Sutters Land

John Sutter is associated with the great California Gold Rush.  However, despite his discovery of the rare metal, John Sutter died almost a poor man.  Johann August Suter was Born in Germany on February the 15th 1803.  He later joined the Swiss Army and at age 23 married a rich young widow.  before long, however, Suter accumulated large debts so in 1834 he left his family and voyaged to America.  He had many travels and adventures before he finally settled in California in 1839, where his wife and children rejoined him.  He became a Mexican citizen and was given 48,827 acres and built a settlement that he called New Helvetia, the Latin word for Switzerland. He Built a fort and a town to support and protect his tenants.  in 1848 one of Sutters trusted employees found gold on the property, and before long they were over run with thousands of thieving miners.  Despite his attempts to mine the gold himself, all his workers were keeping the gold for themselves, he eventually tried to sell his land.  However, the agents that he hired to do so cheated him and he ended up deeding the land to his son who proceeded to be very successful and build modern day Sacramento.  Sutter moved to D.C for political purposes and eventually died in a hotel room in 1880.  He lost the majority of his wealth, and is now almost forgotten.  He does, however, have a few schools and geographical areas and landmarks named after him.  He was mentioned in grapes of wrath because of how he originally got his land.  He simply claimed it, and held it until it was officially his.