Person:Charles Suter (2)

Archives: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, by William Richard Cutter, William Frederick Adams (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1910). Google Books

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Page 12 "Children of Seth Dunbar and Adeline Dutton (Train) Whitney: 1. Mary Adeline, born September 27, 1844, died at St. Paul, Minnesota, December 16, 1867; married, February 17, 1867, Colonel Charles Russell Suter, United States Engineers, and had Charles Russell Jr., died December, 1867"

Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.: From Its Establishment, in 1802, to 1890 By George Washington Cullum Edition: 3 Published 1920 Item notes: v. 3 Original from the University of California Digitized Sep 4, 2008

Page 99 .. (Born N. Y.) . .CHARLES R. SUTERf. . (Ap'd at Large). .4 (Charles Russell Suter, Born May 5, 1842.) Military History— Colonel, Corps Of Engineers, Oct. 12, 1895. Colonel, U. S. A., Retired, Mat 5, 1906, By Operation Of Law. Brigadier-general, U. S. A., On Retired List, May 5, 1906, Act Of April 23, 1904. After retirement, resided at Brookline, Mass. Died, Aug. 7, 1920, At Brookline, Mass. : Aged 78

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE Brigadier General Charles Russell Suter (1842 - 1920) graduated from the United State Military Academy at West Point in 1862, served throughout the Civil War, and was a prominent figure in the post-war mapping and "improvement" of the Mississippi River. In the 1870s he created the work, «i»Map of a reconnaissance of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Ill's. to New Orleans, La. To accompany the report on that portion of the third subdivision of the Mississippi route to the seaboard made in accordance with an Act of Congress approved June 23rd, 1874«/i», published in 1878. The «i»Map «/i»was published as an atlas consisting of 31 sections (scale 1 inch: 1 mile) showing sand, wrecks, five kinds of riparian woods, towns, cities, and plantations. The Corp of Engineers honored Suter for his work by naming a river snagboat after him, ca. 1885. Unfortunately, then-current Army rules disallowed naming of a vessel after a living person. As Charles R. Suter - ranked a Major at the time - was alive and serving on the Corps' Missouri River commission, the snagboat was renamed «i»Missouri «/i»and spent most of her operational life on the lower Missouri River with occasional activity further up-river. James Reese & Sons, Pittsburg, PA., began construction of the «i»C.R. Suter «/i»in 1885. Three years later, the «i»C.R. Suter «/i»began operating on the Missouri River pulling snags, clearing drift heaps and stumps, and felling trees. She had an overall length of 187 feet, an overall beam of 52 feet, a depth of 7 feet, and displaced 510 tons. Her boilers generated steam at 100 pounds per square inch to power steam engines turning her side-wheels sufficiently to run 5 miles per hour upstream and 12 miles per hours downstream. Construction contract cost was $115,000.00. There is no record of her finish cost with outfitting. After operating on the Missouri River for 40 years, the «i»Missouri «/i»burned at Gasconade, MO., 1928 July 29. The wreck was dragged behind a dike that broke off the next year exposing the wreck. The dredge «i»Kappa «/i»disposed of the remains in 1929. Sources: US Army Corps of Engineers, Office of the Chief of Engineers. «i»Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1914«/i». Appendix KKK: Statement of floating plant owned by the United States and employed in the Engineer Department at large for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914. Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, 1914. Way, Frederick. «i»Way's Packet dir «/i»

1. ↑ George Washington Cullum. Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (N.p.: University of California, 1920.).
2.   William Cutter. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. (N.p.: Lewis Historical Publishing Co.,, 1910.)
   page 12.