Sutton Insurance was founded by George Sutton, who joined his father, Amos, at Sutton Realty in 1956. He operated the insurance business out of the same location as the realty, 105 W. Court St. for several years.

Ten years later he relocated to 105 W. Blackhawk Ave, and in 1983 purchased the Cornelius Building at 106 W. Blackhawk, the present location of the business.

In the early years, the name of the company underwent several changes. George bought into Gordon Kieser's agency, and the company became Kieser-Sutton Insurance. Later, Marion Patterson joined and the name changed to Kieser-Sutton-Patterson. When Kieser retired the name became Sutton-Patterson, and, when Patterson retired in 1977, Bob Sutton joined the agency and it became Sutton Insurance.

Bob is not the only one of George's children who have worked for the insurance company. George's son John, an architect in Madison, directed the renovation of the offices when they moved to the current building. Daughters Linda and Ruth worked there at one time or another.

At present, Bob's daughter Tarah Oldenburg represents the third generation of Suttons involved in the insurance business. She is the office manager and specializes in personal lines of insurance. While in high school Tarah never thought about the insurance business, but started working there in 2000 at her father's request. Recently, she came across a piece she had written in third grade stating that she wanted to work in real estate or the insurance business with her father.

Other staff members are Kevin Mulrooney, who joined in 1988 and sells health and life products, and Ingrid Matusek, who joined about a year ago as a customer service representative.

The company, says Bob, has grown steadily since its founding, and, because of the time saved by computers, the size of the staff is no measure of the size of the company. The company was computerized in 1980 or 81, and that, he said, has had a profound impact. The computers cut down the amount of paper work, and the internet allows access to a broad spectrum of information, price quotes, and insurers, even in specialty markets. "With the internet technology available," he said, "you don't have to be a large agency to write up some unique contracts."

Changes in the insurance business reflect changes in society and technology. Bob recalls that his agency insured one of the first water bottling companies in the country. At the time, they couldn't understand how selling bottled water could be profitable.

It used to be difficult to find insurance for pollution cleanup, but growing environmental and technological awareness has now opened up many markets for it.

Although he has clients as far away as Florida, Bob says he does most of his business in the Midwest, especially Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota. Because each state requires a separate license, doing business in a large number of states can be expensive.

Working in the Prairie du Chien area, Bob said, makes insurance a very competitive market. "We're a unique community," he said, "with a lot of things to offer, and there's a very competitive market from outside. I've had to quote against some of the largest insurance companies in the country."

Nevertheless, he believes that Sutton Insurance can offer an advantage that outsiders cannot: "We try to do things in a personal way, get to know the clients and treat them the way they'd like to be treated." Sometimes that means going to battle for the customer against the insuring company if there's a misunderstanding or the adjuster has made a bad call.