Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1888, Joseph Sutherland received a B.D. from Western Theological Seminary in 1990. He was a close friend of William McKinley, who influenced Sutherland to become a military chaplain, and Sutherland gave the nominating speech at the Ohio State Convention that nominated McKinley for President. Sutherland was appointed a U.S. Army chaplain in 1898, and served in Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war. He then served in the Philippine Islands in 1899, where he was cited for gallantry. After the war he worked with Frederick Roy Martin of the “Boston Journal ” to buy in the name of the United States, ground for a federal cemetery in Puerto Rico for those who died there. He was commissioned a major in 1908, and was retired with disability in 1912. During World War I he was called back to service from May 1917 to August 1919, serving as Head Chaplain at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, which included a school for chaplains.