John Sutter
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Johann Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880) was a Californian of swiss descent famous for his association with the California Gold Rush (in that gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in Sutter's Mill) and for establishing Sutter's Fort in an area that would later become the capital of the U.S. state of California, Sacramento. Although famous throughout California for his association with the Gold Rush, Sutter ironically died almost poor, having seen his business ventures fail while those of his elder son, Augustus Sutter, prospered.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Johann Augustus Sutter was born on February 23, 1803 in Kandern, Baden, Germany, when his father came from the nearby town of Rünenberg in Switzerland. Debts incurred in business dealings, however, compelled Sutter to leave Europe for the United States. In May 1834, he left his wife and seven year old child in Burgdorf, Switzerland, and with a French passport he came on board the ship Sully which travelled from Le Havre, France, to New York City where it arrived on July 14, 1834.
[edit] The New World
In the United States, Sutter undertook extensive travels. Together with 35 Germans he moved from St. Louis area to Santa Fe, then moving to the town of Westport. On April 1, 1838, he joined a group of missionaries, led by the fur trapper Andrew Dripps, and went along the Oregon Trail until Fort Vancouver in Oregon, where he arrived in October. With a few companions, he went on board the British bark Columbia which left Fort Vancouver on November 11 and laid at anchor in Honolulu on December 9. Sutter wanted to settle in California, but the only vessel riding at anchor in the harbour was the brig Clementine — Sutter managed to be signed on as unpaid supercargo of this brig freighted with a cargo of provisions and general merchandise for the Russian colony of New Archangel, now known as Sitka, Alaska. The Clementine hoisted anchor on April 20, 1839, with Sutter together with 10 Kanakas, two of them women, a few companions, and a Hawaiian bulldog. From the Russian colony at Sitka, where he stayed one month, Sutter travelled by sail to Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, at that time a tiny poor mission station. The Clementine arrived in Yerba Buena on July 1, 1839.
[edit] New Helvetia
At the time of Sutter's arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000 Europeans, in contrast with 30,000 Native Americans. It was at that point a part of Mexico and the governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted him permission to settle; in order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840 - the following year, on June 18, he received title to 48,827 acres (198 km²). Sutter named his settlement New Helvetia, or "New Switzerland," after the homeland of his father. Sutter employed variously Native Americans (of the Miwok and Maidu tribes), Kanakas and Europeans at his compound, which he called Fort Sutter; He envisioned creating an agricultural utopia, and for a time the settlement was in fact quite large and prosperous. It was for a period the destination for most California-bound immigrants, including the ill-fated Donner Party, whom Sutter strived to rescue.
A Francophile, Sutter would threaten to raise the French flag over California and place New Helvetia under French protection [1]but in 1847 the Mexican land was handed over to the United States. Sutter at first supported the establishment of an independent California Republic but when Union troops briefly seized control of his fort, Sutter did not resist because he was outnumbered. In 1848 gold was discovered near his sawmill in Coloma along the American River. Sutter's attempt at keeping this quiet failed when merchant and newspaper publisher Samuel Brannan returned from Sutter's Mill to San Francisco with gold he had acquired there and began publicizing the find. Masses of people overtook the land and destroyed nearly everything Sutter had worked for. In order to keep from losing everything, however, Sutter deeded his remaining land to his son, Augustus Sutter. The younger Sutter, who had come from Switzerland and joined his father in September 1848, saw the commercial possibilies of the land and promptly started plans for building a new city he named Sacramento, after the Sacramento River. The elder Sutter deeply resented this because he had wanted the city to be named Sutterville and be built near his New Helvetia domain.
[edit] Land grant challenge
Sutter's El Sobrante land grant was challenged by the Squatter's Association, and in 1858 the U.S. Supreme Court denied its validity. Sutter sought reimbursement of his losses associated with the Gold Rush. He started to receive a pension of $250 a month not as a relief, but as reimbursement of taxes paid on the Sobrante grant at the time Sutter considered it his own. He and wife Nanette moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania. From there he personally petitioned Congress in his case of seeking reimbursement for his losses. In 1880 the Federal government was ready to grant this, but before he could receive any reimbursement, he died on June 18, 1880.
Had he been able to enjoy his findings, he would have been one of the wealthiest men in the world.
[edit] Legacy
In addition to the links found below, Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco, California is named after him. Sutter's Landing, Sutterville Rd., and Sutterville Elementary School in Sacramento are all named after him. The Sutterville Bend of the Sacramento River is also named after him. Sutter Medical Foundation, a not-for profit medical system in Northern California also takes its name in honor of Sutter.
[edit] Books and films
[edit] Scholarly studies
- Albert L. Hurtado, John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier (2006) University of Oklahoma Press, 416 pp. ISBN 0-8061-3772-X.
[edit] Fiction
- Blaise Cendrars L'Or (1925) (Sutter's Gold), a novel
- Stefan Zweig narrates the gold story in on of his Sternstunden der Menschheit.
[edit] Films
- Days of '49 (1924) (at IMDB)
- California in '49 (1929) (at IMDB)
- The Kaiser of California (1936) (at IMDB)
- Sutter's Gold (1936) (at IMDB)
- Kit Carson (1940) (at IMDB)
- "The Pathfinder" (The Great Adventure, 1964) (at IMDB)
- Fortune (1969) (at IMDB)
- Donner Pass: The Road to Survival (1978) (at IMDB)
- California Gold Rush (1981) (at IMDB)
- Dream West (1986) (at IMDB)
- General Sutter (1999) (at IMDB)
[edit] See also
- New Helvetia
- Sutter, California
- Sutter Buttes
- Sutter County, California
- Sutter Creek, California
- Sutter's Fort
- Sutter's Mill
