What is there to talk about?"
Howard Claggett Sutton (1887-1969), Maryland Registered Surveyor No. 758, was, like Howard Tustin, Sr., probably conscripted into working with his father at the firm prior to his leaving school in 1904. Like Howard Tustin, Sutton came to work at the firm, but reportedly chafed under his fathers supervision, and, in 1916, left Baltimore to start a surveying firm in Ohio. Around 1922 he returned to this area and established his own firm (Sutton & Co.), later joining with Karl Britcher and forming the firm Sutton, Britcher and Associates. During that time, a cordial relationship existed between Sutton, Britcher and Martenet & Co.; his father, head of Martenet at the time, referred numerous clients to him—much to the consternation of the
other Martenet partners during the Depression.In 1944, after both Wimmer and Thompson died within 11 weeks of one another, Howard Tustin, probably desperate, suggested that Sutton merge his firm into Martenet and that the two continue as equal partners. (It is unclear at this time why Britcher did not also join the firm.) This was done and Sutton brought his records with him. Series 9 (legacy reference "HCS") are the files of Sutton & Co. and Sutton, Britcher and Associates, and are available online.
Sutton is remembered as a strict taskmaster who would begin every consultation with other surveying firms with the premise that "we are correct in our opinion. With that settled, what did you want to discuss?" A founding member of the Maryland Society of Surveyors, Sutton managed the firm from Tustin, Sr.'s death in 1960 until his own death in 1969.
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