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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
An Illustrated History of California's Gold Rush by Wells Fargo Bank (PH 1-27) (34 pages)
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Page: of 34
One Morning in Coloma .
he man who started the whole thing was .
John Augustus Sutter. He didn’t do it inten.
tionally, and if he had it to do over again, he
would have done something else.
Sutter had immigrated from Switzerland when California was still a territory of Mexico, and he came
equipped with only a practical mind, an overpowering ambition and a glib tongue. He had use for all
three. Although the policy of California’s Mexican
government was, at the time, to discourage foreigners from settling in the territory, Sutter managed to
talk the Mexican Governor into giving him a large
grant of land in the northern central valley on the
grounds that the territory would benefit from the
agricultural development of this area. And, incidentally, so would Sutter.
Since his persuasiveness had been so successful, he
began to exercise his practicality and ambition. He
traveled up the river with a boatload of supplies and
a few willing kanakas he had picked up on his way
in Hawaii, landed on a marshy bank and proceeded
to build himself an inland empire. The spot where
he landed can still be found on the map. It’s now
called Sacramento.
Sutter prospered. With the help of his kanakas and
the local Indians, he cleared fields, planted crops,
started a herd of cattle and built a wooden fort. He
called his little empire New Helvetia.
With diligence and care Sutter built New Helvetia
Into a self-sufficient little kingdom. It had its own
crops. It had its own herds. It had its own smithy
and bakeshop and mill, It managed to survive almost untouched the upheavals in the Mexican government, the abortive Bear Flag rebellion and the
eventual takeover by the United States. What did it
in finally was, ironically enough, the thing which
should have made it succeed — Sutter’s ambition.
p)