Thanks in part to the work of a former Eau Claire detective, a Bible more than a century old will soon be in the hands of the direct descendants of its original owners, a prominent Green Bay couple who moved to Wisconsin shortly after the Civil War.
The Bible has been in the possession of Kristine Ray and her family for about five decades. Ray said the Bible was most likely purchased by her late father in the early 1970s as part of a successful bid for the contents of a storage container in northwest Indiana.
The Bible’s original owners, according to an engraved name on the Bible’s cover, were Michael and Mary Sutton. The prominent Green Bay couple moved to the city after marrying shortly after the Civil War. The two Suttons were born in Ireland and immigrated to upstate New York as children, according to the obituaries of Michael Sutton and Mary Sutton.
Ray contacted the Green Bay Press-Gazette, and an article was published on the newspaper’s website on July 31. Shortly thereafter, through an unlikely chain of events, Sutton’s great-granddaughter Jo Ollmann, 68, a retired special education teacher who lives in Green Bay, learned about the book.
“To be honest, I was overwhelmed at first,” said Ollmann. “It was such a journey, I don’t even know what to say. Oh my God, we didn’t even know this existed.”
Early on the morning of July 31, Todd Johnson, 56, a retired Eau Claire police officer and detective who now works as a mediator, received a message from his daughter, who lives in Madison, saying, “Project for you,” with a link to the story.
That’s because “this wasn’t my first rodeo,” Johnson said. He had previously linked an old, once-valuable family Bible to descendants of the original owners. He also loves mysteries, he said, and has been passionate about genealogy for years.
Johnson took the information contained in the story and went to work. One of Michael and Mary Sutton’s children was Cora Sutton, and she married a man named Joseph Parmentier Sr. They had a son, Joseph Parmentier Jr., who is Ollman’s father.
Johnson was reading through the younger Parmentier’s bereaved family when he felt a jolt. It listed Nathan Ollmann as one of Parmentier’s grandchildren. Nathan Ollmann is a police officer in Eau Claire, and Johnson worked with him on the force. He immediately called Nathan Ollmann, who immediately called his mother. Connection made.
When Ray, who now lives in the Los Angeles area, learned of the connection between Jo Ollmann and Johnson, she was thrilled. She said it was amazing that Johnson learned about the Bible, immediately began researching it and then found a personal connection with one of the Suttons’ descendants.
“How did this happen? … It was really fate,” Ray said. “The only difficult thing for me was that I was in the middle of a move.”
She sent the Bible to Johnson and he and Jo Ollmann will meet soon so he can give her the book.
Jo Ollmann said she was grateful to everyone involved in returning the Bible.
“For me, the Bible represents our roots as a family,” said Jo Ollmann. “It’s just so important to preserve these things.”
Keith Uhlig is a regional reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Reach him at 715-845-0651 or [email protected]. Follow him at @UhligK on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, or on Facebook.
