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General Sutter's
Death
The news of the death of John A. Sutter, California’s oldest and most notable
pioneer, came to us from the East with terrible suddenness. We all knew that he
was an old man, and not likely, in the course of nature, to live very long; but
we had heard nothing of any serious illness, and were quite unprepared to hear
that he was dead. So many books and articles have been written about Sutter, and
every Californian is so familiar with his wonderful history, that it is
unnecessary to give a detailed biography of him here. To his name attaches the
glory of having practically made California what she now is, for it is quite
within the bounds of reason to believe that if Sutter had never established his
fort in the Sacramento Valley, and thereby formed the nucleus of the foreign
population which afterward gathered about him, California would have remained
under Mexican rule much longer than she did. Nevertheless, in spite of all his
claims on the gratitude of individuals and the Government, Sutter may be said to
have lived and died a wronged and disappointed man. The last years of his life
were spent in struggling to obtain a paltry pension, which the government first
gave and then withheld, and of all the men whom he so generously assisted in
early days none seems to served him well when their positions were reversed.
Peace be to the brave old man’s ashes!
San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser
June 26, 1880
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