Isabella C Sutherland (1852 - 1914)

Born 1852 in Cambria, Niagara, New York

Ancestors

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Isabella Sutherland is Notable.

Biography

Isabella Sutherland was the third oldest of the seven Sutherland sisters. When they were little their mother would slather their hair with a horrible smelling ointment which she believed would make the girls hair thick and long. It was so bad the girls’ classmates shunned them due to the odor. The embarrassed girls (with the long, thick braids) hid in the tall grass near their log cabin when visitors approached.

Their mother Mary died in 1867, when her youngest daughter, Mary, was just a toddler. The sisters didn't have the foul-smelling oil applied to their hair any longer. Their father Fletcher, was determined to provide a better future for himself and his children.

Their father devoted himself to his children's musical education and managed The Seven Sutherland Sisters' burgeoning career. The Sutherland children, including the girls’ only brother, Charles, played musical instruments and toured churches, fairs, and community theaters around Niagara County as the “Sutherland Concert of Seven Sisters, and one Brother.”

In 1882, the sisters signed a deal to tour with W.W. Coles Colossal Shows, and by 1884, the sisters had joined Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth as a sideshow attraction. P.T. Barnum himself dubbed them, “the seven most pleasing wonders of the world.”

Around 1883, their father came up with the idea to invent a Hair Tonic when he realized that audiences were more interested in his daughters' spectacular hair than their musical abilities. Fletcher died in 1888.

Isabella had a rich tenor voice and dark eyes like her younger brother, the baritone Charles Sutherland. Apart from her six feet of flowing, frizzy black hair she did not resemble her sisters. Some believe she is actually a first cousin. She had thin facial features and a lean body with disappearing lips and a worried brow. Isabella was also a poet and dreamer who tragically lost heart and her faith. She had a tendency to cling to untamable men.

Non the less when Frederick Castlemaine, a French nobleman came around to court younger sister Dora, he ended up marrying Isabella, who was more than 10 years his senior. According to an article in Yankee magazine, the dashing rogue was eccentric with an addiction to opium and morphine, and the unnerving habit of shooting the spokes out of wagon wheels from his seat on the Sutherlands’ front porch. Local farmers were not pleased, despite his impressive marksmanship. He would shell out handsome payments to salve their indignation. In 1897, he committed suicide while accompanying the sisters on one of their tours.

Isabella married twice in her life and ultimately betrayed her sisters at the height of Sutherland prosperity.

Sources

"New York, State Census, 1855," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K67T-6XD : accessed 16 Aug 2014), Isabella Sutterland in household of Fletcher Sutterland, Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States; citing Secretary of State; FHL microfilm 1577674.

"United Staes Census, 1860," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MCWF-YZQ : accessed 15 Aug 2014), Isabella C Sutherland in household of Fletcher Sutherland, The Town Of Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States; citing "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," Fold3.com; p. 37, household ID 297, NARA microfilm publication M653; FHL microfilm 803823.

"United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M8V3-S8S : accessed 17 Aug 2014), Isabella Southerland in household of Flet Southerland, New York, United States; citing p. 41, family 316, NARA microfilm publication M593, FHL microfilm 000552553.

"New York, State Census, 1875," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VTZ5-453 : accessed 17 Aug 2014), Isabella C Sutherland in household of Fletcher Sutherland, Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States; citing p. 6, line 35, State Library, Albany; FHL microfilm 1577676.

"United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MZXC-BPF : accessed 17 Aug 2014), Isabella Sutherland in household of Fletcher Sutherland, Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States; citing sheet 12C, NARA microfilm publication T9.

Untangling the Tale of the Seven Sutherland Sisters and Their 37 Feet of Hair by Lisa Hix, September 6th, 2013 (http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-seven-sutherland-sisters-and-their-37-feet-of-hair/  : accessed 15 Aug 2014)

Famous Ladies with Long Hair: The Sutherland Sisters (http://www.angelfire.com/art/rapunzellonghair/rapunzellonghairarchive/portrait4.htm  : accessed 15 Aug 2014)

The Long Hair Success Story of the Seven Sutherland Sisters by Doug Farley (http://dougfarley.hubpages.com/hub/The-Long-Hair-Success-Story-of-the-Seven-Sutherland-Sisters#  : accessed 15 August 2014)