Show a ZV 0 I 1 JAMES F IT ar 4 A f at n 2 R 3 F 7 S rort JORT mt VV HELVETIA A sy by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HE recent gold decision of the supreme court of the united states awaited so long and so anxiously by the whole world has added another chapter to the history of money and especially to that much discussed find and frequently perplexing angle of it commonly known as the gold standard it Is a tar far cry from the event which took place in washington the other day clay to an event which took place in a little european village one february night dight years ago a far cry indeed from the stately hall where sit the black robed justices of a nations highest erlb ural ucal to a small room in the cottage of a swiss paper maker yet tet there Is a distinct connection between the two just before midnight on february 23 isoa a son was born to johann jakob suter and his wife christine iristine Cl St Stober ln suter but if the next morning anyone had told thesia the simple burghers of kandern kandera in the grand duchy of paden baden that this little boys career would change the destiny of a new nation across the atlantic and vitally affect the economic history of the whole world they would have stared at such a prop prophet liet with unbelieving eyes but he would have spoken the truth for the world halt half a century later was to know this little boy whom his parents named johann augustus suter its as gen john 0 sutter sutter of california the man whose name has become almost synonymous with the name dame of a yellow metal so highly prized by mankind gold the result was his decision to seek his fortune in the new world and years ago tills this spring the odyssey of john sutter lie he had changed his name upon his arrival here in america began first a trader on the santa fe trail lie he went to the oregon country in IM made a trip to the sandwich islands and to alaska and finally on july 1 1839 1939 arrived in san francisco then called yerba buena by the mexicans and started on the career in the country which was to make ills his name forever famous at that time most of the settlements in california were along the coast but sutter proposed to go inland and colonize obtaining a land grant from the mexican officials he set out to select a site for his proposed colony in august he arrived at a whore where the amerlean american river joins the sacramento the site of the present capital of california there he established his colony to which he gave the name of new helvetia after his bis homeland of switzerland and erected the fort which was to be the focal point in the empire lie he was to build the story of that empire Is a familiar one how bow he won the friendship of the indians by using just the right mixture of kindness and firmness how they formed a part of 0 the hundreds of ret retainers alDers who tilled the fields and tended the herds and flocks of this feudal lord in the american wilderness how he extended his bis holdings of land until he ruled over nearly acres and how bow he be became the most important figure in all that region both under the mexican rulers and later when california passed from their hands bands into the possession ol of the united states to butlers Sut lers fort came many a notable traveler col john C Q fremont kit carson gen stephen kearney a young lieutenant named william tecumseh sherman and another named W J revere the latter a grandson of paul revere who inherited some of his ancestors talent for drawing and who made the hie sketch of the fort which Is reproduced above from Sut lers fort went out the rescue party which saved the remnants of the ill fated donner party marooned in the snowy sierras in 1817 18 17 and many another stirring chapter in california history was wag enacted in and around the capital of new helvetia many of these are recorded in the extracts from Sut lers diary with which mr dana embellishes bel lishes his biography john sutter could not have realized what history he was recording when he took his pen in hand one day to write this august 1847 1947 A host of mormons cormons here to buy provisions and have blacksmith work done made blade a contract with james wilson marshall for a sawmill to be erected on the american forte fork even more fateful Is the entry tor for the following day august horses shod of many more mormons cormons Mor mons employed nearly all them to work here since cince they seem to be uniformly honest honorable and hardworking hard working james wilson marshall and peter wimmer departed early for the tits to determine a proper sawmill ste eite when sutter suiter wrote that he was writing the doom of new helvetia for the proper sawmill site which marshall and wimmer selected happened to be where some golden fla flaim ketil lay ito wat s X GEN W 6 H eakman near the surface if fat the ground and it 11 was a mormon with booming voice ahoi shouting tl g the news of the discovery in san francisco who started the mad gold rush which ruined john sutter gutter one other fateful entry in diary de n serves quoting on friday january 28 1848 he recorded mr marshall arrived from the on very important business the important business was to show sutter some yellow ellow lakes flakes he had discovered in the tall race of tile the sawmill he was building in the beautiful vale of coloma 40 miles away they tested the flakes it was gold despite Sut lers efforts to keep the discovery a secret the news leaked out A teamster named wittmer hauling provisions to the sawmill learned the news from one of peter wimmers chattering sons wimmer in turn let slip the secret to samuel brannan a mormon elder icho ito had led a colony from the east to california in 1810 had published one of Cali fornias first newspapers in yerba buena for a short time and was now running a store near Sut lers fort brannan was a crafty person if news of the gold dis discovery coNery in the sacramento valley became known it might start a gold rush there the gold seekers would need supplies they could obtain them from elder samuel bran nans dans store therefore so one day in may 1848 a horseman galloped through the main street of san francisco in his right hand band lie ho carried a bottle of glittering yellow grains gold I 1 gold he be cried gold from the american river V 1 it was elder samuel brannan col R B mason american military commander at san francisco paid little heed to the first news of the gold discovery but as the rumors increased his young adjutant allcut W T sherman urged him to investigate so mason gave sherman permission to visit Sut lers fort and learn the truth of these rumors froni from that visit grew a friendship which had an interesting aftermath tor for both sherman and sutter during his visit sherman collected worth of gold nuggets and hurried flurried back to san francisco then he wrote a long report which mason signed and tills this with the nuggets packed in a ten tea caddy was sent by special courier to washington when president polk a little later startled the world with the announcement of the gold discovery in ID california it was sher mans words that lie be quoted what followed Is a familiar story the lust for the golden metal which swept the whole world and sent bent thousands by land and by sea to california Sut lers empire of new helvetia crumbled under the onrush of the gold hungry fort fortune u ne seekers in 1850 california became a state elate and sutter suiter believed that now his property rights would win recognition but he was disappointed in 1851 he realized a longde long de berred ambition that of bringing his wife and children to join him in his new home but the years which followed were sad ones for the man who had bad been king of new helvetia little by little his property slipped away from him court decisions in his favor were followed by others against him soon only one small farm reina remained ined and there came the climax of his misfortunes one night his house was set bet on fire ile he and ills his fain family ly barely escaped with their lives all of 0 his bis deeds and other papers went up in flames fames in october he be started for washington confident that the tae american government would GOLD I 1 from th the AMERICAN RIVER bee that justice wa wab tit tie him it was the beginning of a 14 year fight for justice ile he had the aid of powerful friends one of them william tecumseh sherman now a famous general dut but congress repeatedly turned a deaf ear to his appeals in june ISSO 1880 he made another of his interminable trips to washington I 1 B ton washington was hot that june and getting hotter perspiring members of both houses were eager for an adjournment john Sut lers claim found itself as customary on the ta tag end of the sessions business gen ge I 1 william tecumseh sherman sat in the gallery mopping his face with a handkerchief waiting to carry the good news to the swiss in his hotel room sutter lay on his bed and slept ile he was very weary happy too that this was the last journey he would have to make to washington it was all settled the pittance was to be finally allowed five fire came a knock at the door awakened the general the door opened sherman came in there was a bleakness on him and his lips were straight sutter stood up expectant the claim he said the blue eyes certain its a d d shame general burst out sher man adjourned your claim even go to a vote A strangeness came into the blue eyes they seemed to grow cold and old blue ice they seemed to be ice from a tar far off swiss glacier that eliat suddenly ceased to know the sunlight next year he said clearly next year they will surely i lie ile fell suddenly like a stricken thing back upon the bed sherman ran forward with a cry shifted him slightly held up the white head tenderly john sutter had passed beyond caring for any earthly claim or for the task of sitting the ashes of empire and so the swiss adventurer died but the story of Sut lers gold which ruined him has kept ills his memory alive through all these years As tor for the way in which his career changed the destiny of a nation one historian has summed up the results of the discovery and the enormous production of gold in california during the next half century as follows it raised the price of goods and labor it opened new markets and extended commerce it filled a wilderness with ulab settlers stimulated the development of the pacific coast established new lines of steamships and in time made a transcontinental railroad a necessity it extended the domain of tree free labor on the pacific coast and effectually shut out slavery in all that part of the west and it was one of the causes which induced the majority of the Lint nations lons of europe to lo stop the coinage of silver and to adopt gold as their sole standard money and that is why there Is a connection between the birth of johann augustus suter in a little german village away back in 1803 and the worldwide world wide interest tn in the gold decision of the united states supreme court in washington the other day 0 by western newspaper union |