other stock, keeping on an average about eight hundred cattle and several hundred hogs, and has shipped stock to Chicago, Buffalo and New York City for the past thirty-five years. He devotes all his time to his stock and the cultivation of his land, and transacts his business after the most systematic plans. His books are balanced every year in the month of March, and he knows how much every acre of land yields him and the worth of every head of stock on his farm. He started in life when a boy at the bottom of the ladder with a determination to succeed, and attributes his success to his close application to business, to his honesty and justice in all his dealings, and to his moral and upright habits and the avoidance of litigation. He is a stockholder and Director in the Farmers' National Bank at Springfield, and is one of the solid men of the county.

Our subject was happily married May 4, 1854, to Sarah A. Cooper, who has been to him a devoted companion and a true helpmate, and to whom he justly attributes a part of the prosperity that has come to him. Mrs. Sudduth is a native of this county and a daughter of the Rev. John Cooper, who was born June 3, 1794, in South Carolina. In early manhood he removed to Tennessee, where he met and married Susannah Giger, a native of that State who was born September 26, 1795. They were among the early settlers of this county, arriving here April 2, 1820, and locating near where Rochester now stands. The Rev. John Cooper was a local preacher of the Methodist persuasion, and was a well-known and prominent man in his day. He died in 1860, and Mrs. Susannah Cooper died September 21, 1859.

The congenial union of Mr. and Mrs. Sudduth has resulted in the birth of the following children: Ella (deceased), Laura, Annie, Mary C., Thomas and John W. Our subject has never been a politician. He was reared as an old line Democrat, but of late years he has divided his political support about equally between the Democratic and Prohibition parties. He has always been an earnest temperance man in word and deed, never having tasted a drop of liquor.