Sutter
JOHN AUGUSTUS, an American pioneer; born in Kandern, Germany, Feb. 15, 1803; was graduated at the Berne Military Academy in 1823; settled in St. Louis, Mo., in 1834, but soon removed to Santa Fé, where he engaged in a lucrative trade with trappers and Indians. Receiving favorable accounts of California he crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1838; sailed down the Columbia river and thence to Hawaii.
After going to Sitka, Alaska, he cruised along the Pacific coast and was stranded at the site of San Francisco in July, 1839. During that year he established the first white settlement on the site of Sacramento. In 1841 after receiving a large tract of land from Mexico, he built a fort which he named New Helvetia; was made governor of the frontier country by Mexico, but was held in suspicion by the Mexicans owing to his friendly feelings toward the United States. In 1848 when California was ceded to the United States, he owned many thousand head of cattle, much land, and other property, but owing to the discovery of gold on his estates was overrun by miners, and his workmen left him, and not being able to secure others he was financially ruined. He appealed to the Supreme Court, but was