You Don't Know Sutter
Have you ever heard of the 4 olds? As China became a communist-run nation they initiated a cultural revolution and called to rid the country of the four olds.
Those being; Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. To get rid of these "our olds" they promoted the "four news" New Customs, New Culture, New Habits, and New Ideas. Part of this campaign included the re-naming.
All over China, the names of roads and stores were taken down and new names were made. About 93 percent of just Shanghai was renamed, the hospitals, the stores, the streets, the schools. Statues of old emperors were torn as well as those of Buddha.
The point of doing this is really simple. Demoralize the opposition who were anticommunist and erase history promoting the new revised history approved by the elite.
Not long ago a similar but slow cultural revolution began here in the United States and we began to see History changed, statues torn down, roads and schools renamed...
One such statue and name that was defaced was that of John Sutter. A man who like all of humanity was both a good and sinful man who did more in his life for his new country than most people today could ever hope to achieve, he is viewed now as an evil slaveowner whose name should be erased from all society and replaced with what is approved by the ruling elite.
So let me share with you the full story of John Sutter, not just the good G-rated stuff but not just the cherry-picked R-rated stuff you hear about today.
So for starters, his original name was Johann Augustus Suter born sometime in February 1803. He was raised a working class boy and became an apprentice in a printing shop, then went on to be a clerk at a clothing store. Around 21 years old he married a rich widow and he opened a store. He was really really bad at money and did the typical spend more than you make kind of thing to the point that he was going to be sent to debtors prison. He refused to ever go to debtor’s prison so he left his wife and kids in the care of his brother and told them he would send for them when he got everything in order in the new world. (New world being America. )
Using a French passport from Paris he sailed to New York getting there in 1834. He Americanized his name to John Sutter but added Captain to his title to make himself look better. From there he made his way to St. Louis then Santa Fe then over to Kansas City. He had to flee Missouri because he had a bunch of debt there too so he joined in with a missionary traveling West and made it to Fort Vancouver which is near Portland Oregon. From there he got on a ship to The Sandwich Islands known today as Hawaii he was supposed to then get on another ship there that would take him to the fishing village known as Yerba Buena, today known as San Francisco. But he missed his connection so he did what he knew best and befriended the Hawaiian Kanakas and dignitaries from Europe and America and was given some men and 2 women as servants by King Kamehameha iii. Then using his handy dandy credit card he bought a ton of freight hired a ship called Clementine and sailed to New Archangel, Russia which is known today as Sitka, Alaska. After doing some business there he sailed, finally to that little fishing village in California.
Once he got to California, Sutter made his way to the Capital of Mexican California which was Monterey. He was attacked by Native Americans a few times on his way. He met with Governor Juan Alvarado and told him of his plans to settle in the land and asked for some free land.
Governor Alvarado wanted to keep Americans from coming and to control the Indians that roamed around stealing horses and attacking his people he agreed to give Sutter some land but for a price. That price was that he had to live in California for a full year and convert to Roman Catholicism. He agreed.
Soon he saw an opportunity he and his credit card couldn't refuse. Fort Ross was a Russian Fort built mainly for fur trading to Spain, the company that ran the fort was The Russian American Fur Company and their charter was about to expire and were ordered to leave California back to Russian America (Alaska) So he bought it.
Sutter finally got the land grant from Alvarado and named it New Helvetia and was given by Governor Alvarado the right to "represent in the establishment of New Helvetia all the laws of the country, to function as a political authority and dispenser of justice, in order to prevent the robberies committed by adventurers from the United States, to stop the invasion of savage Indians, and the hunting and trading by companies from the Columbia"
Quickly his workers which consisted mainly of Kanakas and friendly Indians built the fort that still stands today in Sacramento, Sutter's Fort. They planted the fields, and planted some orchards and vineyards. Sutter wanted to build an agricultural utopia.
Now, I said the friendly Indians helped build the Fort. Well, there were tons of different tribes that roamed around California each having their own identity and beliefs and customs. They had wars against each other and enslaved other tribes. just like the African Slave trade was run by Africans, there was an Indian Slave Trade run by Indians. That doesn't make it right but was not created by the whites. I say this because that is a very inconvenient fact in History that surprisingly isn't well known. Sutter was given many slaves, he captured many slaves he killed many slaves he treated the slaves like slaves. He gave slaves as payment and as gifts. William Leidesdorff for example who I did a story on a while back had the Rancho Rio De Los Americanos land grant that was where modern-day Folsom is and was a mixed-black man. Sutter gave him slaves as payment for some debt and he gladly accepted it.
Sutter employed a ton of people, many were Indians, Some Californios which by the way just means Mexicans that lived in California, Kanakas/Islanders, Americans, and so on. He overhired because he wanted everyone to have a job and make some kind of money which hurt him because as before running that little store, he spent more than he made and incurred a huge debt.
Now let’s move on to another piece of the Sutter Puzzle.
Mexico removed Governor Alvarado and replaced him with a man named Micheltorena. Mexico could see that there would be a war between them and The United States so they needed to raise capital to fund the war which in government terms means taxing the peasantry. So Mexico made it up to Micheltorena to collect these taxes and they gave him an army of murderers, thieves, and rapists they released from prison for this very cause. So as Micheltorena made his way North to collect the taxes this army began murdering, stealing, and raping the Californios and Americans that lived in the land.
This caused a mini civil war in California between Mexico and the Californios.
Sutter was caught in the middle of it. Having to make a choice like Robert E. Lee of Country or Community he chose Country. This choice was made easy for him by Micheltorena because he tripled Sutters' land grant with a snap of his fingers in exchange for his service.
Micheltorena and Sutter geared up with their makeshift army and their secret weapon known as the Sutter Gun or the 4 pounder which he got when he took over Fort Ross. it was a powerful Cannon built by Russia to Fight Napoleon and was then taken to Fort Ross and now was in Sutter's control.
They Marched 500 miles south because the Californios ran down to LA to get the Californios from there for the battle and over in Camarillo which is midway between LA and Santa Barbara they fought.
The Californios shot first but their powder being crummy their cannonballs landed at Sutter's feet. Micheltorena and Sutter returned fire but were ignorant of how to fight and shot their cannonballs way past the Californios. Oh and the felon Army that Micheltorena had brought with him? They escaped.
Because ammunition was scarce and expensive, after the battle where nobody got hurt, each side ran around the field picking up their balls to reload like a Nerf gunfight.
That night the Americans secretly met and decided this was dumb and went back home. Leaving Sutter and Micheltorena to fight alone against the Californios. So they were captured. Micheltorena was deported back to regular Mexico and Sutter was tried and found guilty of treason. Penalty is death by hanging or beheading.
Fortunately for Sutter one of his neighbors stood up for him and told the mob that Sutter was only doing what he did because that was his job. That was sufficient enough of an excuse so they let him live but took away that cannon burying it in 3 different pieces in case they ever needed it again.
By the way fun fact, it was dug up and was used in all the major battles against Mexico during the Mexican-American war a couple of years later.
Now, one day one of Sutter's hired men came to his house soaking wet from the Fall rain, Sutter was surprised to see him and welcomed him in. James Marshall, the hired man, then told Sutter he had some very important news to share with him and they needed to go somewhere private where no eavesdroppers could listen in. So Sutter led him to one of his private rooms. Marshall told him to lock the door. Sutter laughed because there was nobody but him and a clerk in the house but obliged and locked the door.
Marshall put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a towel which he opened in his hand to reveal a few little yellow rocks in the towel. He then told Sutter he thinks it might be gold though the guys at the mill where Marshall found these rocks laughed at him.
Sutter got out some books and they did some science experiments to see if these little yellow rocks were Gold. They were.
Marshall left in the dark pouring rain back to Coloma to guard the mill and search for more gold while Sutter had dinner and went to bed, heading up to Coloma at 7 am the next day.
Sutter and Marshall did a little prospecting and for the next few days would check the mill to see if any gold appeared and sure enough a little bit every day was collected. Sutter would jump into the tailrace of the mill and dive down himself to grab some of the gold. As soon as he could he had the gold melted down into a ring, his family coat of arms engraved on the front and on the inside the words "The first gold, discovered in January 1848"
He had an all-hands-on-deck meeting where he told the men to keep this gold thing a secret for a minimum of 6 weeks, of course, a lady named Mrs. Wimmer couldn't keep her mouth shut and told some travelers after just 2 weeks. One of the men got himself some gold there and went into town, went to a bar, and ordered himself a bottle of brandy Then put the gold he had on the counter to pay for it. The barman was amazed and asked where he got the gold. His reply was, "Go ask Captain Sutter about it".
He did, and Sutter told him who then told his boss Mr. Brannan who immediately set up a shop becoming very very rich.
Soon, Suttter’s land was trampled by miners searching for gold, practically everyone quit working for him and ran to search for the gold. Eventually, he sent for his son John Sutter Jr. who was an accountant and he did his best to fix his father’s financial troubles, he did but he was also getting lowball offers from people for the land and was agreeing to it. That ticked off John Senior. One of the last straws was when Jr. named the city of Sacramento, Sacramento instead of Sutterville.
Jr. Was kicked out and moved to Acapulco Mexico while the rest of the Sutter family came to America and they moved to modern-day Yuba City. Where a ticked-off neighbor lit his house on fire leaving him homeless.
Sutter decided to move to Pennsylvania, pay off all his debts even that of Europe that made him flee in the first place, and for the rest of his life begged Uncle Sam for retributions for the plight he was in after the gold rush destroyed his empire. Though he was not a poor man he played the victim and acted like he was to gain pity from the Government though he was getting a pension of $250 a month which today is like 6 thousand dollars. He was aiming for a one-time lump of 50 grand But The United States was too busy working on rebuilding after the civil war so he got nothing. He ended up dying in a hotel 2 days after Congress adjourned without approving his money.
In my research, I read a piece called The Extraordinary Life of John Sutter by Nicholas Ferraro which I think is a good way to end this story.
John Sutter is a fascinating individual in the history of the American West. He is more than simply a figure in time; he is a character who experienced a life reserved for tragic heroes. The study of Sutter's life demands sympathy, but he is not to be pitied. Even though he fell on hard times, he also stumbled upon many great fortunes. Sutter was a charismatic person who created great opportunities...his optimism and desire to succeed are notable and were perfectly suited for Mexican California. Throughout his life, Captain Sutter viewed failure as a stepping stone, a chance to learn and accomplish greater things. For this reason, he should be saluted just as frequently as he is criticized.
