Talk:John Sutter
|
|
Even though most California school children know his name, he was a commercial failure who resented the fact that his son (John Sutter Jr.) had succeded where he had failed.
Why was this placed in /Talk? maveric149
He was not a commercial failure.
Unfortunetely, I must disagree. Sutter's Fort failed, Sutter's Mill was not profitable, Sutter was not able to take advantage of Marshall's discovery of gold there, Suttervile faded into history, and I remember reading that Sutter died a poor man. Sounds like a commercial failure to me. maveric149
Having been raised in California, I can tell you that the required history texts for California history say Sutter died poor and always point out the historic irony that, despite his pivotal position in the beginnings of the Gold Rush, he made little money from it. JHK
Text in question placed back in article.
Territory
A proper Spanish name would be Nueva Helvecia. Being Sutter a non-native speaker of Spanish, I can't say if that Nuevo Helvetia is historic or a typo. Could you explain what parts of current California New Helvetia covered? I read that the current value of the estate that the 49ers squatted would be enormous, not counting the gold they stole.
- There were two seperate Rancho Neuva Helvetias owned by Sutter, one in current Sacramento County, covering the area in and around Sacramento and one in present Yuba and Sutter Counties, including Marysville and Olivehurst. Sutter also owned Rancho Esquon, south of Chico in Butte County, and Fort Ross in Sonoma County. The property values of these ranchos, and Fort Ross, would be in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars today. (Source for locations of Sutter's land is California a Snapshot in Time 1850, by Janice Marschner, ISBN 0-9677069-3-9). Gentgeen 21:48, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)