This post is not going to feature the details of the
discovery of gold in California that took place in Coloma, California. That
will be a separate blog post. Rather, it will highlight the effect of this
discovery on John Sutter and his fort.
John Sutter received a land grant from Mexico for the
purpose of building an empire within Alta California. To review last month’s
post on John Sutter’s fort, please CLICK
HERE.
In 1848, two important events took place which affected
Sutter and his fort.
First, on January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a
carpenter from New Jersey who had been hired by Sutter to construct
a sawmill on the American River near Coloma, discovered gold.
The second big event was the end of the
Mexican-American war and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hilgado granting a large chunk
of former Mexican territory to the United States. Included in this land transfer
was Alta California which became California Territory.
At first, Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery of
gold quiet. His focus was on building his empire. However, people cannot keep
their collective mouths shut, and news of the discovery spread like wildfire.
John Sutter’s land grant did not extend to Coloma. He
built the mill near a source of water and timber in order to provide lumber for
construction at his fort. Sutter had negotiated an
agreement with the Indians to use that land and cut timber in exchange for a
promise of clothing and other items. He regarded it as open Indian land, not belonging to
anyone. However, once the United States took over the administration of
California Territory, the U. S. military governor in Monterey, Colonel
Richard B. Mason, refused to accept it. Mason maintained that the Indians had
no title to the land. According to him, it belonged to the United States by
right of conquer.
 |
| 1850 Upper California Map |
Sutter worried that "easy" gold would make it difficult to get
men to work. He needed workers to build the gristmill to grind his flour, and
for constructing other farming facilities that would make his empire--the New
Helvetia--profitable.
Sutter had no legal means of keeping gold-seekers from the sawmill site.
His workers, all but the Mormons, deserted to search for gold. The Mormons,
having been instructed by the leader of their church to stay in California to
work a year or two and bring their earnings back to the Salt Lake Valley, the
new land in which the Mormons were settling, stayed and finished the mill,
panning for gold on Sundays and holidays. However, once the mill was completed,
they also chose to leave.
John Sutter tried desperately to find ways to profit from the discovery.
However, neither he nor John Marshall ever enjoyed the wealth, power, and
prestige they felt they deserved. Neither had legal claim to the Coloma area,
nor to the land on which the mill was located.
As word of the gold discovery spread world-wide, and gold-seekers flocked
to California, their numbers and disregard for his rights to his land and all
that he had built spelled the beginning of the end for Sutter’s Fort. Many
proved to have come from the ranks of the lawless, and others who had been lawful
citizens of their countries, turned to lawless ways as the greed for easy
wealth consumed them.
 |
| Sutter's Fort 1849 |
On
September 1849 (Sept 1, 1849) J. A. Moerenhout again visited the Fort and
describes the dramatic change of conditions there:
"The growth and importance of
this new settlement (Sacramento City) has exhibited are among the marvelous
things that are happening in this country. Last year, I was at this place at
the same season and there was not a house or even a tent there. Only a few
little schooners lay in the port and the only business of any importance was a
trade or barter carried on at the Fort of New Helvetia. Now there is a town of
3,000 to 4,000 inhabitants there, with a quay lined with fine buildings,
streets laid out and with a large volume of business that increases as
communication with the placers and the interior becomes more regular and easy,
and where thirty-five ships were at anchor, the smallest of which was fifty to
sixty tons. Sutter's Fort has lost all importance since the founding of the
settlements on the Sacramento River. In the Fort itself there is still a hotel
and a few stores, but its business is languishing and there is no longer any
stir and activity as prevailed there at the time of my visit in 1848."
Sutter's agricultural enterprises began to fall apart. He got his wheat
harvested, but there was no one to thrash it. The stone wheels of his grist
mill never produced any flour. Hides rotted in his tannery vats. Squatters
settled in brush shelters in his fields and vandalized the fort itself,
stealing, according to Sutter, even the bells from his fort. In
no time, his sheep and cattle were stolen and his land was occupied by
squatters.
By 1852 John Sutter was bankrupt and his land was
filled with squatters. In 1857, the squatters took Sutter to court over the
legality of his titles and the U.S. Land Commission decided in Sutter's favor.
 |
| 1867 Photograph of what remained of Sutter's Fort |
However, a year later, the Supreme Court declared
portions of his title invalid. Sutter then sought reimbursement of his losses
associated with the California Gold Rush, but received only $250 per month from
the State of California in 1864. The final blow came on June 7 of 1865,
when a small band of men set fire to his house, completely destroying the
structure.
 |
| Sutter's Fort in Ruins painting by Amanda Austin |
Sutter and his wife,
Nanette, then moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania and John continued to fight the
U.S. Government for compensation for his losses. For the next 15 years, the
undisputed founder of California petitioned Congress for restitution but little
was done. On June 16, 1880, Congress adjourned, once again, without action on a
bill which would have paid Sutter $50,000. Two days later John Augustus Sutter died
in a Washington D.C. hotel. He was returned to Lititz and is buried in the
Moravian Cemetery. Mrs. Sutter died the following January and is buried with
him.
 |
| Sutter's Fort in Ruins - Painting by Vivian Calthea |
John Sutter’s great fiefdom was destroyed. All
of his holdings and Sutter's Fort were lost to the ever-increasing masses
seizing everything in pursuit of instant wealth.
Sources:
http://www.militarymuseum.org/Sutter.html
Wikipedia
