The Davis News (Davis, Okla.), Vol. 36, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1929 Page: 2 of 8
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’ V
TH E DAVIS NEWS
By ELMO 8C0TT WAT60N
I ROM Washington comes tho news
that the heirs of Oen J A Sutter
the famous California pioneer are
preparing to press a claim against
the government for $30000000 which
they assert la due his estate under
an agreement made with congress '
In 1859 Early this year these same
KKW(Hi heirs filed suit In the Polo county
courts against the city of Sacra-
mento seeking the return of certain
lands which Generhl Sutter had
presented to the city for parks and streets In 1849
and which they allege was sold by the city for
' commercial purposes In violation of the terms of
’ the gift r
These two actions recall once more the story
of one of the most dramatic and tragic careers in
American history— that of Johano August Sutter
the Swiss adventurer whose swift rise to fortune
was matched only by an equally swift descent
For It was on the vast estates In California where
he ruled as a veritable king that gold was dls-
1 covered on January 24 1848 and resulted In the
- epic gold rush which brought down upon this
: modern Midas the horde of hungry fortune-seekers
who ruined him
Sutter was born In Kandern In the Grand Duchy
of Baden Germany February 15 1803 Be was of
Swiss parentage the family being originally
8uter Toung Johann August who did uot care
to follow his father’s occupation of paper manu-
facturer was sent to the military college at Berne
where he wns graduated In 1823 and entered the
French service as nn officer of the Swiss guard
In which he served In he Spanish campaign of
1823-24 In 1834 Sutter emigrated to America
Settling near St Louis Sutter became a farmer
for a time then removed to Westport the eastern
terminus of the Santa Fe trail where he ran a
store which did a large business with the wagon
trains which were fitted out there for the 8anta
Fe trade Then he heard the call of the West and
decided to go to California Accompanied by a
single companion be set out In 1838 and went first
to Oregon Later he descended the Columbia to
Fort Vancouver and from there sailed to the
Sandwtch Islands where he purchased a vessel
and went to Sitka Alaska After disposing of
his cargo to good advantnge he coasted south and
In July 1839 was stranded In the Bay of Yerba
- Buena (now San Francisco) After making a
Journey Into the Interior where he was much Im-
pressed with the possibilities of the country he
conceived the scheme of founding a colony in the
8acramento valley California was then owned
by Mexico and Monterey was the capital
Hastening there Sutter laid hts plan before
Gov Juan Alva redo He would establish a cordon
of outposts and check the Incursions of hostile
Indians from the north he would gather the
peaceful Indians of California together and give
them employment and he would bring Knnnkai
from the Sandwich Islands also to work for him
So Impressed was Alvaredo with Sutter's scheme
thnt he gave him a grant of eleven square leagues
So In 1841 Sutter established his colony which be
named New Helvetia or New Switzerland There
he built s fort 500 feet long and 200 feet wide
and within Its walls five feet thick and twelve
feet high were a store s tannery a grist mill
s smithy and a distillery
Within a few years Sutter had wrought a mar-
velous transformation In the raw country Bridges
were built over the streams roads marked out
marshes drained wells and ditches dug and many
other Improvements made The Mexican govern-
ment had appointed him governor of northern
California and he reigned In New Helvetia In
feudal splendor over nearly 100000 acres (for
Butter had been very generous with himself In
surveying bis “eleven square leagues") of land
tended by several hundred white Kanaka and ’
Indian retainers In his pastures grazed 12000
head of cattle 15000 sheep and 2000 horses and
mules Establishing stores be tiaded from Can-
ada to Mexico and as far east as SL Louis Gov-
ernor Mtcbeltorena Alvsredo'i successor pre-
sented him with an additional eleven square
leagues until at the peak of his prosperity Sutter ‘
controlled probably 250000 acres upon which he
raised enormous amounts of grain of furious
kinds 1
for Sutter and Marshall
Although the Mexican government had made
him governor of northern California It began to
regard him with some suspicion when after the
settlement of the Oregon dispute with England
the United States begaa to cast covetous eyes
southward along the coast and It became known
that Sutter favored the annexation of California
to the United States When Capt Charles Wilkes
on an exploring expedition reached San Fran-
cisco Sutter gave him aid and Information and
he extended a similar welcome to Gen John O
Fremont on hie arrival In California on hts first
exploring trip
When California was ceded to the United States
at the close of the Mexlcjm war Sutter was elected
first alcalde of bis district and appointed Indian
agent With these new honors thrust upon him
he looked forward to a future pf assured and
Increasing wealth and prominence In the new
state which would Inevitably be formed Then
came the event which was to have such a tragic
significance for Sutter One of hts employees a
sort of a foreman was James Wilson Marshall
born In New Jersey a wagonmaker by trade but
a wanderer over a lnrge part of the Great West
Marshall bad persuaded Sutter that It was high (
time for them to quit getting out the lumber
which they needed by hewing and whipsawing and
suggested that they build a sawmill Accordingly
Sutter sent Marshall to build a mill on the Amer-
ican river about 40 miles above the fort By
January 1848 Marshall working with a crew of
tea or eleven non hud put a brush dam across
the river set op the frame and dug the mill race t
The latter however was not deep enough and at
nights Marshall let the water run through It to
deepen the channel
On the historic morning of January 24 he went
to Inspect the mill race and noticed some glit-
tering particles In the sand It might be gold or
It might be only mica Marshall who knew some-
thing about the common testr for gold subjected
the particles to these tests and as the result be-
gan to believe that be had actually discovered
some of the precious metal He does not seem
to have been very much excited ever It however
for It was not until two or three days later that
he made a trip back to the fort to tell Sutter
What took place then Is related In Sutter's diary
as follows: '
A clerk was In Sutter’s office when Marshall
entered and after he had left the foreman said
to his employer “Are you alone)”
“Yes” replied Sutter
“Did you lock the door)”
Sutter must have thought Marshall out of his
mind but he replied calmly “No but I will do so
If you wish It”
So he locked the door snd Marshall then re-
vealed the cause for his strange notions The two
men Immediately set to work testing the metal
first with nitric acid then by balancing It on
scales with an equal weight of silver and placing
the scales under water In watei the gold dust
having more specific gravity than the silver
pulled down the scales There wus no longer any
doubt In their minds as to what these shining
particles were
Thnt night Sutter as he Inter said “felt the
curse of the thing upon him” ne and Marshall
agreed to keep the matter secret until they could
finish the mill and until they could establish'
claim to the surrounding lands So Sutter called
together the Indians who had a nominal title to
these lands and from them leased twelve square
miles of the surrounding country Then he sent
an employee named Charles Bennett to Monterey
to have the lease confirmed by Colonel Mason
the American military governor of California
On the way Bennett stopping at Benicia re-
vealed the purpose of his Journey Curiously
enough few who heard his story believed It and
only a few went to the American river to In-
vestigate It remnlned for Snra Brannan a Mor-
mon elder who was a storekeeper at Sutter’s
fort to give to the world the exciting news’ In
May Brannan collected a small bottle full of dust
and set out for San Francisco One morning the
700-odd Inhabitants of that little town were
amazed to see Sam Brannan striding along
Montgomery street waving his hat In one hand
and brandishing aloft a little bottle filled with
shining dust tn the other as be shouted “Gold!
Gold I Gold! from the American river n
The result Is history In the rush that fol-
lowed Snn Francisco was almost depopulated By
Jane 2000 miners were at work near the saw-
mill now called Coloma By July 4000 were
there Soldiers and sailors deserted from the
government forces and Joined with clerks law-
yers doctors merchants Indians Mexicans
Chinese — all races and classes of men — In the
stampede to the gold fields A few months later
the amazing news had reached the East and Sut-
ter soon sow a roaring tide of humanity sweeping
down upon his little empire r ' "
The earliest arrivals were of the better class
and Sutter had no trouble with them They
patronized his stores and purchased all of their
supplies from him But when the gold lure drew
to California an Influx of men from all corners of
the earth there came more bad men than good who
corrupted his Indians with their deadly firewater
and Influenced hts hitherto faithful employees to
desert him Squatters settled on hts lands and
Jeered at his efforts to dislodge them Bis vine-
yards were trampled to the ground his live stock
stolen his stores looted and the Improvements
which he bad made appropriated for the ass of
the maddened gold seekers
' The titles to his lands received un defy' the
grnnts from the Mexican government were not
respected and Butter appealed In vain to tha
American authorities Be brought suit against
more than 17000 persons and spent more than
$200000 In prosecntlng his claims From being
the greatest man In that country he found him-
self becoming the most hated because of the liti-
gation In which he was Involved and eventually
that hatred resulted tn the destruction of his
home the Hermitage to which he had retired
before the onrush of the argonauts After several
years of litigation In 'which he wns repeatedly
defeated Sutter the former “king” found himself
a ruined man The state of California granted
him a pension of $250 a month but after receiving
It for 14 years he voluntarily relinquished that
bounty
In 1S72 he sent his two daughters to Bethle-
hem Pa to enter a Moravian school and later
transferred them to another school tn Lltltz
There he made hts home and spent his declining
yenrs In numerous visits to Washington and
futile attempts to secure Justice from the federal
government which he claimed hnd allowed him
to ho robbed during the gold ‘rush
There Is nn old Spanish proverb which says
thnt “He who finds gold will die In the alms-
house” For one proof of that visit the little
Moravian cemetery In Lltlts Pa In It Is burled
Gen Johann August Sutter He died In Wash-
ington on June 17 1880 and he died In poverty
Or go oUt to California and In the hills of El
Dorado county you will find a country store and
s post office In the midst of a cluster of deserted
shops and houses This Is Coloma now a com-
munity of less thnn 150 persons the Coloma
which once grew almost overnight Into a city of
10000 In the graveyard on a hillside Is nn en-
closure In which stands a bronze statue of a mnn
one finger pointing to the plnce where California’s
gold was Brat found and It was erected by the
state of California at a cost of 110000
It Is the statue of James Wilson Marshall the
man who found thnt gold and who once declared
that If he had realized what would result from
that discovery he would have hurled the gold duet
Into the forests and removed the sawmill which
he was building so that other men would have no
occasion to pass that way For Marshall suffered
the same treatment from the gold seekers that
had been Sutter's portion California gave him a
pension of $1200 a year then withdrew It be-
cause the legislature believed the money wns
pent In drink to which he bad become addicted
In August 1885 five yean after Sutter's death
a lonely embittered poverty-stricken old man
died In a ramshackle hut In the dying town of
Coloma It was Janies W Marshall another
“man whose gold ruined him"
Wnneeessaru
Pain!'
Nowadays people take Bayer Asph”
in for many little aches and pains
and as often as they encounter any
pdn
Why not? It is a proven anti-
dote lor pain It works! '
And Bayer Aspirin tablets art
utterly harmless You have the
medical profession’s word for that)
they do not depreaa the heart
So don’t let a cold Jru n its
course! Don't wait (or a haad
ache to JVear oft" Or regard
neuralgia neuritis or oven rheum-
atism as something you must en-
dure Only a physician can cope
with the cause of such pain but
nBiOTE na &§ipniianRj
’ Awtrisle the treds mark gt Bnpr Mnnufnntarc el 1
Hitting on All Eight!
Doctor Gives Hint
to Lucky Salesman
IT’S a wise man that knows
when he is slipping Mr RF
Myers of 711 Rosedale Street
Baltimore had the good for-
tune to get his tip straight
from one of his doctor custom-
ers (he was selling for a phar-
maceutical house) and since
that lucky visit he has increas-
ed his business 60 per cent
For two years he had been driving
from town to town and naturally
this threw his elimination out of
shape Es felt himself slipping
Cathartics only made him worse
Then one day ha was calling on n
wise old physician and asked his
advice "What you need my boy”
add the doctor "la a simple easy
normal way to dean the poisons out
of your system— we all have them—
and with your kind of work they
certainly cut down efficiency Why
don’t you try Nujoll”
"Well believe it or not” uya Mr
Myers "in a few days I felt like a
new man “What’a got into you)’
Children will fret often for no
apparent reason But there’s al-
ways one sure way to eorafort a
restless fretful child Castorial
Harmless as the recipe on the
wrapper mild and bland as it
tastes But its gentle action
soothef a youngster more surely
than some powerful medicine
that is meant for the etronger
systems of adults
That’s the beauty of this special
children’s remedy! It may 'be
given the tiniest infant— as often
s there if any need In casei of
colic diarrhea or similar disturb-
ance it Is invaluable But ft his
everyday vice all mother should
Try this treatment for pimples
ANOINT Sri7H
Cutlcurn Ointment
A fiir white ktihe gmtlj with
Cutlcurn Soap
tnd bet umut
Yon will find nothing better for soothing
and healing all forms of skin troubles
Ointment 23c u 4 50c Sots 2k TilcuaSSc
ySbidnwMnee
®
you can always turn to Bayer Aspb
in for refit
Bayer Aspirin Is always avail-
able and it always helps Famil-
iarize yourself with Ha many urn
and avoid a lot of needless suffering
el Bilkytlwrie
asked the boms office busi-
ness has increased 60 per centl 3
That’s the great thing about
Nujol As soon as it begins to clean
tho poisons out of your system It
makee you feel so well that you can
almost always do a much better Job
Nujol k not a medicine and con-
tains no drugs It k perfectly harm-
less forms no habit It is simply
bodily lubrication which everybody
needs You like everybody else!
Why put off good health any
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package Coats so little snd means
io mucU-Maybe you can increase
your efflcUncy 60 par cent too
A
igue
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pation io does any suggestion of
bad breath Whenever children
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have any little upset— this pure
vegetable preparation is usually
all that’s needed to aat everything
to rights Genuine Castoria has
Chas H Fletcher’s signature on
tho wrapper Doctor prescribe it
i
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The Davis News (Davis, Okla.), Vol. 36, No. 2, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1929, newspaper, October 17, 1929; Davis, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1714541/m1/2/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed July 6, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.