Grave Matters: Walter Sutton

Sutton family marker by mausoleum in section 19, Oak Hill Cemetery

Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence, Kansas has been called "Kansas' Arlington".  Buried here are legends of Kansas territorial and early state history.  Victims of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, US senators, US representatives, generals, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, US Cabinet secretary, frontier doctors, publishers and sports legends are interred here.  Many of these are on the "must visit" list of historic burials.  While they are indeed interesting people and warrant discussion at another time, the most historically relevant figure buried here rests in a grave sharing a nice, but modest marker with his parents and siblings.  This person is Dr. Walter S. Sutton, the person who first realized that chromosomes were the carriers of genetic information.

Mendel's peas, Sutton's grasshoppers

According to science standards, every schoolkid in the US should have a grasp of Mendelian genetics.  Using garden peas as his model, Mendel devised a model of genetics that described inheritance by a model in which: inheritance is controlled by discrete factors (we call them genes); indviduals have two copies of each factor; alternate forms of the factor exist to give different trait appearances; these factor pairs are segregated during sex cell formation; factors are recombined randomly at fertilization and the assortment of factors for one trait does not affect the assortment of alleles for other traits.  Sutton examined the behavior of chromosomes during meiosis (sex cell formation) in male grasshoppers (Brachystola magna).  Among his discoveries were that: chromosomes existed in pairs (except for sex chromosomes); the chromosome number is halved during meiotic division; and maternal and paternal chromosomes could be separated from each other randomly.  That sounded a lot like Mendel's factors to Sutton.  This is found in a 1902 paper "On the morphology of the chromosomal group of Brachystola magna" followed up more explicitly in his 1903 paper "The chromosomes in heredity".

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio (or Walter Sutton)? 

Dr. Walter Stanborough Sutton

After the publication of his 1903 paper, Walter S. Sutton's publication record in genetics goes cold.  No follow up, no experimental elaboration of his theory, no concrete explanation for how chromosomes are involved in inheritance.  This is very odd for a scientist with an idea this big.  Sturtevant, Morgan, Watson, Crick, McClintock, Blackburn...all have follow up papers.  Not Sutton.  Why?  Did his situation change?  Mendel had no follow-up paper, but he became the abbot of his monastery.  Kicked out of research by a move to administration.  What about Sutton?

When trying to pick up a trail in research, it is often instructive to go all of the way back to the beginning and follow a paper trail back to where it went cold.  Finding a good clue can allow you to project the trajectory of a life past that point.  Walter Stanborough Sutton was born in Utica, New York on 05 April 1877.  The family relocated to Russell, Kansas when Sutton was young and took up ranching.  Life on the ranch suited Walter, and he learned how to fix and make machinery for working the ranch.

Walter Sutton sits next to his brother William B., who is holding the ball

Mechanical aptitude led Sutton to the University of Kansas in 1896, seeking a degree in engineering. His first summer break would be life-changing. An outbreak of typhoid fever in the family led to the death of his 17-year old brother, John. When Walter returned to classes, he began studies in biology with an eye toward a career in medicine. Working with C.E. McClung, Sutton earned his B.A. (Biology) in 1900 and M.A. (Zoology) in 1901. His master's thesis examined spermatogenesis in Brachystola magna.   Even with this fine record of achievement, Walter found time for recreation and played on the first KU basketball team for Dr. James Naismith.

St. Margaret's Hospital in Kansas City, KS

After graduation from KU, Sutton moved to Columbia University in New York on a postgraduate fellowship working with Edmund Beecher Wilson.  He wrote his two seminal works on the chromosome theory during this time.  In 1903, Sutton abruptly left Columbia, returning to work in the oil fields, suggesting financial motivations for the move.  During his work in the Kansas oil fields, he developed several apparatuses including a method of starting pump engines with high pressure gas and hoists for deep wells.  He would never complete his PhD in Zoology, although it seems he always intended to return to it.

Second Bell Memorial Hospital

In 1905, Sutton returned to Columbia, but this time in medical school.  Given credit for his graduate coursework, he graduated with an M.D. in 1907.  He stayed in New York in a surgical residence program at Roosevelt Hospital and then moved back to Kansas City, KS where he opened a surgical practice and joined the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Medicine as an assistant professor.  In 1911, he became an associate professor and entered the United States Army Medical Reserve Corps as a first lieutenant.  He worked at St. Margaret's Hospital and the second Bell Memorial Hospital doing surgeries.  Documenting his work, Sutton published papers on subjects such as irrigating the abdominal cavity during surgery for a ruptured appendix, delivering ether as anesthesia rectally and inventing a speedometer to monitor the speed of ether delivery.

Lt. Walter Sutton in France

With the outbreak of World War I, Sutton took a leave of absence from the university and joined the Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney Unit of the American Ambulance Hospital in Juilly, France on 08 February 1915.  Still a  young man, he was the head of the surgical staff, overseeing upgrades to the electricity, plumbing, heating and kitchen facilities.  He became proficient in repairing battle wounds of types that had never been seen before.  He noted that many of his patients had not been wounded with bullets or shells, but the force of explosions had turned human body parts into shrapnel.  His engineering background came in handy and Sutton developed new surgical instruments for procedures and developed a fluoroscopic method to find the location of shrapnel prior to doing surgery.

The hospital was located about 23 miles north of Paris and about 40 miles from the battle front.  A stream of Ford ambulances brought wounded every other day to this hospital.  By March 1915, the hospital contained 115 wounded with a capacity of 150.  Sutton himself was in charge of 44 patients. His stay was short.  Walter left France on 26 June and returned to the US on 01 July 1915.  He took up his duties at KU again about two weeks later.  Short though his stay was, he learned a great deal about the treatment of war injuries and contributed a chapter on the subject to Binnie's Manual of Operative Surgery.

“You would hardly believe it, but we had wounded men who were never struck by bullets or projectiles from the enemy’s guns. We had men wounded by being pierced with the shattered bones of their comrades. Men were blown to pieces and parts of their bodies acted as projectiles, killing and wounding others.” - Walter Stanborough Sutton

Walter S. Sutton

Sutton family marker

In September 1916, Sutton signed a contract with C.V. Mosby Publishers to write a book on surgical methods.  Unfortunately, the book would never be written.  Late in 1916, Sutton began suffering from bouts of appendicitis.  On 06 November, he came home early and went to bed.  On 07 November, he operated on three patients, but grew ill.  He was operated on for a ruptured appendix at about 3:30 PM that day.  Peritonitis set in and Walter Sutton died on 10 November 1916 at Christian Church Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mystery (to me) no longer

Christian Church Hospital at 26th and West Paseo in KC, MO

So the question of Walter S. Sutton and his sudden disappearance from the literature in genetics has been resolved for me.   He left genetics to study surgery, became an excellent surgeon and innovator.  His work made the treatment of wounds caused by modern weapons more effective.  Although Sutton intended to return to work on genetics, his premature death due to peritonitis after his appendix ruptured brought all of his work to an end.  It was a surprise to find out that he had such a tight link to the Kansas City area and was buried in Lawrence, Kansas.  Contrary to his death certificate which notes that he was buried in Highland Park Cemetery in Kansas City, KS here he lies in "Kansas' Arlington", a fitting resident.

Getting There

From I-70 (Kansas Turnpike) take Exit 204 (US-59, US-40) and head south.  You will find yourself on the main drag, Massachussets Street.  Turn left at 13th Street and then turn right onto Oak Hill Avenue into the cemetery.  The Sutton family plot is just east of the mausoleum in Section 19.

Waypoint: Latitude 38.960673 N; Longitude 95.211682 W
Address: 1603 Oak Hill Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66044

Walter S. Sutton's death certificate

Further Reading

Walter S. Sutton Memorial Book

Walter Sutton and Chromosomal Theory: 100 years