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John Sutter, German-born Swiss pioneer settler and colonizer in California. Discovery of gold on his land at the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers in 1848 precipitated the California Gold Rush. While building a water-powered sawmill, James W. Marshall, a carpenter, found flakes of gold.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Early Life
- Leaving Switzerland
- Traveling West
- Sutter's Peculiar Route to California
- Sutter Talked His Way Into Opportunity
- Fort Sutter
- Sutter Became A Casualty of Good Fortune
- Discovery of Gold
- Death
- Legacy
Johann August Suter was a Swiss citizen born on February 23, 1803, in Kandern, Baden, Germany. He went to school in Switzerland and possibly served in the Swiss Army. He married Annette Dubold in 1826 and had five children.
In early 1834, with his shop failing in Burgdorf, Switzerland, Suter abandoned his family and set off for America. He arrived in New York Cityand changed his name to John Sutter. Sutter claimed a military background, saying he had been a captain in the Royal Swiss Guard of the French king. This claim has not been proven by historians, but as “Capta...
In 1835, Sutter was moving farther westward, in a wagon train headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico. For the next few years, he engaged in several businesses, herding horses back to Missouri and then guiding travelers out to the West. Always close to being bankrupt, he heard about opportunity and land in remote regions of the West and joined an expeditio...
Sutter loved the adventure of travel, which took him to Vancouver. He wanted to reach California, which would have been difficult to do overland, so he first sailed to Hawaii. He hoped to catch a ship in Honolulu bound for San Francisco. In Hawaii, his plans unraveled. There were no ships bound for San Francisco. But, trading on his purported milit...
At that time, California was part of Mexican territory. Sutter approached Governor Juan Alvarado and impressed him enough to obtain a land grant. Sutter was given the opportunity to find a suitable location where he could begin a settlement. If the settlement was successful, Sutter could eventually apply for Mexican citizenship. What Sutter had tal...
Sutter set out with a band of settlers in late 1839. Finding a favorable spot where the American and Sacramento Rivers came together, on the site of present-day Sacramento, Sutter began building a fort. Sutter dubbed the little colony Nueva Helvetia(or New Switzerland). Over the following decade, this settlement absorbed various trappers, immigrant...
Sutter built up a huge estate and by the mid-1840s, the former shopkeeper from Switzerland was known as “General Sutter.” He was involved in various political intrigues, including disputes with another power player in early California, John C. Frémont. Sutter emerged unscathed from these troubles and his fortune seemed assured. Yet the discovery of...
Sutter attempted to keep the discovery of gold on his land secret. But when word leaked out, the workers in Sutter's settlement deserted him to search for gold in the hills. Before long, word had spread worldwide of the gold discovery in California. Crowds of gold seekers came streaming into California and squatters encroached on Sutter's lands, de...
Sutter eventually returned East, living in a Moravian colony in Lititz, Pennsylvania. He traveled to Washington, D.C. to petition Congress for reimbursement for his losses. While his relief bill was bottled up in the Senate, Sutter died in a Washington hotel on June 18, 1880.
The New York Times published a lengthy obituaryof Sutter two days after his death. The newspaper noted that Sutter had risen from poverty to being the "wealthiest man in the Pacific coast." And despite his eventual slide back into poverty, the obituary noted that he remained "courtly and dignified." An article about Sutter's burialin Pennsylvania n...
Jun 27, 2023 · But Suter abandoned his family in May 1834 after a bankruptcy. To avoid his creditors, he decided to take off for the US. On arriving there he started to call himself Captain John Augustus...
John Sutter was actually one of the first Europeans to meet with members of the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who became stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive.
The John Sutter Gold Rush and the subsequent California Gold Rush of 1848 had a profound impact on California’s history and development. The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill brought a massive influx of people seeking their fortunes, reshaping the destiny of the region.
Jan 24, 2011 · As a side note, though Sutter liked to speak of himself as a good family man, alluding to a home in Switzerland where his family was ensconced (untrue – they were charity cases living with his brother), he never did send for them.
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What happened at Sutter's mill?
Sutter's Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. It was named after its owner John Sutter. A worker constructing the mill, James W. Marshall, found gold there in 1848.
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