Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-07-01
A ROMANTIC CAREER.
Sketch of the Life of General sutter
the Man ON Whose Farm In Cali
fornia Gold was First Discovered.

Ihe following Interesting account is
given of General John Augustus Sutter,
| who died in Washington a short time
ago: General Suffer, whose original
| name was Suter, was born at Kandern,
Baden, February Is, 1903. In his child
hood he evinced an aptitude for the mill
| tary profession, and his ambition was
gratifed by his parents, who were un-
| doubtedly well off. He was given a
liberal education, and sent to the mill
tary school at Berne, Switzerland,
where he was graduated in 1899. He
went to France and joined the army of
Charles X, being commissioned by that
king as general. After the revolution
of July, 1880, however. he became
weary Of his military life, and. castlu g
his eyes about for some country in
which to seek adventure and fame, he
chose the new world as offering the best
| field for his restless spirit, and emil
| grated to this country He had but lit
| tie ready money, but America was but
| sparsely settled then, and brains and
| courage were more in demand here at
that time than fortunes. The young
| emigrant settled first in the western part
of Missouri, but as the population of
that State increased, he moved further
West, always flying before the advance
OF the pioneers, and determined, as he
said once, in telling his story, to be the
pioneer of pioneers. He finally, in 1887,
reached what is now New Mexico. and
established himself at Santa Fe, where
be began trading with the Indians. His
gentle manners and strict honesty in
dealing with them soon won the hearts
of the savages. and General Sutter pros
pered in his business with them. He
/ lay b S,,fa -oc+
in their welfare, and taught them many
| useful things. The result was that they
confded in the man who trusted in
them, and told him of the wonderful
beauty of the country across the Rocky
mountains, the fertility of its soil, and
the mildness and salubrity of its climate
Fired by these reports of his dusky
friends, General Sutter finally deter
mined to cross the Rocky mountains,
and in 1888 he passed over into Cali
fornia, which was then under the con-
troll of the Mexican government.
General Sutter first went to Fort Van
eouver, and from there, spurred on by
the restless spirit of adventure which
characterized him, he sailed to the Sand
wich islands. He saw little chance to
win either fame or fortune among the
idle and unambitious Kanakas, and he
soon left the islands, sailing for Alaska.
From here he engaged in q trading trip
down the Pacific coast, and this voyage
ended July 2 1899. by his being ship
wrecked in the bay of Yerba Buena.
now known as the bay of San francisco.
He had saved a little money from the
wreck, but not enough to enable him to
fit out for another trading voyage, and
he wisely resolved to begin over by en-
gaging in agriculture, and working again
with his old friends, the Indians. With
great difficulty, because of his ignorance
of the country and the natives, he pene
trated to the interior up the Sacramento
river, and arriving at the point where
the city of Sacramento now stands, he
saw the advantages OF the location. and
pitched his camp at once. He chose q
site in the Sacramento valley, about
| three miles back from the river, one of
the most fertile spots in all California,
and naming it New Helvetia. settled
there with the intention of staying. He
put in practice his old tactics in his
treatment of the Indians; instead of
slaughtering them he made friends of
them. He taught them the rude arts of
agriculture which were within their
comprehension, and also intrusted them
with firearms and instructed them in
their use. In a remarkably short space
of time, New Helvetia was a th. living
settlement, and General Suffer, by rais-
ing large crops, for which there was al
ways ready market in Yerba Buena
was rapidly becoming q ealthy man.
1t was the only white settlement in
that section of the country, and the in
1uence of General Sutter was felt far
and wide. New Helvetia was the stop
ping place of all white men who crossed
| the country, and its commander was
very popular with the Russians of the
North and the Mexicans who surround
ed him. In l84l his influence with the
Indians had become so great that the
Mexican government found it advisable
to secure this Swiss farmer as a kind of
ally. They made him a formal grant of
| eleven leagues of land near the junction
of the Sacramento and American rivers,
on condition that he would keep the In
dians in check, and punish them if they
interfered with the settlement. By
this time he had gathered several white
men aronnd him, all of whom worked
either for him or on shares on his land.
When he received the grant of land he
transformed his farmhouse into fort,
which soon became known all over the
country as "Sutter's Fort, and was the
hating place of all expeditions crossing
the country. 1t was here that General
Fremont was entertained with the Law
ish hospitality of the frontier at the
time of his expedition across the Rocky
mountains. The fort was surrounded
with wall of brick twelve feet hign,
and mounted with twenty-four cannon
purchased from the Russians. It was
General Suffers province to protect the
entire northern frontier of Mexico, not
only from the Indians, but from the
marauding bands of trappers and hunt
ers who visited the valley for purposes
of plunder, and he did his work SO well
that the Mexican government felt per-
fectly secure in that part of the State
under his charge. In l645, in recogni-
ton of his eminent services, further
grant OF twenty-five leagues of land was
made to him.
General Sutter was now at the height
OF his power and glory. He was proba-
bly, the wealthiest man on the Pacific
coast, his landed estate embracing, in
round numbers, $50, 900 acres. He was
military commander and Indian agent
OF vast territory, and almost literally
monarch of all he surveyed. Houses,
shops, mills and other evidences of civ
ilization had sprung up around him,
and he was the enp for f,f a Y,1sf,crn nror1S