John August Sutter was born on February 15, 1803 in Kandern, Baden, Germany, and his father came from the nearby town of Rünenberg in Switzerland. His parents are said to have been Johann Jakob Suter, a paper manufacturer, and Christine Wilhelmine (Stoberin), daughter of a clergyman.
He is said to have attended the military academy at Neuchatel.
It is certain that he was officially recognized as a Swiss citizen and that he served his time in the Swiss army, possibly attaining the rank of captain. After a number of escapades, he decamped from Berne in the spring of 1834, made his way to Havre, and sailed for America. He landed in New York, journeyed to St. Louis, Missouri, and may have settled for a time at St. Charles. In 1835 and again in 1836 he accompanied a trading party to Santa Fe.
In 1838 he accompanied the Eells-Walker missionary party to Oregon, arriving at Fort Vancouver in October. Eager to reach California, and finding the land journey impossible at that season, he sailed for Honolulu and then for Sitka, whence he was enabled to reach San Francisco Bay on July 1, 1839. Four days later, at Monterey, he presented to Governor Alvarado a project for establishing a colony on the unknown frontier to the north.
Alvarado empowered him to select a tract, with the promise that in a year's time a grant would be made.
On the south bank of the American River, at its junction with the Sacramento, Sutter landed a small party about August 16. Indians from the former missions were employed; land was cleared; irrigating ditches were dug; grain was sown, orchards and vineyards were planted, and in time a fortified post was erected. To his colony he gave the name of Nueva Helvetia.
In June 1841, on a second visit to Alvarado, he was made a Mexican citizen, and a grant of eleven square leagues of land was given to him. His success was phenomenal. He rapidly built up a vast baronial estate, and though nominally a Mexican subject was virtually the independent ruler of his domain. For military aid given to Governor Micheltorena an additional grant of twenty-two square leagues of land was given him (February 5, 1845).
About this time he began to be hailed as "General" Sutter. He befriended the early American settlers drifting into the country, and his settlement became the rallying place for those who favored an uprising against the Mexican government; but on June 14, 1846, Fremont, suspicious of his attitude, seized his fort. Later it was restored to him, and with the conquest of California his fortunes seemed secure.
In 1849 he was a delegate to the convention which drafted the state constitution; he presided at its last session, and was a candidate for the governorship at the first election.
Meanwhile, however, the discovery of gold on his estate, January 24, 1848, had marked the beginning of his ruin. His workmen deserted him; his flocks and herds disappeared; and squatters settled upon his lands. By 1852 he was bankrupt. Later the United States Supreme Court, while invalidating his claim to the Micheltorena tract, confirmed the earlier grant, but he could not afford the litigation necessary to recover his property.
In 1864, the California legislature voted him a pension of $250 a month, which was continued until 1878. In 1865 his homestead on the Feather River was destroyed by fire. Late in that year he went to Washington, where he submitted a petition to Congress. By 1871 he had established a home in the Moravian village of Lititz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, though he spent his winters in Washington.
In 1876 and again in 1880 bills for his relief were favorably reported in the House of Representatives, and on June 11 of the latter year a joint resolution in his behalf was introduced in the Senate, but immediately ordered to lie on the table.
A week later, at Mades' Hotel, he died.
John Augustus Sutter Sr. became famous following the discovery of gold by his employee James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, Sutter saw his own business ventures fail during the California Gold Rush. By reason of his unique career, his vicissitudes of fortune, and his long and futile struggle for justice, he remains one of the most appealing figures in American history.
Sutter was short and fat, with a broad head, and, in his maturity, a bald crown fringed with flaxen, graying hair. His manner was genial and at times expansive. His character and attainments have been variously estimated.
Bancroft, whose personal judgments were often extreme, concedes him no merit but kindliness, and says that he was without ability, honor, truthfulness, or respect for the rights of others. A biography of him, by Julian Dana, is fervently eulogistic.
In 1826 he married Anna (or Annette) D'beld (or Dubelt), by whom he had three sons and a daughter. His son, John A. Sutter, Jr. , had joined him at the end of 1844 and in 1851 his wife and the remaining children followed.
