FROM MERCHANT SHOPS TO MUSEUM: THE FORT AFTER SUTTER. A Thesis. Presented to the faculty of the Department of History

Transcription

1 FROM MERCHANT SHOPS TO MUSEUM: THE FORT AFTER SUTTER A Thesis Presented to the faculty of the Department of History California State University, Sacramento Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History (Public History) by Jared Arthur Jones SUMMER 2017

2 2017 Jared Arthur Jones ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii

3 FROM MERCHANT SHOPS TO MUSEUM: THE FORT AFTER SUTTER A Thesis by Jared Arthur Jones Approved by:, Committee Chair Dr. Anne Lindsay, Second Reader Dr. Patrick Ettinger Date iii

4 Student: Jared Arthur Jones I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this thesis is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the thesis., Graduate Coordinator Dr. Anne Lindsay Date Department of History iv

5 Abstract of FROM MERCHANT SHOPS TO MUSEUM: THE FORT AFTER SUTTER by Jared Arthur Jones The history of Sutter s Fort from the beginning of the Gold Rush to its reconstruction in the 1890s is important in understanding how the Fort became a dilapidated relic of Sacramento s past and became a reconstructed monument to pioneer times. The history of the Fort after John Sutter is a history often overlooked by historians. While the Fort s significance to California history is focused on the events there in the 1840s, the Fort played an intimate role in Sacramento history in the later nineteenth century and helped foster a romanticism for a time prior to statehood. Sutter s Fort sparked the preservation movement in California, and the Fort continues to be a lasting symbol of pioneer times in California. Sutter s Fort is the exemplar that a community can make a difference to prevent further destruction of a historic site and preserve it for future generations., Committee Chair Dr. Anne Lindsay Date v

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this Public History program and thesis would not have been possible without the support and guidance of many individuals. First of all, interest in this subject matter started as a simple display for the Sacramento Old City Association s 2014 Home Tours. Then president of SOCA, William Burg, brought the subject to my attention. Because of the overwhelming public interest in the subject, I decided to research further and make the topic my thesis. Steve Beck, a 20+ year veteran of Sutter's Fort, and Fort docents Jennifer Sallee, Bill Pickering, Steve and Judy Prey, and Carol Toyama encouraged me throughout the Public History program and helped make this thesis possible by patiently listening to my ramblings and research questions. An extra special thank you to Cheryl Stapp, a Fort docent and accomplished historical author, for her tireless help, encouragement and guidance throughout this entire process. I would like to thank my family and friends for all their continued support. The courses through the Public History program built a camaraderie amongst the students and created lifelong friendships. I would also like to thank the History Department faculty for offering inspiring courses to prepare future historians for careers in the field. I would like to thank Dr. Lindsay and Dr. Ettinger for serving as readers for my thesis. vi

7 Most of all, I would like to thank Dr. Scott Lupo. Dr. Lupo was a mentor throughout my undergraduate career, who helped shape me into the historian I am today. His guidance, insight, encouragement, and most of all friendship helped me through the challenges of being accepted into the Public History program and certainly throughout my time in the program itself. He was and still is a listening ear, guiding hand, and genuinely wonderful human being for which I could not have found the success I did in the program without him. He is a historian with a unique perspective on a plethora of different subject areas who adds value to anything and anyone he works with. I would not be where I am today as a student of history without Dr. Lupo. vii

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements... vi List of Figures... ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION JOHN SUTTER AND THE FORMATION OF SUTTER S FORT THE FORT AFTER SUTTER PRESERVATION AND RECONSTRUCTION CONCLUSION Bibliography viii

9 Figures LIST OF FIGURES Page 1. Heinrich Kunzel s Map of Sutter s Fort, Joseph Warren Revere s drawing of Sutter s Fort, A map of Sutter s Fort illustrating property sales between 1848 and Copy of Alden Bayley s letter to the California State Legislature Drawing of Sutter s Fort in 1851 facing southwest Copy of a Lithograph illustrating Sutter s Fort, Photograph of the dilapidated Central Building, late 1880s Illustration of Sutter s Fort as it appeared in Illustration of C.E. Grunsky s plans for the Fort s reconstruction. 68 ix

10 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Sutter s Fort is intimately intertwined with many aspects of Sacramento s history and is rooted in California s heritage. Some of the events or topics that are tied to the Fort s history include California s Mexican period, relations with Native Americans, the Bear Flag Revolt, the Mexican-American War, the Donner Party rescue, and, of course, the beginning of the California Gold Rush. Notable figures of California s past such as John Bidwell, Peter Lassen, John C. Fremont, Christopher Kit Carson, Lansford Hastings, Mariano Vallejo, Sam Brannan, and James Marshall all spent time within the walls of the Fort. With regard to local or regional history, John Sutter was responsible for bringing a European settlement to the Central Valley and his son, John Sutter Jr., was responsible for the founding of the city of Sacramento. The Central Building at Sutter s Fort is the oldest permanent structure in the Sacramento Valley and has stood upon the knoll where the Fort was built since It is, however, the only original part of the Fort. The surrounding walls and rooms were rebuilt in the 1890s. Once the reconstruction was finished, Sutter s Fort opened its doors as a museum in 1895 and has been a museum ever since. Today, Sutter s Fort is a museum and a part of the California State Parks system and since The State Park receives over 100,000 visitors a year from all over the world, with about 60,000 of those visitors being fourth grade students visiting the Fort on field trips. Roughly 3,000 fourth graders stay overnight at Sutter s Fort each school year

11 2 as part of the Environmental Living Program. Evolving programs and interpretation help draw patrons to visit and experience California s pioneer past. 1 While visiting the Fort, patrons see how the Fort looked in the years , which are the standard interpretive years for the State Park. This is illustrated through house museum rooms furnished with replicas of items and material culture. Audio boxes interpret twenty-one rooms as visitors go on the self-guided tour. An orientation exhibit houses some of the original artifacts from the Sutter s Fort collection, and exhibit panels discuss the history of John Sutter and the Fort. The exhibit rooms interpretive period is from 1803 to the present. 2 This covers Sutter s birth in 1803 through his death in 1880, and also a full history of the Fort. There is, however, minimal interpretation at the museum that covers the history of Sutter s Fort during the Gold Rush ( ) through to the Fort s reconstruction in the 1890s. There is so much more to the Fort s history than just the years preceding the Gold Rush. Research at local archival facilities, libraries, and the Sacramento Recorder s Office has uncovered newfound primary source documents of Sutter s Fort that reveal important aspects of the Fort s post-1850 use and its reconstruction. Despite a consensus that the site was abandoned by the mid-1850s, evidence indicates that individuals lived at Sutter s Fort in the decades after the 1850s. Romantic views of the Gold Rush and early Sacramento development ultimately led historical societies, such as the Native Sons of the Golden West, to reconstruct the 1 California State Parks, 2015 Monthly Attendance for Sutter s Fort SHP, Sutter s Fort SHP Modern Archive Files. 2 Henry R. Agonia, Sutter s Fort State Historic Park: General Plan, Department of Parks and Recreation, October 1989, 44.

12 3 Fort as a pioneer monument in the 1890s. Their vision was that the reconstructed Fort was to be a testament to the perseverance of the pioneers who traveled overland to California in the 1840s and those who braved settlement in the Central Valley, not just an ode to John Sutter. 3 The Fort s reconstruction is now recognized as the first major preservation project in California. It is also the first restored fort in the United States. 4 The reconstruction of Sutter s Fort sparked the preservation movement in California. The Native Sons of the Golden West and the Sutter s Fort Board of Trustees, both responsible for orchestrating the Fort s preservation, turned their attention in 1901 to preserving other California landmarks, such as the Custom House and Colton Hall in Monterey. The California Historic Landmarks League was created a year later by the Native Sons. 5 The National Register of Historic Places lists the period of significance for Sutter s Fort in the 1840s for its connection to early California history. The National Register also lists the period of significance for the Fort in the 1890s for its prototype of an early reconstructed building. 6 When my internship started at Sutter s Fort State Historic Park in January 2014, I immediately engulfed myself in all available information about the institution in order to be successful in answering questions for the public. This was very important as I was a 3 The Old Sutter Fort: Restored to the Coming Generations of California, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 85, No. 56, 27 April Cecil McKithan, Sutter s Fort, National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, December ; Brenda Denise Frink, Pioneers and Patriots: Race, Gender, and Historical Memory in California, , (PhD diss., Stanford University, 2010), Charles B. Hosmer Jr., Presence of the Past: A History of the Preservation Movement in the United States Before Williamsburg, (New York: Putnam, 1965), City of Sacramento, Sacramento 2035 General Plan, Adopted March 3, 2015, part 2, page 143. < McKlitchin, Sutter s Fort.

13 4 tour guide and responsible for updating brochures, handouts, and other materials for visitors. What I found was that there was no clear information to some of the most frequently asked questions by visitors: Is the Fort original?, Who did Sutter sell the Fort to?, Why did he sell the Fort?, and What happened to the Fort after Sutter left? I attempted to find answers to these questions to not only help the visitors at the Fort, but also the staff and docents who were frequently asked as well. The Fort after Sutter project began as an effort to recover information concerning the Fort between the years 1849 and Hero Eugene Rensch, a California State Parks historian during the mid-1950s, attempted to write a history on this project after finding a historic map of Sutter s Fort while researching at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. His project and research, unfortunately, were set aside when he was contracted to research the historic buildings of Old Sacramento in an effort to save the historic district from destruction. Rensch never continued his research on the post-1850 history of the Fort and chose to focus more on the map published by Heinrich Kunzel that he found at the Bancroft Library. 7 Sacramento and Sutter historians have only touched briefly on this subject. Most of the scholarly work on the subject, moreover, is often conflicting in the grand narrative. 7 Hero Eugene Rensch, The True Bearing of Sutter s Fort, Division of Beaches and Parks, July 1960, Sutter s Fort State Historic Park.

14 5 Figure 1: The Kunzel Map translated from German to English by Michael S. Tucker. This map illustrates the layout of the Fort prior to the Gold Rush. Courtesy of the Sutter s Fort Modern Archives. 8 I started this project by browsing through archival files at the Fort. Most of the documented sales of the Fort property are located at the Sacramento County Recorder s 8 Heinrich Kunzel, Das Fort Neu Helvetien, (Darmstadt: C.W. Leske, 1848). The book translated to English means The New Helvetia Fort.

15 6 Office and the Center for Sacramento History. The Fort did not have copies of this information. The Center holds most of the property deeds of the time period contained in large ledger books, and the Recorder s Office has many deeds in digital form on their research computers. A lot of the information I obtained is cross referenced with newspaper articles and advertisements from the Placer Times, Sacramento Union, and other newspapers found on microfilm at the California State Library. The Sutter s Fort Archives also has notes, plans, and journals pertaining to the reconstruction and early museum period. Why is the history of the Fort after Sutter important? After all, most historians touch on the subject ever so briefly. The citizens of Sacramento neglected to care about the Fort after the Gold Rush until there was a threat by the city council to destroy what was left of the Fort s remains. The Fort s significance to California history largely pertains to a time when the site was still owned by Sutter, not afterwards. Sutter s Fort has come to represent not the reality of the Gold Rush or the Mexican or early American periods, but a constructed memory of the pioneer era that has more to do with its history after Sutter, than with its period of significance to California history generally. Once Sutter sold the Fort at the beginning of the Gold Rush, the Fort took on a new identity. It was a merchant shop for miners, a relief shelter during floods, a private residence, and soon a romanticized symbol for Sacramento s pioneer past. Through analyzing the history of the Fort post-sutter we can see how and why the Fort fell into disrepair and how it was restored to become a monument to California s pioneer past. The events of the

16 7 Fort post-sutter helped shape public memory of what Sacramento thought was significant to their history and how as a community their history would be preserved. The Fort after Sutter is the story of the transformation of an agricultural and manufacturing center into California s first shopping mall, which housed stores for goldseeking argonauts. It is a story of destruction, and also the rebuilding of an old relic. Through the vision of concerned citizens and fraternal organizations, we see the beginnings of a preservation movement in California. Above all, it is the story of the oldest, and still thriving, museum in California. Understanding the Fort after Sutter helps us understand how local citizens decided to preserve one of the state s oldest structure and started a dialogue about other sites worthy of preservation. This thesis will help explain a section of the Fort s history that has largely been overlooked in scholarship. It can also serve as an aid for updating the Fort s interpretation and for updating the Fort s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This work is separated into three chapters. The first chapter discusses the life of John Sutter and Sutter s Fort before This chapter will provide a concise synopsis of John Sutter and the role of the Fort up until the Gold Rush. It will establish for the reader the importance the Fort played as trading post, the Fort s significance in western migration, and introduce the reader to the controversial legacies of Sutter through a historiographical analysis. It is important to discuss how the Fort was created and the events that preceded John Sutter selling the Fort. The second chapter will discuss the Fort after Sutter. This chapter will contain the bulk of the original research I have completed on the ownership and use of the Fort from

17 8 the first property sales on December 28, 1848 to the Fort as a dilapidated structure in the late 1880s. Through the analysis of the Fort from 1848 to 1889, we can see how the Fort was larger than the reconstructed Fort in the 1890s, how the original Fort was destroyed, and the building of public memory surrounding the site. It will discuss events up to the eve of efforts to purchase and restore the Fort by the Native Sons of the Golden West. The third chapter will focus on the Fort s preservation. This chapter will discuss, put into context, and interpret the efforts in the 1890s to preserve Sutter s Fort. It will give an overview of historic preservation efforts during this period, but will also put the Fort s reconstruction into the context of California history of the time, and in particular the efforts made by pioneer heritage groups to preserve California s cultural heritage and shape public memory. The conclusion will discuss the impact of the Fort s reconstruction and a brief discussion of the Fort s transformation into a museum. It will also summarize the arguments made in this thesis and how this thesis will add to our understanding of the Fort after Sutter.

18 9 Chapter 2 JOHN SUTTER AND THE FORMATION OF SUTTER S FORT California history and the history of Sacramento cannot be discussed without mentioning John Augustus Sutter. His history is well-known. His name is incorporated in the title of many Sacramento businesses. Numerous works by scholars and amateur historians, including eight biographies, have been written. John Sutter is known to history as the first land baron in the Sacramento Valley, the original proprietor of Sutter s Fort, and the agent in the 1848 gold discovery in California. What Sutter achieved in his life is greatly attributed to luck and ambition. Sutter s Fort, especially the Central Building, is the oldest structure in the Sacramento Valley. The Fort was not only Sutter s home near the confluence of two major rivers, but also the hub of his manufacturing and agricultural empire. The Fort was not only a trading post, but also the destination for weary pioneers traversing the California overland trail. In order to understand how Sutter s Fort became such a lasting symbol of pioneer times for California, a discussion of its founder and its initial construction must be discussed. Sutter historians have struggled with discussing his life and the Fort. Due to his own invented and not-so-factual persona, John Sutter was a complex historical figure whose history is not always correct or readily accepted. 9 He is also viewed as a founding father for the Sacramento region and even the state of California. His history is wrought in myth, challenged by individuals with preconceived notions of him, and is difficult to 9 Many individuals visited Sutter s Fort in the 1840s and wrote of their experience. These men met Sutter and mostly gave an overly positive description of him. Sutter, however, perpetuated many false aspects of his past. The most glaring myth he told travelers was his supposed military service in the Swiss Guard under Charles X of France. For further discussion of Sutter s false claims see Hubert H. Bancroft, History of California: Vol. 5 (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886),

19 10 grasp without knowing the context. There is a reason new works on Sutter continue to be published. Interpretation has changed with passing decades, and newfound artifacts and documents help provide a new understanding of the Sacramento region s founder and his old establishment. The first historians to write a biographical work on Sutter often portrayed him as a god-like figure and romanticized the Fort for its connection to pioneer times before statehood. Thomas Schoonover, author of the first biography of Sutter in 1895 that was not part of a larger work on California history, described Sutter as immortal and first in class of God s noblemen. 10 Schoonover firmly placed Sutter on a pedestal, a perspective of Sutter that was quite common at the time of publication. The year Schoonover s work was originally published was when the Fort was just reconstructed and opened as a museum. Julian Dana s Sutter of California further perpetuated the myth of Sutter as a man without controversy by arguing, Adventure such as he sought is for the valiant courageous not only against peril of body but the venomtipped lances of criticism.john Sutter was one of the most human fellows who ever dared to do the things you and I dream of doing. 11 This book continued the heroic perspective of Sutter and offers little critical insight into the life of Sutter or the Fort. It was not until the 1939 publication of James Peter Zollinger s Sutter: The Man and His Empire that a formal, well-researched biography of Sutter was in print. The book was published the same year that marked the hundredth anniversary of Sutter s arrival in California. He made extensive note of Sutter s life prior to California and after the Gold Rush, a segment in Sutter s life unwritten in previous biographies. Zollinger, an 10 Thomas Schoonover, The Life and Times of General John Sutter, (Sacramento: Press of Bullock-Carpenter Printing Co, 1907), Julian Dana, Sutter of California, (New York: Halcyon House, 1934), vii.

20 11 American of German heritage, located new primary source documents in Europe and the United States that enabled him to write a more critical analysis of Sutter and the Fort. One of these sources, which Zollinger read as a manuscript in the original German, was Heinrich Lienhard s memoirs. In 1941, Marguerite Wilber translated sections and published Lienhard s memoirs, entitled A Pioneer at Sutter s Fort. Lienhard was an employee at Sutter s Fort from 1846 to Lienhard documented daily life at Sutter s Fort in his memoirs and offered a perspective of Sutter that was quite different from what other contemporaries described of Sutter. Lienhard discussed Sutter s problems with alcohol, his failed business activities, and his treatment of the Native American population in the region. What emerged from Zollinger s book was Sutter as a human and far more three-dimensional man than in previous works. Sutter was not a hero in this book, nor was he a lying fraud. Zollinger dived deep into the tarnished private life of Sutter, a subject that was largely unwritten or unknown to previous historians. He also wrote a brief history of the Fort after the gold discovery and mentioned the Fort s transition during the Gold Rush. New Left revisionist history dominated the scholarship of Sutter starting in 1967 with Richard Dillon s Fool s Gold: The Decline and Fall of Captain John Sutter of California. Dillon was unapologetic when it came to Sutter s failures, hence the title of the book. According to Dillon, Sutter s life is not one of tragedy, but of irony. 12 Sutter was no longer a hero for California, but a man who lost it all for reasons he brought on himself. 12 Richard Dillon, Fool s Gold: The Decline and Fall of Captain John Sutter of California, (Santa Cruz: Western Tanager, 1967), 352.

21 12 Ken Owens 2002 publication of a collection of essays by historians in John Sutter & A Wider West continued Dillon s perspective of Sutter and the role of Sutter s Fort. Owens work took a step further and made Sutter out to be a villain in the history of the American West. This book was less a biography than an analysis into the controversies surrounding Sutter, which were selectively chosen from Lienhard s memoirs. Many of the historians in Owens collection chose to look at Sutter s actions as if they happened today. They used twentieth century morals on nineteenth century customs to view Sutter, and what we would think is politically correct, to analyze his actions. Some concepts that were raised throughout Owens book are the desertion of his family, failed business endeavors, Sutter s alcoholism, his contribution to the destruction of natural life for the California Indians, and civilizing the Central Valley. This is most prevalent in Patricia Nelson Limerick s chapter titled John Sutter: Prototype for Failure. She referenced Lienhard s memoirs to perpetuate these claims, but did not add context to her source. 13 Throughout Owens' book, the Fort was not viewed as a business center, a safe-haven for weary travelers, and a symbol for California s pioneer past, but rather a center for misery, mistreatment, and a stain on California s past. These concepts remained prevalent in the most recent biography of John Sutter by Albert Hurtado. Hurtado s John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier was published in Hailed as the definitive biography of John Augustus Sutter, Albert Hurtado sought to build from previous Sutter works and an extensive number of primary sources to argue the full life of Sutter and the context of the time period he lived in. He detailed every part 1994), Kenneth N. Owens, John Sutter & A Wider West, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,

22 13 of Sutter s life and also placed Sutter in the context of his time. Hurtado stated that his book is not a hero s tale. I have tried to sketch a fair and accurate account of Sutter s life that portrays his strengths and failings. 14 In the effort to argue a new interpretation of Sutter, Hurtado chose to highlight Sutter s alcoholism throughout his life and also Sutter s treatment of the California Indians. Hurtado s research is often referenced by recent authors when discussing the treatment of California Indians prior to statehood. His biography strengthened the controversy about Sutter and the Fort and has continued Sacramento to be more critical of its founder. Hurtado helped shape the recent interpretation of Sutter and the role the Fort played at Sutter s Fort s Orientation Room and continued the inquiry into Sutter s role in California history. The current interpretation of John Sutter at the Fort no longer places Sutter on a pedestal, but rather as a man in the time period he lived and his faults. Because Hurtado discussed topics that were not argued by previous historians, it presented more avenues for further research. Sutter s Fort is viewed by historians as a fur trapping post, a manufacturing center, a resting place for travelers and incoming immigrants, a military fort, and a structure used to impose European civilization on the local native population. While many scholars tackle the complex, and sometimes controversial, history of John Sutter and his significance, they tend to focus more on his life, not on the Fort. The history of the Fort after Sutter is largely overlooked as it does not easily fit into the rest of the 14 Albert Hurtado, John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), viii.

23 14 narrative on Sutter s life. The Fort s history is usually summed up briefly in Sutter biographies or contained in larger works about the history of Sacramento. California and Sacramento historians view the Fort quite differently than those who have written biographies of Sutter. The Fort itself holds an identity that is independent from John Sutter and played an intimate role in the history of Sacramento long after Sutter left. Dr. John F. Morse s early history of Sacramento, written in 1853, discussed the Fort briefly as part of the formation of Sacramento City. He mentioned businesses that operated at the Fort in but did not mention their locations. The Fort was mentioned only to add context to the formation of the first businesses in the city. 15 Theodore Hittel s 1885 History of California discussed the Fort in the context of the discovery of gold. 16 Hubert Howe Bancroft s seven volume History of California discussed Sutter and the Fort in detail. While Bancroft is critical of Sutter, he is not so of the Fort. He discussed the Fort in connection to the Gold Rush but not its history after These early California historians and the Sutter historians before Richard Dillon all hold something in common when they discussed the Fort. Their romanticism of the Fort centers on the Fort s connection to the Gold Rush, but they do not discuss much on the Fort s role during the Gold Rush or the impact the Gold Rush had on the Fort. Recent Sacramento historians discuss Sutter s Fort as an introduction to how the Gold Rush started or how Sacramento was founded. Thor Severson s 1973 book titled Sacramento: An Illustrated History to 1874 discussed the founding of Sacramento 15 Dr. John F. Morse, History of Sacramento, in Samuel Colville, Sacramento Directory for the Year , 1854, Theodore Hittel, History of California, (San Francisco: Pacific Press Publishing House, 1885),

24 15 and how Sutter s Fort existed prior to the city. Severson mentioned a couple stores that operated at the Fort, but stated the Fort was abandoned once the city was founded. 17 J.S. Holliday s Rush for Riches placed Sutter s Fort in the context of the Gold Rush and discussed the impact the Gold Rush had on the Fort. He discussed initial destruction of walls and early romanticism of the Fort. 18 Mark Eifler continued the tradition of previous Sacramento historians in his 2002 book, Gold Rush Capitalists, by offering a discussion of Sutter s Fort just prior to the formation of Sacramento City but no discussion of the site after A Sacramento historian to offer a real discussion of the Fort after 1850 was Steven Avella in Sacramento: Indomitable City. Avella briefly discussed the dilapidation of the Fort after the Gold Rush and the impact Sutter s Fort had in fostering nostalgia for Sacramento s past. Avella discussed the role local pioneer organizations played in fostering that nostalgia. He does not expand on this topic for more than a paragraph. 19 There is, however, a gap that is still prevalent in these authors works. There is significant research on the Fort to 1849 and there is a common understanding as to how the Fort was reconstructed in the 1890s. What is missing from the historiography is a history of the Fort from and the significance of this period to the history of Sacramento. The history of the Fort from 1849 to the 1880s puts into context how the Fort was destroyed and how it became a lasting symbol of California s pioneer past. 17 Thor Severson, Sacramento An Illustrated History: 1839 to 1874, (San Francisco: California Historical Society, 1973), J.S. Holliday, Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Steven Avella, Sacramento: Indomitable City, (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2003)

25 16 The history of construction of the Fort from its initial plans to its completion in 1844 is largely agreed upon by historians. The Fort s role in New Helvetia, the name of Sutter s Mexican land grant, is a subject of debate. The Fort was the first non-native permanent structure in the Sacramento Valley and was the headquarters of Sutter s agricultural empire. While it initially served not military purpose, the Fort had a military presence and represented the center of authority over the Native population that inhabited the area. What becomes the prominent narrative in public memory in the later nineteenth century is that the Fort has little to no connection to the Native population that inhabited the area or even that the Fort was agricultural and manufacturing center. What is prominent in public memory is the Fort s connection to the Gold Rush. The Fort s connection to the Gold Rush still supersedes its other significant events. In order to understand how Sutter s Fort was initially constructed and became such a prominent structure in early California, however, we need to review Sutter s life and ambitions. John Sutter was born February 15, 1803 in Kandern, a small village in the Duchy of Baden and grew up in his parents Swiss household. Kandern today is in southwestern Germany near the border with Switzerland. After completing his schooling in Switzerland, Sutter became an apprentice with a publishing house in Basle. Soon after the apprenticeship ended in 1823, he met Anna Dubeld and moved to Burgdorf, her hometown. They were married there in In 1828, Sutter opened a dry goods store in Burgdorf named Sutter and Company. By 1834, due to unwise business decisions, Sutter

26 17 floundered in crippling debt. 20 Instead of going to debtor s prison, Sutter fled Europe, leaving behind his wife and five children dependent on Anna s sister and brother-in-law. After arriving in New York in 1834, Sutter moved to Missouri, where he was involved in the Santa Fe trade for a short time. By this time, Sutter had re-invented himself as Captain John Sutter, formerly of the elite Swiss Guard under Charles X of France. 21 Westport, Missouri, the farthest west edge of civilization in the United States, was a mixing pot of traders, settlers, and fur trappers. Alta California, owned by Mexico, was only populated along the Pacific coast. Many of the fur trappers spread word of the unsettled and rich California lands suited for agriculture. Upon hearing news of California and the abundance of open land, Sutter decided to move farther west. Sutter s route to California was quite circuitous. He departed from Westport in April 1838 with fur trappers and arrived at Fort Vancouver in October From Fort Vancouver, he boarded a Hudson s Bay Company ship for the Sandwich Islands, presentday Hawaii. Sutter missed passage for California by two weeks and travel from the islands to California was not frequent. He spent five months on the islands and even met King Kamehameha III, the king of the Sandwich Islands. Under a labor contract with the governor of Honolulu, Sutter was given ten Hawaiian workers to help him on his journey and become his employees in California. The workers were to be paid ten dollars per month for three years; Sutter was to pay for their voyage back home after three years but 20 Hurtado, John Sutter, Zollinger, Sutter, 35. Bancroft notes that Sutter s service under Charles X is pure fiction. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California: Vol. 4, (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886), 123. It was not until four years before Sutter s death did he find the courage to deny the truth of serving in the military under the French Government. 22 Zollinger, Sutter,

27 18 they elected to never return to the Sandwich Islands. 23 From Oahu, Sutter joined a crew on a ship called the Clementine, which was on its way to Fort Sitka in Alaska. From there he traveled south to California. Captain Sutter finally arrived in Monterey, the capital of Alta California, on July 2, Upon Sutter s arrival in Monterey, he met with California governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, who allowed him to settle in Alta California. Sutter chose the Central Valley. In August, Sutter sailed up the Sacramento River with a small fleet, captained by William Heath Davis, Jr. Davis led the boats up the river so far that the crew threatened to mutiny. They returned to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. However, the mosquitoes so tormented the crew that most of them wished to return to the coast with Davis. On August 12, 1839, Sutter stepped off the boat near the foot of present-day 28th Street with ten Hawaiians, three craftsmen he met on his travel, and a large bulldog. Sutter fired a cannon in salute as the boats headed back down the river. He and his landing party immediately moved to higher ground where they pitched tents and mounted three cannons. He called his settlement New Helvetia (New Switzerland). This was an effort to hopefully attract German and Swiss individuals to travel to his new home. 25 After Sutter settled, Indians from surrounding villages came to his camp. They sought gifts from the new settler because he had promised presents to a few Indians he met along the river banks before he landed. The natives in the area were quite hesitant of 23 Hurtado, John Sutter, Of the ten Hawaiians that journeyed with Sutter, two of them were women. One of the women, Manuiki, was Sutter s girlfriend. Sutter and Manuiki s relationship continued for many years until she married Harry, one of the other Hawaiians. For more information on Sutter in Hawaii see WIlliam J. Breault, John A Sutter In Hawaii and California , (Rancho Cordova: Landmark Enterprises, 1998). 24 Zollinger, Sutter, Hurtado, John Sutter,

28 19 Sutter s arrival, but he was able to communicate with some former mission neophytes who knew Spanish, a language he had somewhat learned in Missouri. He assured them that he was there to settle and live amongst them and to be friends. He also assured that he was not associated with the Californios of the coast whom the natives had little respect for. 26 Despite this, Sutter stated in his fractured English, The Indians was first troublesome, and came frequently, and would it not have been for the Cannons they would have Killed us for sake of my property, which they liked very much, and this intention they had very often, how they have confessed to me afterwards, when on good terms. 27 Despite intimidation, Sutter lacked the manpower and supplies to ever defend from attack. Sutter s establishment was never attacked during its existence, however. Sutter s first goal was to create a permanent settlement that could become a trading post for travelers. He chose an elevated location, to avoid the possibility of flooding, as the central point for his growing empire. With the help of the ten Hawaiians who voyaged with him and natives from the local Indian villages, Sutter created the first permanent structure in the Central Valley. William Wiggins, who visited Sutter at New Helvetia in 1840, described in his recollections that Sutter s residence was a one-story adobe with three rooms. Around it were a number of huts of tule. 28 By the summer of 1841, Sutter and his Indian workers finished building what has become known as the Central Building, a large two story structure made out of mud brick. After obtaining 26 Zollinger, Sutter, John A. Sutter, edited by Douglas S. Watson, The Diary of Johann August Sutter, (San Francisco: The Grabborn Press, 1932), William Wiggins, Reminiscences of California, 1877, Bancroft Library, 3-4. Wiggins journeyed overland to Oregon in 1839 and came to California from there by ship. He arrived in Bodega in 1840 and visited the Russian settlement Fort Ross. He then traveled to New Helvetia and John Marsh s ranch afterwards. He served during the Micheltorena campaign and traveled back east overland in For more information on Wiggins see Bancroft, History of California, 5:774.

29 20 Mexican citizenship, Sutter was eligible to apply for a land grant. On July 18, 1841, Sutter received eleven square leagues (48,818 acres) of land subject to certain conditions. Two of these conditions were to settle twelve families on his grant and to uphold Mexican law in the interior. Alvarado gave Sutter the title of Justice of the Peace on the northern frontier; Sutter felt he needed a Fort to protect his interests. 29 Sea captain William Dane Phelps visited Sutter s settlement in July He noted in his journal that Sutter s plans included shops for blacksmiths, carpenters, and coopers. 30 Yet when the Bidwell-Bartleson Party, the first overland immigrants to come to California, arrived at New Helvetia in November 1841 there was no Fort. 31 Building it was a continuing process for Sutter in the early 1840s; he wanted to have a fortification like the Spanish-built Presidios or the Russian settlement on the coast. To complete his growing empire, Sutter successfully made alliances with local Nisenan and Miwok village chiefs who provided most of his workforce. He continued to acquire on credit from other ranchos needed supplies and materials to support New Helvetia in its infancy. Sutter s Fort could not have been completed in such a short time if it was not for Sutter s purchase of Fort Ross, a Russian fur trapping and agricultural settlement along the Pacific coast just north of Bodega Bay. The Russians were never successful agriculturally, primarily because the wheat crops did not yield their full potential in 29 Zollinger, Sutter, William Dane Phelps, Alta California : The Jornal and Observations of William Dane Phelps Master of the Ship Alert, (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1983), 197. John Bidwell, Echoes of the past about California, (Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1928), John Bidwell, in his early twenties, was the leader of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party of He was employed by Sutter for many years as a clerk. He considered Sutter a dear friend and his memoirs are overly positive about his experience in New Helvetia. Later in life he founded the city of Chico. He was a Congressman in the 1860s and even ran for president of the United States in 1892 as the Prohibition Party candidate.

30 21 coastal conditions. The Russians were thinking of abandoning the settlement by the late 1830s, as the otter population dwindled. 32 On December 13, 1841, Sutter purchased the Russian fort and its stock for thirty thousand dollars on credit, but not the land. 33 Sutter sent several men, including John Bidwell, to dismantle parts of Fort Ross and bring the materials and other goods to New Helvetia. A Russian schooner, which Sutter acquired as part of the purchase, made frequent trips to Fort Ross to bring to his Fort all the property that was movable and anything that could be utilized, including several wooden buildings. 34 The walls of Sutter s Fort were not completed by this time, but the materials and tools from Fort Ross helped complete the process. Other items transported to New Helvetia from Fort Ross included large wooden gates, brass cannon, French Charleville muskets, livestock, sheds, tools for cooperage and carpentry, a blacksmithing forge, furniture and bedding, fruit trees, wooden fences, and the aforementioned thirty-five foot schooner. 35 Numerous travelers, cartographers, and land promoters visited New Helvetia. Many of them wrote in detail how Sutter s Fort looked and gave descriptions. Many of the descriptions were written before the Fort was completed and were based on Sutter s plans. Lansford Hastings wrote a detailed description of Sutter s Fort as it looked in 1843 in his Emigrants Guide: 32 Hurtado, John Sutter, Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California, Volume 21, (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886), Mariano Vallejo also proposed to purchase Ross but his bid was far lower than what Sutter offered. Sutter purchased Ross sight unseen. 34 Ibid, Glenn J. Farris, So Far From Home: Russians in Early California, (Berkeley: Heyday, 2012), See pages given for complete inventory of Ross and surrounding farms which Sutter acquired as well.

31 In form, it is a sexangular oblong, its greatest length being 428 feet, and its greatest width, 178 feet; 233 feet of its length being 178 feet wide, and the residue but 129 feet wide. It is inclosed [sic] by permanent "adobie" [sic] walls which are 18 feet high, and three feet thick, with bastions at the corners, the walls of which, are five feet thick. It is entered by three large swinging gates, one of which, is on the north, another on the south side, and the third at the east end There are two bastions, each of which has four guns, two nine-pounders, and two six-pounders; and in all, there are twelve guns, of different caliber. The inner building, of this fort, consist of a large and commodious residence, for the various officers, in connection with which, is a large kitchen, a dining room, two large parlors, the necessary offices, shops and lodging apartments. Besides these, there is also a distillery, a horse-mill and a magazine, together with barracks, for the accommodation of, at least, one thousand soldiers. 36 Hastings description of the Fort is considered to be the most accurate description among contemporaries because it was quite similar to the map illustrated by Heinrich Kunzel. The Kunzel map detailed the locations of rooms and their dimensions of the Fort in The dimensions Hastings detailed were consistent with some of the property deeds of the Fort that will be discussed in the next chapter. Construction began on the walls of the Fort in 1842 and by 1845, the Fort was as completed as it ever would be; it took about four years to fully construct the buildings and the surrounding walls. 37 As shown in Hastings description above, the structures and buildings were made from mud or adobe brick. This was not a common building material in the valley as the Indians did not use adobe for their homes. However, adobe was used in the construction of the missions and rancho buildings throughout the California coast. Sutter used mud bricks as a building material to save on lumber. Many of Sutter s Native laborers once worked at the missions and knew of adobe construction as well. The Lansford Hastings, The Emigrant s Guide to Oregon and California, 1845, Sutter, The Diary of Johann August Sutter, 18.

32 23 Central Building was composed of mud brick instead of adobe as Sutter did not have adequate straw from wheat crops in the first couple years of his settlement. Figure 2: Drawing by Joseph Warren Revere from his work, A Tour of Duty in California. This was drawn in 1847 and depicted the Fort s appearance in The drawing is considered quite accurate in visualizing how the Central Building, corrals, south gate, walls, bastions, and exterior buildings looked. The image also depicts some of Sutter s Indian soldiers pacing outside the Fort with muskets. 38 With the completion of the large, secure walls, Sutter was able to market the Fort as a safe location for American emigrants. An economic depression in the mid-1840s spurred the American population to move westward toward Oregon and California. Overland companies made their way by wagon train to New Helvetia in the hope for prosperity, opportunity, and better health. When they arrived at the Fort, John Sutter or a head clerk would record the names of the wagon parties, and often transfers of goods between Sutter and the immigrants, in the New Helvetia Diary, the fort s daily logbook Joseph Warren Revere, A Tour of Duty in California, (New York: C.S. Francis & Co, 1849), v. 39 The New Helvetia Diary began on September 5, 1845 and ended on May 25, There is a gap in the diary during the Mexican-American War when Sutter is not in control of the Fort. This also means there is no mention of the Donner Party rescue in the diary. The diary simply ends when all of

33 24 Sutter s Fort became a colony of people of many ethnicities and different backgrounds, and all helped develop the Sacramento Valley. The Fort employed Indians and settlers for many jobs, among them were cooks, bakers, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, vaqueros, gardeners, carpenters, chandlers, and weavers. 40 Despite setbacks, such as failed wheat crops caused by bad weather or neglect because of war, Sutter was on his way to becoming very successful. He had alliances with local Nisenan villages, and wealthy businessmen routinely traded at the Fort. Sutter reluctantly became a part of the Bear Flag Rebellion in June 1846 when General Mariano Vallejo was captured in Sonoma and imprisoned at Sutter s Fort on the orders of John C. Fremont. Most of the Bear Flaggers, whose goal was to make California an independent republic, were men who lived at or near New Helvetia. 41 During the Mexican-American War, the Fort was briefly called Fort Sacramento. John C. Fremont placed Edward Kern in command of the Fort and appropriated it as a military outpost for the American Army. 42 The Fort was still under Kern s command in early 1847 when valley residents learned that the eighty-odd member Donner Party had been trapped in the Sierra since the previous October. The few men living in the vicinity of Sutter s Fort, who had not volunteered for war duty, risked their own lives to rescue those in Sierra. The survivors Sutter s workforce abandons their jobs to seek gold in Coloma. The men who recorded the brief statements in the diary, no date has more than a few sentences written, include John Sutter, John Bidwell, William F. Swasey, and William N. Loker. 40 Heinrich Lienhard quoted in Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, A pioneer at Sutter's fort, : The Adventures of Heinrich Lienhard, (Los Angeles: The Calafía Society, 1941), Dale L. Walker, Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846, (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1999), Hurtado, John Sutter, 194.

34 25 were brought to the Fort to convalesce, and stayed for some time, recovering their health with Sutter s generous provisions of food and shelter. 43 Toward the end of the Mexican-American War, Sutter contracted with James Marshall, a carpenter, on August 28, 1847, to build a saw mill roughly fifty miles from the Fort, in what is today Coloma. 44 Mormon craftsmen, discharged from the Mormon Battalion, helped Marshall construct the mill, and by mid-january 1848 it was complete. After inspecting the tail race at the mill on January 24, 1848, Marshall had to visit Sutter at the Fort. 45 Sutter notes on January 28th, Mr. Marshall arrived from the Mountains on very important business. 46 That important business was to determine whether or not Marshall discovered gold at the mill. In a closed meeting in Sutter s office, Sutter and Marshall tested the flakes and came to the conclusion that it was real gold. 47 With that discovery, word spread quickly all over the world. Sutter was able to contain the secret for about a week before others found out. 48 It was not long before Sutter s own employees left their jobs to go to the gold discovery site in the hope of finding the precious metal. Sutter, while concerned about the future of his enterprise, wrote in his diary on March 7, 1848: 43 Edward Kern, The Fort Sutter Papers, edited by Seymour Dunbar, 1921, Vol. 26. The Fort s museum collection contains many original source documents and artifacts pertaining to the Donner Party. Patty Reed, who was an eight year old girl at the time of entrapment, collected many materials about the Donner Party over her lifetime. In 1946, her estate was donated to the Fort including her doll that she carried on the trail. The doll is on display in the Orientation Room at the Fort. 44 Sutter, The Diary of Johann August Sutter, Hurtado, John Sutter, John A. Sutter, New Helvetia Diary, A Record of Events Kept by John A. Sutter and his Clerks at New Helvetia, California, from September 9, 1845, to May 25, 1848, (San Francisco: The Grabborn Press, 1939), John A. Sutter, The Discovery of Gold in California, Hutchings California Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5, November 1857, Hurtado, John Sutter, 219.

35 [A]t this time I could say that every body left me from the Clerk to the Cook. What for great Damages I had to suffer in my tannery which was just doing a profitable and extensive business, and the Vatts [sic] was left filled and a quantity of half finished leather was spoiled, likewise a large quantity of raw hides collected by the farmers and of my own killing. The same thing was in every branch of business which I carried on at the time. I began to harvest my wheat, while others was digging and washing Gold, but even the Indians could not be keeped [sic] longer at Work. 49 Sutter no longer had a workforce to manage the Fort or to maintain the manufactories within. News of the gold discovery spread thanks to Sam Brannan, who operated a trade store in the former vaquero barracks outside the Fort s walls. 50 A teamster tried to purchase goods using gold, and, inevitably, told Brannan he got the gold from the saw mill site. Brannan spread the word through San Francisco and the discovery was published in The Californian, California s first newspaper. 51 By the end of May, the massive immigration that would forever change California had begun. Sutter s Fort gained a new purpose, and underwent drastic change, in the early days of the Gold Rush. The historiography of the Fort generally pauses after the early days of the Gold Rush and resumes with its reconstruction in the 1890s. Historians tend to focus on Sutter s impact on the Fort, rather than the impact the Fort had on the creation of Sacramento City and the role it played in shaping Sacramento s public memory of pioneer life and preservation of Sacramento history. The Fort s new purpose during the Sutter, The Diary of Johann August Sutter, Sam Brannan came to California in 1846 from New York aboard The Brooklyn. He was to find a suitable colony for the Latter-Day Saints in California. He started publishing the California Star a year later. Brannan is first mentioned in the New Helvetia Diary on September 10, 1847 for bringing news of an incoming emigrant party. It is unclear why Sutter initially gave up part of the Vaquero Barracks to Brannan for a store. Sutter, at the time, had over ten thousand head of cattle and would have needed space for his vaqueros. Nevertheless, Sutter trusted Brannan and the Mormon Battalion and saw them as a valuable workforce. For more information on Brannan, see Douglas S. Watson, Herald of the Gold Rush: Sam Brannan, California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Sep., 1931), pp B.R. Buckelew, The Californian, 15 March 1848, page 1.

36 27 Gold Rush laid the foundation for how Sacramento would later romanticize its pioneer past. It is important to note the history of how the Fort was constructed and the discovery of gold in January The Gold Rush set in motion a drastic change in the Sacramento Valley and was the ultimate demise of Sutter s ambitions. It changed the Fort as well. Because of the rush of gold seekers into the region, the Fort became a marketplace. Sutter s control over the region was ignored and he soon had to give control of the Fort to those who were ready to handle the demands of the argonauts. Those demands, however, led to the decline and dilapidation of Sutter s Fort.

37 28 Chapter 3 THE FORT AFTER SUTTER While the events at Sutter s Fort from its founding in 1839 to the discovery of gold have been the subject of many scholarly works, its history from 1848 to its reconstruction during the 1890s is often overlooked. This segment in the Fort s history falls outside discussions of John Sutter because he moved away from the immediate area in It also falls outside discussions of Sacramento City as Sutter s Fort was about a mile from the hustle and bustle of city life. While the Fort sat outside the city, the Fort was intimately intertwined in Sacramento history from 1849 to the 1890s. Sutter s Fort was the city s first hospital, the location for the first murder trial, the first location many city founders set up their mercantile shops, a shelter from flood waters, the city s first tourist attraction, and ultimately became the site for shaping Sacramento s public memory on its pioneer past. The title of this chapter, The Fort after Sutter, indicates the time period of Sutter s Fort from the fall of 1848 until the 1890s. Because the Gold Rush changed the role of the Fort in the area, Sutter started to lose control of the structure. The rooms that once housed manufactories for coopers, carpenters, cobblers, distillers, and saddle makers, became merchant shops that sold goods to miners as they passed by to the gold fields. After early 1849, Sutter did not own the Fort anymore, and he only visited the site a few times before he left California in Historical accounts of this period in the Fort s history are few. The time period of the Fort during the Gold Rush is primarily discussed in the context of the creation of

38 29 Sacramento City. Thomas Schoonover argued that the Fort was destroyed by the sanction of greed; people took pieces of bricks, wood, and other materials away from the Fort so they could possess a piece of the old relic. He even suggested that the Fort was never actually sold by Sutter. 52 Zollinger argued the Fort sold for $40,000 and its abandonment was very soon after Sacramento City was formally established. 53 To make matters more confusing, Dillon stated the Fort was sold in the fall of 1849 to Alden Bayley for $7, Agreeing with Zollinger, Hurtado claimed the Fort was sold piecemeal for roughly $40,000; the Central Building and the small rooms north of it went for $7, Hurtado argued further, In the 1850s the old fort was simply a white elephant, a useless symbol of ancient times. 56 Eifler argues there is a direct correlation between the crumbling of the Fort s walls and the growth of Sacramento. 57 These authors minimize the history of the Fort after 1850 and encapsulate the decades prior to reconstruction in a few simple paragraphs. Many authors discuss fraternal organizations as the ones responsible for saving the Fort from utter ruin but do not discuss why or the significance of those organizations. Through analysis of deed books, journals, and newspaper articles, the history of the Fort after Sutter can be examined. These sources are important to understanding how Sutter s Fort fell into ruins and was reconstructed in the 1890s. This history also sheds 52 Schoonover, The Life and Times of General John Sutter, Zollinger, Sutter, Zollinger does not give a citation for the Fort s sale. 54 Dillon, Fool s Gold, Hurtado, John Sutter, Ibid, Eifler, Gold Rush Capitalists, 35.

39 30 light onto the role the Fort played in the early decades of Sacramento City and how it constructed public memory for Sacramento s pioneer past. The discovery of gold was the start of Sutter s downfall. Once Sutter s workers heard there was easy placer gold in creeks, streams, and rivers, there was no reason to work for Sutter anymore when they could potentially earn far more. Without a workforce to tend to his booming agricultural and manufacturing business, Sutter found his empire in a crisis. It did not help that Sutter had a lot of debt to pay as well. Sutter s biggest debt was to the Russian American Fur Company because he had failed to fully pay for Fort Ross. Sutter initially agreed to pay $30,000 for Fort Ross, but after over seven years, he still owed almost $20, Other debts that Sutter owed were $7,000 to the Hudson s Bay Company, about $3,000 to Antonio Suńol, and debts to Hawaiian merchants. 59 Everyone was coming to collect what was owed to them, because Sutter s proximity to the gold fields convinced them that he would easily have the capital to settle any money issues. They did not know that Sutter had no control over gold panning. Many historians have considered Sutter s demise in the Sacramento Valley and all agree that Sutter s failings stem from his inability to profit from the Gold Rush. He had no way to control the mines, and Coloma was over forty miles outside of New Helvetia s boundaries. Sutter s empire was falling apart and he could not even manage the Fort anymore. Sutter took to alcohol quite heavily during this period and sometimes he could not function during the day. Heinrich Lienhard, who stayed at the Fort even after the other workers left, mentions in his memoirs that he had to help Sutter to his bed often 58 Hurtado, John Sutter, Zollinger, Sutter, 275.

40 because Sutter was so intoxicated. 60 By spring 1848, Sutter no longer had control of his own Fort. He visited the mines or Hock Farm, Sutter s plantation off the Feather River, frequently and was often away from the Fort when it transformed from primarily a manufacturing center to merchant shops. 61 New Helvetia was no longer the end point on the California trail for wagon parties. It became a mere stopping point for miners on their way to Coloma. By the middle of 1848, the Fort shifted from an agriculture and manufacturing center to a place housing commercial businesses with Sutter as the landlord. Heinrich Lienhard described the Fort s transition: Within a short time the fort, formerly gay in its own way, became the center of every kind of vice; gambling, cheating, robbing, drinking, and even murder were daily events and few traces of law and order remained. Many early miners were drunken soldiers and sailors who had never owned one hundred dollars before, and having hundreds or even thousands of dollars' worth of gold in their possession, they believed their wealth would last indefinitely, and decided to enjoy themselves. Their idea of a good time was to drink until they dropped from intoxication, but often when they awoke in a semi-stupor the following morning, they would discover they had been robbed of their heavy bags of gold in the night. 62 Vendors rented spaces in the Fort to sell various goods and services for those coming to and from the mines. Money from rent, coupled with the amount of gold Sutter was Lienhard, A Pioneer at Sutter s Fort, Heinrich Lienhard arrived at Sutter s Fort in the fall of He worked at the Fort until 1849 doing a variety of jobs. He was also a clerk for Sutter and Sutter even trusted Lienhard to manage the Fort at one time in his absence. Lienhard wrote a memoir in the late 1860s about his travel to California by wagon and his experiences in New Helvetia. Lienhard s memoir is referenced a great deal by Zollinger, Dillon, Owens, and Hurtado. 61 Hock Farm, founded in 1841, was Sutter s plantation located close to where Yuba City is today. The plantation had vast fields of produce, orchards, wheat and also livestock. Hock Farm was typically managed by Harry, one of Sutter s Hawaiian workers, while Sutter was away. Sutter visited Hock Farm often when New Helvetia was booming. By the Gold Rush, however, Sutter retired and his plantation became his permanent residence. In January 1850, Sutter s family arrived to California. Sutter, his wife, and the rest of the family made Hock Farm their home for many years. For more information on Hock Farm see chapter 20 of Hurtado s John Sutter. 62 Lienhard, A Pioneer at Sutter s Fort,

41 32 receiving from his investments such as Lansford Hastings store in Coloma, helped Sutter pay off some of the debts he had. Sutter, however, saw his Fort transform into a center for gambling, drinking, and debauchery. 63 In May 1848, Sutter began to lease building space within the Fort s walls to merchants and shopkeepers. The first rental space offered, however, was in the vaquero barracks to C.C. Smith, Sam Brannan s business partner, in October The firm quickly moved into the larger immigrant barracks, which stood just east of the Fort. 64 Sutter wrote on May 17, 1848: Cleaned and white washed the Magasin (penitentiery) [sic] and rented the whole to C. C. Smith & Co. for a store. 65 By this time, Sutter was not offering shelter for American emigrants. The immigrant barracks made for prime warehouse space for Brannan and Smith. They began to sell pickaxes, shovels, pans, and whatever the miners needed through their store. William Grimshaw, who was a bookkeeper for Brannan, described the barracks as an adobe building of one story about 100 feet long by 30 wide situated about 50 yards East of the fort. 66 Grimshaw s dimensions of Brannan s store give us insight into the original size of the immigrant 63 Dillon, Fool s Gold, Sutter, The Diary of Johann August Sutter, 43. Beginning in October 12, 1847, Brannan partnered with Charles Smith under the business name C.C. Smith & Co. The Vaquero Barracks did not have adequate space like the other exterior barracks had. 65 Sutter, New Helvetia Diary, 137. Magasin was a nineteenth century term for a storehouse. Despite being referred to as a penitentiary, the building s original use was to house weary travelers who arrived at the Fort overland. It was also used as extra granary space. 66 William Robinson Grimshaw, Grimshaw's Narrative: Being the Story of Life and Events in California During Flush Times, Particularly the Years , edited by James Roland Kristofer Kantor (Sacramento: Sacramento Book Collectors Club, 1964), 12. William Grimshaw came to California in He was the bookkeeper for Sam Brannan at Brannan s store at the Fort and also the store at the Embarcadero. Grimshaw made detailed accounts in narrative about life at the Fort in the beginning of the Gold Rush. In 1850, he moved to William Daylor s rancho off of the Consumnes River. For more information see the Grimshaw Narrative.

42 33 barracks. Despite the large size of the barracks, it was not long before Brannan invested in multiple stores, such as one at Coloma and also at Sutter s Embarcadero. The Central Building, which was originally the administrative hub of New Helvetia, became a hotel for travelers to the gold fields. Samuel Kyburz, Sutter s employee from , leased the Central Building and managed the hotel. The lease began on May 22, Kyburz tried to maximize the space of the hotel in the Central Building. While at the hotel in 1848, William Grimshaw described the lower portion of which was used as a bar room with a monte table or two in it. This bar was crowded with customers night & day and never closed from one month s end to the other. The upper story was rented by Rufus Hitchcock & wife for a boarding house. Board was $40 per week; meals $2 each. The fare was plain and simple. 68 Grimshaw stated the vaquero barracks operated as a retail store in 1848 by Samuel Norris after Brannan s moved to the other barracks. 69 According to John Sutter Jr. (August Sutter) the following men were renting space in the Fort for businesses: Sam Brannan, Alfred Ellis, A. Huber Petit, Dr. 67 Samuel Kyburz and his family arrived at Sutter s Fort in mid-september He became a superintendent of many employees at New Helvetia. He is mentioned many times in the New Helvetia Diary in regard to determining the site of the sawmill, tending to wheat fields, managing shipments of goods to and from Hock Farm, and so on. According to the New Helvetia Diary, the Fort s daily log book, written on May 22nd, M r Kyburz left my Services and established a boardinghouse in the old Baquero [sic] house. According to Sutter s memoir, however, written in 1858, on May 21, 1848 Saml Kyburg errected [sic] or established the first Hotel in the fort in the larger building, and made a great deal of Money. 68 Grimshaw, Grimshaw s Narrative, 16. Grimshaw is the only known first-hand account that stated Rufus Hitchcock was running the hotel at the Central Building. He most likely worked for Kyburz. Hitchcock and his family did not remain long at the Fort because he opened a store and tavern on William Leidesdorff s rancho about eight miles east of the Fort near the American River. For more information see Santiago s Reminiscences of Sutter s Fort, Daily Alta California, Vol. 18, No. 5988, 3 August Grimshaw, Grimshaw s Narrative, Samuel Norris is first recorded in the New Helvetia Diary on May 24, 1847, when Norris arrived with a cargo goods and supplies. He set up shop near Sutter s hide tannery a mile north of the Fort where Sutter s landing is. That same year Norris also established a general store at Yerba Buena. In August of 1849 Norris bought Hiram Grimes 44,000 acre Mexican land grant named Rancho Del Paso located east of the Sacramento River and north of the American River. He lost the land grant due to court legal fees in 1862.

43 34 William H. McKie, Captain David Dring, Charles E. Pickett, Samuel Hensley, and Pierson B. Reading as of September Since the Fort was the only permanent structure in the area and still an attraction for travelers to visit, it was understandable that these men wanted their stores inside the walls. Rent was low and the eighteen-foot-high walls provided security for their shops. However, not many of these men rented stores at the Fort for very long. The money John Sutter received from rents was not enough to pay off all his debts. In September 1848, Sutter was joined by his eldest son, who traveled from Switzerland. John August Sutter, Jr., initially arrived at New Helvetia to a much different Fort than he had heard about previously. It had been fourteen years since the father and son had seen each other. The young, twenty-two year old Sutter, Jr. quickly took control of his father s property and helped relieve the issues of his father s debt. 71 He hired Peter Burnett, the future governor of California, to help organize and solve the issues at hand, especially the Russian debt. 72 Rental businesses increased in number to help bring in money for the Sutters, but more businesses came with more issues, such as rental boundaries. 70 John A. Sutter, Jr., The Sutter Family and the Origins of Gold Rush Sacramento, edited by Allan R. Ottley, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), Not much information is available on these men except for those of Hensley, Reading, & Co. and also Sam Brannan. Hensley and Reading traveled overland to California in 1843 as part of the Chiles-Walker Party. Both men worked for Sutter for some time as fur trappers. They served in the California Battalion during the Mexican-American War. They established Hensley, Reading, & Co. in late 1848 with Jacob Snyder and John Sutter Jr. For more biographical information, see the Pioneer Card Index at the California State Library. 71 Henry A. Schoolcraft and R.E. Drafer, Abstract of Title To Ten Accre (sic), 1858, page 3, Sutter s Fort Archives, The transfer of All Grants in California from father to son was on October 14, 1848 within days after Sutter Jr. s arrival to New Helvetia. 72 Sutter, Jr., The Sutter Family, 13.

44 35 Charles E. Pickett operated his store out of the northwest bastion and had a storage room that bordered the store to the south. There was often confusion as to what areas Sutter Sr. leased to individuals because Sutter often promised rooms to multiple people. A man by the name of Isaac Alderman claimed in early December 1848 that John Sutter leased the storage room occupied by Pickett to himself instead. After coarse words were exchanged, Pickett firmly secured any entryway into the storage room. Determined to break the locks, Alderman tried to take an axe to the door while Pickett was inside. Pickett, who feared the man was approaching him with the axe, fired a double-barreled shotgun at Alderman, who died thirty minutes later from the gunshot wounds. 73 It was considered self-defense by those who were nearby, until Sam Brannan claimed it was murder and called for a trial. The first and second alcaldes recused themselves as judges from the trial. Brannan, who was already the prosecuting attorney, decided to be the judge as well. The jury included John Sutter, John Sinclair, Captain William H. Warner, James H. Toppens, and Thomas Murray. After several days of deliberation and copious alcoholic beverages were consumed by the jury, the trial came to an end when Sutter tried to leave and it was determined there was no way to truly confine Pickett. 74 Ultimately, Pickett was acquitted of the murder charges Murder At Sutter s Fort, California Star, Vol. 2, No. 28, 16 December William L. Willis, History of Sacramento County, (Los Angeles: Historical Record Company, 1913), Captain Warner was later contracted to design the first map of Sacramento City and lay the street grid. John Sinclair was at one time Sutter s closest neighbor. His house was located just northeast of the bend in the American River from where Sacramento State is today. 75 Acquittal of C. E. Pickett, California Star, Vol. 2, No. 29, 23 December 1848.

45 36 Pickett was able to continue business as usual and still kept a shop at the Fort along with one in Coloma near the saw mill. 76 This murder trial represented the last time Sutter had any real authority over the Fort. By the end of December, the respect and power that Sutter had over New Helvetia dwindled because of the increasing argonaut population and the demands for payments from Sutter s creditors. Without capital but holding a great deal of land, Sutter, Jr., with the help from Peter Burnett, solved the debt issue by selling off plots of New Helvetia. The first pieces of land sold were sections of the rooms within the Fort, lots outside the Fort s walls, and many lots along the waterfront at Sutter s Embarcadero. From late December 1848 to early March 1849, Sutter, Jr. sold almost all of Sutter s Fort. The Fort transformed into a commercial center selling goods, a place to stay, and offering places of entertainment for the miners. 76 Sacramento Store, Weekly Alta California, No. 16, 19 April Pickett even later served on a committee to establish a provisional government for California.

46 37 Figure 3: A map of Sutter s Fort made by the author to help illustrate which merchants bought certain sections of site between 1848 and The key below lists also the price the section was sold for and the date of transaction. A detailed description for each section sold is discussed later in this chapter. The areas of the Fort that are not highlighted in were never officially sold. Alden Bayley, however paid taxes on the unhighlighted areas in Property information for the map was obtained from the Sacramento County Deed Books. The Fort became what Sutter called a veritable Bazaar and was no longer under his control. 78 One of the first property transfers noted in the Sacramento Deed Books is from John Sutter Jr. to Hensley, Reading, & Co. for $6,500 on December 28, This property transfer was for the row of buildings east of the large gateway on the South Also the short row of adobe buildings and the bastion at the corner. A strip of land about twenty feet wide north of the buildings was included as well. 79 This property consisted of the structures adjoining the south wall, east of the south gate. The property 77 Hero Eugene Rensch, Sutter s Fort, : Size, Location, and Direction of Walls, Sutter s Fort State Historical Monument, June 1955, Sutter, The Diary of Johann Augustus Sutter, Sacramento County Deed Book A, page 3.

47 38 also included the southeast bastion and the rooms just to the north of the bastion. Hensley, Reading, & Co. initially opened mining and general stores but within a few months they sold their property to other businessmen. David Dring purchased from Hensley, Reading, & Co. on April 24, 1849 a room immediately east of the south gate for $5,000. The deed also mentions that just east of Dring s store was the business operated by William Pettit and to the east of that was another one operated by Peter Slater. 80 David Dring operated a general store that sold various foods and supplies such as flour, bread, dried meats, sugar, coffee, rice, tea, mining tools, boots, blankets, alcohol, and a variety of clothing items. 81 William Pettit operated a billiard room, while Peter Slater operated a saloon with a full bowling alley. The bowling alleys at this period measured at least seventy feet, which means Slater s section along the south wall was larger than that of Pettit and Dring. 82 Peter Slater not only operated a bowling alley but also a wholesale and grocery store. 83 Lienhard described Slater as: An American about thirty years old who ran a bowling alley and sold food and assorted drinks and that he had a large family whom he hoped to bring out. Mr. Slater, who was not at all like his countrymen, seemed to have a fine character; he was a handsome, thoughtful, modest man, who never harbored any ill will or tried to harm anyone. Many times I went to his store when I did not care to bowl or drink; he was always friendly, and we often chatted together. Obviously he neither enjoyed, nor was fitted, for the work. He told me that if he could find a suitable partner he intended to open a restaurant and billiard hall in Sacramento that would attract a highclass clientele Sacramento County Deed Book A, page 521. Peter Slater and William Pettit rented from Hensley and Reading. Slater did, however, purchase property near the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. 81 Placer Times, 29 September Rensch, Sutter s Fort, Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 2, 5 May Lienhard, A Pioneer at Sutter s Fort, 197.

48 39 Slater s business at the Fort, however, was brief and he never accomplished the plan that he confided to Lienhard. He died of cholera in December The southeast bastion was purchased by W. Grove Deal from Hensley s business on May 31, 1849 for $4, Its former use was a cannon tower with its bottom portion serving as a jail. Deal operated the bastion as a hospital in partnership with James S. Martin. 87 Deal did not remain long at the Fort, either. In December 1849, an advertisement in the Sacramento Union read: SUTTER'S FORT HOSPITAL, Inside the Fort, formerly conducted by Drs. W. Grove Deal and James S. Martin, is now under the superintendence of Drs. James S. Martin and Benjamin R. Carman. The Hospital has undergone necessary repairs for the comfortable accommodation of invalids this winter. 88 This hospital is not to be confused with the hospital that opened later in the former immigrant barracks that housed Brannan s mercantile store. The Southeast bastion was the main hospital in Sacramento to treat the cholera epidemic in 1850, because the hospital in the old barracks outside the Fort was damaged by flood waters. 89 A discussion of the hospital outside the Fort will be addressed later in this chapter. Also on the 28th of December, Sutter Jr. sold the northeast part of the Fort to Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud for $1,700. This property included the rooms north of the east gate, the northeast corner, and a room along the north wall bordering the store owned by Priest, 85 James Christian Scott, Sacramento's Gold Rush Saloons: El Dorado in a Shot Glass, (Charleston: The History Press, 2014), 24. Before his untimely death, Slater was elected to the city s board of commissioners in the spring of 1849 and also operated a ferry of the American River. 86 Sacramento County Deed Book A, p Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 23, 13 October Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 31, 8 December Sacramento Transcript, No. 5, 30 October 1850.

49 40 Lee, & Company. 90 Fourgeaud bought the property only by speculation because he rented the property to Charles E. Pickett and later sold it to him on October 12, Just east of Fourgeaud s property along the north wall and all the way to the eastern border of the corral were the rooms owned by Priest, Lee, & Company. Albert Priest, Barton Lee, and P.B. Cornwall purchased the rooms along the north wall on December 30, 1848 for $3,500 but it was not recorded until August 12, On the west side of the Fort grounds, the rooms and property were sold a bit later than those on to the east of the Central Building. The distillery building and the land directly south of it almost reaching to the rooms along the south wall was sold to Lewis J. Sagat and Charles C. Southard on March 1, 1849 for $2,500. Their property spanned from the west side of the north gate all the way to the grist mill in the northwest corner of Fort. 93 Sagat and Southard ran a general and mining store. They did not produce alcohol in the building, which was the building s original purpose. Sutter, Jr. removed the remaining working still from the Fort and sold it to Mariano Vallejo on April 23, 1849 for $ Sagat and Southard kept their store at the Fort roughly six months. They ran 90 Sacramento County Deed Book A, p. 52. Fourgeaud came to California in 1847 and is noted in the New Helvetia Diary for visiting the Fort on October 9th. He owned a drug store at the Portsmouth Square in San Francisco by September Sacramento County Deed Book A, pages Sacramento County Deed Book D, Priest, Lee, & Company did not operate very long at Sutter s Fort. They removed their shop to the Embarcadero at the corner of 2 nd and J Street in early Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 4, 19 May Sacramento County Deed Book A, page 15. Their property deed sheds light for researchers in understanding how the original Fort differed from the Fort today. Between the distillery and the kitchen was a wooden gate just a little larger than a doorway to enter or exit the Fort. It offered quick access to the slough that flowed just north of the Fort. 94 Hurtado, John Sutter, 246. The original text of August Sutter s sale of the brandy still can be found in Sutter Jr. s collection at the California State Library. Sutter Sr., with the help of the Natives in the region, tried to make wine from the wild grapes that grew along the rivers and streams around New Helvetia. The wine was not very palatable and was distilled into brandy. Almost every business at the Fort was selling alcohol to patrons but it was not made at the Fort. Because of elder Sutter s property sales and

50 41 advertisements in the Placer Times through August 1849 stating that they keep constantly on hand a large assortment of goods suitable for the mines. 95 The two shops to remain in operation making and fixing goods at the Fort were the blacksmith and gunsmith shops. Ephiram Fairchild, a wagon maker by trade, arrived at the Fort in October He was the last blacksmith to work at the Fort and his business was quite successful. 96 Grimshaw stated that For the smallest job on gun or pistol the charge was $16. For shoeing [a] horse or mule 1 shoe $16.00 [sic]. He had an assistant to blow the bellows & strike on the anvil whom he paid $16.00 per day. 97 For perspective, an ounce of gold at the time was worth sixteen dollars. Fairchild rented the blacksmith shop until others proposed purchasing the shops. Eventually, Fairchild purchased the property on November 6, The deed stated that Fairchild purchased The Southwest corner of Sutter s Fort containing two rooms on the South side and two rooms on the West side, together with the ground on which they stand and also twenty feet of ground on the inside of said Fort in front of each side of said corner opposite said rooms. 98 According to the deed, Fairchild bought storage rooms next to the gunsmith and blacksmith shops. Fairchild and his deed provided crucial information in 1889 during plans to restore the Fort. financial problems, he took to alcohol more frequently than in the earlier years of his residence in the Central Valley. The alcohol problems of elder Sutter have become the focal point of recent historiography. 95 Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 14, 11 August Southard is listed as one of the men, along with many of the other land-owning businessmen in early Sacramento City, who made up a board of commissioners that drafted the district laws for the city and the mines in the foothills. There is little known information on Lewis Sagat. For more information Southard see Mark Eifler, Gold Rush Capitalists, Sutter, New Helvetia Diary, Grimshaw, Grimshaw s Narrative, Sacramento County Deed Book A, page 383.

51 42 There were many individuals who purchased property right outside the walls of Sutter s Fort. The properties purchased right outside the Fort s walls already had existing structures on them, such as the outside barracks and shacks originally built for Sutter s workers. Sam Brannan rented the immigrant barracks soon after the gold discovery and outfitted his shop with all necessary supplies for the miners. On January 10, 1849, Brannan acquired for $12,000 not only a substantial amount of lots along the waterfront where Sacramento City was to be, but also lots one through four on the city block bounded between K, L, 29 th, and 30 th streets and the large adobe standing on premises. 99 Brannan acquired such a substantial amount of land because Sutter owed debts to him. Brannan s advertisement in The Californian gives insight into what his shop marketed and its distance from the Fort. The advertisement stated that the shop had a large and extensive Assortment of Goods, suitable for the Sacramento market, which they offer for sale at their establishment, the Adobie [sic] Store, one hundred yards east of Suter's Fort; those items included shirts, tents, linens, blankets, jackets, saddles, caps, shoes, and all necessary supplies for gold mining. 100 The actual location of the immigrant barracks is a subject of debate. If the barracks was one hundred yards from the Fort, it would not be bounded by the city blocks discussed in the deed. Brannan s mercantile shop was not housed long in the immigrant barracks. His growing enterprise and role in the region called for a larger structure. The former 99 Sacramento County Deed Book A, pages This would mean the Immigrant Barracks was located east of Sutter Hospital today where the parking structure is under the freeway. There is, however, controversy to the building s actual location. According to a property evaluation by Marvin Brienes, the southwest corner of the barracks touched the east edge of 28 th Street between K and L Street. This would make Brannan s property claim a subject of debate. Fortunately for him, that property was never under question. For detailed illustrations see Marvin Brienes, East of Sutter's Fort: Block k-l in Sacramento, , Report prepared for Sutter Community Hospitals, The Californian, Vol. 3, No. 15, 11 November 1848.

52 43 barracks soon became a hospital. In July 1849, Dr. Charles H. Cragin opened his office at the barracks. 101 The hospital fell into disrepair after flood waters damaged the structure in the winter of Edward Kemble, who came to California with Brannan on the ship Brooklyn, saw a way to profit at the Fort unlike any of the other businessmen, by publishing Sacramento City s first newspaper. The first issue of Kemble s Placer Times was published April 25, Kemble stated that the first structure the newspaper was housed in was a simple shack near the corner of 28 th and K Street. It took time for the structure to be built, as there were hardly any skilled carpenters left at the Fort. There is no formal deed for the structure as Kemble claimed that Sutter would gift any lot for the establishment of a newspaper firm. Kemble describes the structure as a little one story cabin, with a cotton roof and no ceiling. 102 Grimshaw confirms that the cloth shanty which housed the Placer Times was just north of Brannan s store. 103 The Placer Times moved to Front Street in June 1849, when Kemble stepped down as the editor. James King of William was an associate of Hensley, Reading and Company but separated himself early on. On January 7, 1849, he purchased lot #7 on the block bounded by 26 th, 27 th, L, and M Street and also lot #6 on the block bounded by 28 th, 29 th, L, and M Street for $ Lot #7 was part of the vaquero barracks. Lot #6 was part of the corrals, which were south of the Fort. King entered into partnership with Peter Slater, the saloon operator at the Fort, for the purchase of a tract of land where the slough, that 101 Weekly Alta California, No. 31, 4 August Edward Cleveland Kemble, A History of California Newspapers, : Edited and with a foreword by Helen Harding Bretnor (Los Gatos: Talisman Press, 1962), Grimshaw, Grimshaw s Narrative, Sacramento County Deed Book A, page 16.

53 44 flowed north of the Fort, emptied into the American Fork near Front Street. This transaction occurred on March 2, 1849 for the sum of $1, There were sections of the Fort that were not formally sold or documented in the first deed book of Sacramento County. The elder Sutter kept a room and office at the Fort and visited often after he started selling sections of the structure. 106 His room was most likely still in its original location on the south wall west of the gate. 107 Peter Burnett initially opened his firm within the walls of the Fort. Burnett shared a room and living quarters with Dr. William M. Carpenter. Dr. Carpenter rented a small room along the south wall of the Fort, and shared his office with Burnett, each paying half the expenses. Burnett s firm settled legal disputes of land transfers in Sacramento City, while Carpenter made sixteen dollars for each dose or vial of medicine sold. 108 Another firm under the name of Murray & Lappeus operated in the Fort a wholesale and retail Dry Goods and Grocery Business as early as January 1, 1849 but their location within the walls is unknown. 109 The most complex property sale at the Fort was the Central Building and the immediate structures around it. John Sutter Jr. sold the rights to the Central Building to Alden Spooner Bayley and Michael Toomey McClellan on December 15, 1848 for 105 Sacramento County Deed Book A, pages King did not remain in Sacramento for very long. He later opened a bank in San Francisco and by 1855 he was the editor of the San Francisco Bulletin. He was assassinated in May 1856 while walking along Montgomery Street in San Francisco. 106 Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 1, 28 April John A. Sutter quoted in Edwin Gudde, Sutter's Own Story: the Life of General John Augustus Sutter and the History of New Helvetia in the Sacramento Valley, (New York: Putnam, 1936) Peter H. Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880), Weekly Alta California, No. 5, 1 February 1849.

54 $2, This was not a sale but a lease. Bayley also obtained, in December 1848, twothirds of the mill in Coloma for a total of $6, It was not until March 7, 1849 that Bayley and McClellan finally obtained ownership of the Central Building. Their deed, however, was more than just the large building. The deed stated: Commencing at the east side of the door or gateway in the north side of Sutters Fort thence about, South and parallel with the west side of the large Centeral [sic] Building in said Fort. to a point six feet South of the South end of said building; thence at right angles to a point from which a line runs at right angles with said last mentioned line and parallel with the first line would strike the South West corner of the adobie [sic] building now occupied by David Dring as a store and now owned by Barton Lee and Albert Priest; thence to the said corner of the said building last mentioned; thence following the wall of the said last building on the outside there of to the north east corner of the Yard, known as the Corall [sic]; there along the Outside wall of said Fort so as to include the same to the place of beginning. 112 According to the deed, their property included not only the Central Building but also the kitchen, the three rooms that were attached to the northwest corner of the Central Building, the interior corral that was just east of those three rooms, and an extensive area of land in the middle of the Fort. Bayley and McClellan were met with many partnership proposals immediately after purchasing the Central Building. According to Alden T.S. Bayley, Sale and Transfer of Sutter s Fort and Mill (1898), SCHS Golden Notes, Vol. 14, No. 2, January 1968, 11. Bayley and McClellan originally planned to go to head west overland in 1848 with the Joseph Chiles Party. Unlike Chiles who was headed for California, Bayley and McClellan planned to go to Oregon and separate from the group at Fort Hall. McClellan was a longtime resident of Missouri and a former neighbor of Chiles; he was also the nephew of famed mountaineer and wagon guide Joseph R. Walker. Bayley sought to travel west to better his health and prosperity for his four sons. He also was carrying the first overland mail. Once the group arrived at Fort Hall and heard of the gold discovery, Bayley decided to travel to California instead. The wagon party arrived in what is today Placerville on October 31, For more information on Bayley and McClellan s travel to California see Michael E. LaSalle, Emigrants on the Overland Trail: The Wagon Trains of 1848, (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2011), 83 and Donovan Lewis, Pioneers of California: True Stories of Early Settlers in the Golden State, (San Francisco: Scottswall Associates, 1993), Hurtado, John Sutter, Sacramento County Deed Book A, p Richard Dillon argued in Fool s Gold that Bayley purchased the entire Fort for $7,000. Hurtado only alluded that Bayley owned the Central Building and the bakery. This deed provides evidence that the reconstructed Fort today is different from the original Fort. The three rooms north of the Central Building were not rebuilt.

55 46 Bayley s son, Thomas, his father was offered $20,000 for the property the day after he initially purchased it. Bayley refused to sell, but the reason McClellan was included on the deed was under the stipulation that McClellan was to run the hotel and have his family live on the premises. 113 On the same day that their purchase deed is dated, Bayley and McClellan sold half of their claim to Richard Daley Torney for $10, Richard Daley Torney s role in the Fort is a subject of debate. For a man who lived in California for such a short time, there is great deal of information written on him. But the sources conflict with each other. A great deal of information pertaining to Torney was written by Eleanor Pitts, Torney s granddaughter. Most of the information she writes is family lore and is not supported by other sources. 115 However, the role that Torney, and especially his family, play later in the history of the Fort after Sutter is instrumental. Torney was not a businessman like the others at the Fort. He could not afford to pay Bayley the $10,000 sum for half of Bayley s property claim. He had to sell half of it to Henry M. Naglee and Richard H. Sinton for $6, on May 29, 1849 just to pay Bayley. 116 Despite being partners in the businesses in the Central Building, Torney is 113 Thomas S. Bayley, "The Reminiscences of Thomas S. Bayley." Golden Notes 14 (November 1967): 1-2. His reminiscences were written in 1898 almost fifty years after the events occurred. 114 Sacramento County Deed Book A, p. 42. Thomas Bayley in his reminiscences spells Torney s name as Tierney. He also states the sale was for eleven thousand dollars. 115 Richard Daley Torney, Biography File, California State Library. Torney was a key witness of the death of Sheriff McKinney who was shot during the infamous Squatters Riot in August 1850 and helped try to find a doctor to tend to the sheriff. What we know of Richard Torney beyond this is that he emigrated to Oregon in Upon hearing of the gold discovery, he brought his family to California and arrived in early Torney s family happened to live at the Fort well into the 1860s. For more information on Torney s account of the Squatter s Riot see Death of Sheriff McKinney. Sacramento Transcript, Vol. 1, No. 92, 17 August Sacramento County Deed Book A, pp Naglee and Sinton were financial businessmen who opened one of the first banks in San Francisco called the Exchange and Deposit Office in January 1849.

56 47 never mentioned in any of the advertisements that Bayley and McClellan post in newspapers. Bayley and McClellan were successful from the start in California. They kept the existing hotel and saloon business in the Central Building booming. They sought to keep the Sutter name in order to help attract customers. Advertisements were published in newspapers to show the hotel was under new management: The undersigned, having purchased of the Messrs. Sutters, the City Hotel at Sacramento City, it will hereafter be conducted by Messrs. Bayley & McClellen [sic], under the name and style of the Sutter House, in honor of its distinguished former proprietor. It will be thoroughly repaired and fitted up with an eye to the satisfaction and comfort of the travelling community in general. We therefore solicit a share of the public patronage. 117 This advertisement was published in the local newspaper for many months. The comfort they offered to patrons at the hotel, however, was simply a small space on the floor in a large open room. Along with operating the hotel and saloon, McClellan operated one of the first gold exchanges in the area. 118 Despite operating a very crowded hotel, Bayley kept the doctor s office open in the hotel with Dr. A.J. Ward as the physician. 119 The booming businesses at the Fort faced just one key issue: space. The reason the Fort was so desirable in the first place for these businessmen was that it was a permanent built structure in an area that had no other. The town of Sutterville had been surveyed and did have some structures there, but Sutterville was not near the 117 Weekly Alta California, Vol. I, No. 18, 3 May The City Hotel in this advertisement is the Central Building. It is not to be confused with the City Hotel that Brannan constructed on Front Street. 118 Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 1, 28 April Weekly Alta California, Vol. 1, No. 8, 22 February 1849.

57 48 Embarcadero for miners to disembark from boats on the way to the mines. 120 Merchants sought to expand their shops beyond their section of the Fort as much as possible. Businesses throughout the Fort started cutting windows and doors into the adobe structure to allow for more access to their shops and to suit their own needs. 121 This greatly impacted the stability of the buildings. Businesses were not concerned about the longevity of the building, but rather the accessibility for profits. Merchants soon looked for other locations for shops beyond Sutter s Fort. Venders and businessmen moved their shops and interests closer to the mines or along the waterfront where they would be the first source for new arriving miners, farther away from the Fort. The influx of miners was too unwieldy to effectively govern and control at the Fort. Miners began to make unlawful settlement on Sutter s land and there was nobody around to enforce his claim. The Fort was even ransacked where anything movable was taken before and after Sutter sold the Fort. 122 Merchants wanted to create a city to bring law and order the area. The commotion at the Fort began to wind down towards the end of Ultimately, Sacramento City caused the Fort s decline. John Sutter Jr., under the direction of Sam Brannan, contracted Captain William H. Warner to survey and map Sacramento City in December Once city lots were made available, Burnett auctioned off lots on January 9, Lots at the Embarcadero were more expensive than ones at or near 120 Sutterville was the town Sutter had surveyed and started to build by 1845 at present-day William Land Park. Prominent men like Lansford Hastings and George McDougal were early investors. However, Sutterville failed to be the chosen city by merchants as they favored Sacramento City. 121 Hurtado, John Sutter, Gudde, Sutter s Own Story, ; Herbert D. Gwinn, The History of Sutter s Fort , MA Thesis, College of the Pacific, Stockton, 1931, Dr. John F. Morse, History of Sacramento, in Samuel Colville, Sacramento Directory for the Year , p. viii. Warner was assisted by Lt. William T. Sherman and Lt. O.C. Ord with the survey.

58 49 the Fort because the Embarcadero were more desirable for merchants. The Fort simply could not handle the demands of the growing miner population and the expansion the merchants sought. Major firms were the first to move. Priest, Lee, & Company moved to the corner of 2 nd and J Street. Hensley and Reading moved to Front and I Street along with Brannan s firm on the same block. 124 This started the final decline and deterioration of the Fort. Since various parts of the Fort were technically owned by different businessmen, they sought to recycle parts of the Fort for materials in their new shops along the waterfront. Wood from the structures and gates were removed and were used to build new structures and the mud bricks from the walls were in high demand for filling in pot holes on the roads. Conflict arose concerning the Central Building by the summer of Bayley s son argued that McClellan and Torney were often behind on making their payments to his father. 125 McClellan soon did not want to be partners with Bayley anymore. He advertised: For Sale! The subscriber having determined to return to the United States with his family, offers for sale the following property, viz.: his undivided half of the large and commodious Adobe Hotel, situated in Fort Sutter in Sacramento City and known as the Sutter House, together with the Corral and out-buildings, consisting of a large bake house and rooms adjoining, suitable for dwelling houses; also a good well with patent pump, &c. &c. This is the best public house property in the Sacramento Valley, and has all the fixtures necessary for carrying on an extensive and lucrative business; and cannot fail to make a fortune for any person who will purchase it and conduct it properly. Also for sale 3 desirable Lots of Ground in Sacramento City, near to the centre of business. Terms made known on application to the subscriber at Fort Sutter, or to Judge Townsend, at his office in Sacramento City Morse, History of Sacramento, Bayley, "The Reminiscences of Thomas S. Bayley," Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 15, 18 August The three lots that McClellan mentions near the centre of business were not exactly his property. McClellan s wife was pregnant when they arrived to the

59 50 McClellan s advertisement discussed the structures that were under his ownership. This property is still the same as what was described in his deed from March 7, Nobody, however, took McClellan up on the offer to purchase the property. 127 Richard Torney and his family were still living at the Fort as well. Torney, however, fell far behind on payments. Torney, by a series of ejectment suits made by Bayley to the city sheriff, lost his title to his portion of the property at public auction in front of the court house on April 18, The purchaser of the property was Bayley for $3, Torney tried to still live in the area with his family and dispute his claim with Bayley but that came to an end when R.D. Torney died of cholera on November 8, McClellan eventually lost his title to his share of the property as well. Bayley acquired McClellan s share on November 30, 1850 for $ By 1850, trade was completely gone at the Fort. Bayley was still involved in other financial endeavors that kept him away from the Fort. McClellan and his family were allowed to still live in the Central Building in exchange for overseeing the property. According to Stephen Massett, upon his visit to the Fort in 1851, McClellan seemed to be no disposition [sic] to repair the breakages or damages; no desire to keep the old land Fort initially in Their son was born at the Fort in early 1849 and was named Sutter McClellan. John Sutter Sr. was the god father to the infant. As a gift, Sutter gave four town lots to Sutter McClellan. That property was eventually sold at public auction in September See Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 3, Number 457, 9 September For more information on Sutter McClellan see Michael Toomey McClellan s Biography File at the California State Library. 127 Sacramento Transcript, Vol. 1, No. 10, 23 April McClellan also did not move back east like he planned. He and his family were still at the Fort in 1850 because Michael McClellan s sister, Ellen, was married there on April 17, 1850 to Sacramento City s first sheriff, Joseph McKinney. 128 Sacramento County Deed Book C, p Sacramento Transcript, 9 November Sacramento County Deed Book I, p. 80.

60 51 mark afloat. 131 The winter of not only caused a lot of damage to Sacramento City but also to the Fort despite its high elevation. The exterior corrals and buildings were severely affected. The Daily Alta California reported on January 14, 1850 that the hospital in the former immigrant barracks, the east building, had two and a half feet of water on the floor. 132 This flood prevented David Dring from removing his store at the Fort. Stephen Massett, as the auctioneer, was to sell Dring s property in January 1850 but could not until the flood waters subsided and allowed for people to get to the Fort from the city. 133 By 1852, only the Central Building, the southeast bastion, a few structures, and sections of the walls remained. No merchant shops remained at the Fort after early According to Thomas Bayley, the Fort was rented to some French gardeners very briefly in 1852 but they left without notification. 134 Alden Bayley now suffered from health problems and sought to return to his original home in Mississippi. He wanted to dispose of his property. The Fort was no longer a desired property though. Bayley tried to offer the property to the State of California for the use of a Lunatic Hospital for $5,000 in a letter to Senator James H. Ralston dated April 29, The property included the Central Building, the bakery, the three rooms north of the Central Building and the corral. 131 Jeems Pipes, Letter of Jeems Pipes of Pipesville, Daily Alta California, Vol. 23, No. 7625, 6 February Daily Alta California, Vol. 1, No. 16, 14 January Patients in that hospital were taken to the Fort s hospital in the southeast bastion, because the Fort proper was at a higher elevation. The bastion served for some time as a hospital run by the Odd Fellows and Masons, but the condition of the structure was not stable. 133 Placer Times, Vol. 1, No. 37, 26 January Bayley, "The Reminiscences of Thomas S. Bayley," 4.

61 52 Bayley stated the property within the walls was 160 square feet. 135 Bayley s attempt at selling his property was ignored by the legislature. But his letter is valuable to understanding what the Fort s condition was like at the time and gives some dimensions of the Fort that would be impossible to measure today with the reconstructed Fort. 135 Alden Bayley, Alden S. Bayley to Mr. Ralston (State Senate), 29 April 1852, Miscellaneous Legislative Papers, LP: 2042, California State Archives. This was later published in Sutter s Fort Offered to the State in 1852, SCHS Golden Notes, Vol. 14, No. 2, January 1968.

62 Figure 4: Copy of Alden Bayley s letter to the California State Legislature offering Sutter s Fort as a Lunatic Hospital. The letter is dated April 29, Ralston ignored the offer. Courtesy of the California State Archives. Olive Torney, the widow of Richard Daley Torney, moved her family of several children into the Fort property in 1852, but Bayley never tried to evict them. 136 The Bayley family was concerned about moving to Mississippi. In late 1853, the Bayley family decided to once again move back to California. Before settling in Solano County, Bayley had one last matter to attend to in Sacramento: selling his Sutter s Fort property. At a public auction, Bayley s property was sold for $451. The buyer was Olive Torney, already the resident on the premises. 137 Torney made the old Fort her home and married Norman Lawson in October Despite living on the property, Mrs. Lawson and her family did not actively maintain the Fort 53 Figure 5: Drawing of Sutter s Fort in 1851 facing southwest. Note the north wall s deterioration and the floral gardens north of the Fort. Original drawing from the Society of Pioneers Museum in 136 Bayley, "The Reminiscences of Thomas S. Bayley," Sacramento County Deed Book O, p. 745, 26 January Bayley s name is incorrectly spelled Bailey in this deed. 138 Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 8, No. 1119, 24 October 1854.

63 San Francisco. Republished in 1948 Sutter s Fort brochure. Courtesy of the Sutter s Fort Modern Archives. 139 People started to take notice of the decay at the Fort. John Clark, who wrote a diary about his travel to California overland in 1852, described on September 5, 1852 that it was a dilapidated looking concern going to decay. 140 Newspapers routinely published accounts of the Fort s status. The winter of 1852 was especially hard on the structure. The Daily Alta California states, A portion of Sutter [sic] Fort, occupied by cattle, also tumbled in, on Friday night, killing a valuable cow. 141 One writer for the Sacramento Union noted in 1855, The crumbling bastions and the adobe building in the center of the former enclosure, alone mark the spot where stood the world-renowned Sutter's Fort. 142 By 1855, the floors in the southeast bastion had collapsed, ending the possibility of its use as an overflow hospital during epidemics. 54 Figure 6: Copy of a Lithograph illustrating Sutter s Fort in Published in Hutchings California Magazine November Department of Parks and Recreation, Sutter's Fort State Historic Monument, Sacramento: California State Parks, 1948, John Clark, A Trip Across the Plains in 1852, Manuscript, 1852, California State Library, Sacramento News, Daily Alta California, Vol. 3, No. 351, 21 December Passing Away, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 9, No. 1279, 30 April 1855.

64 55 Hutchings California Magazine published in 1857 a printed copy of a lithograph that illustrates the condition of Sutter s Fort that year. The illustration shows that there are hardly any structures left at the site except for the Central Building, the southeast bastion, and two rooms that existed along the perimeter wall. 143 Even though other structures were still intact, the only habitable structure of the Fort was the Central Building. The flood caused further destruction. While flood waters never reached the Fort, the remaining walls and other buildings were destroyed and the pieces were moved to fill in the slough north of the Fort and to build the approaches to a bridge across the slough. 144 The Fort was considered high ground during the flood and people sought refuge at its higher elevation. Olive Lawson, the owner and resident of the property, welcomed people to stay in the Central Building. 145 With the Fort remnants used to create a safe passage across the slough, it meant that after the flood waters subsided all that was left was the Central Building. The Central Building was not in good condition either by the mid-1860s. The exact year is uncertain, but the south wall of the building collapsed while Lawson was a resident. In 1889, the short-lived newspaper, Themis, published a series of articles on the Fort s history. Their seventh part of the series focused on the Central Building and stated the whole south wall [of the Central Building] was taken away by Mrs. R. D. Torney 143 The Discovery of Gold in California, Hutchings California Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5, November 1857, p This article also discusses Sutter s recollection of the gold discovery. 144 Charles Pettit, Sacramento s Early Days, The Sacramento Daily Record-Union, 24 March 1893, Page Sacramento Howard Benevolent Association, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 22, No. 3391, 10 February Lawson was given thanks by the Sacramento Howard Benevolent Association in an article in the Sacramento Union for running a relief station at the Fort during the flood.

65 56 and replaced with bricks. 146 These repairs were made in either the late 1850s or early 1860s while it would still be habitable by the Lawson family to live in the building. John Sutter visited the Fort in February 1864 to see the old structure with some friends. According to the reporter that was present, Sutter s visit to the site did not seem to give him much pleasure. 147 By the late 1860s, not much of the household aspects of the Central Building were left. There were no stairs to the second floor, the windows were broken, and no doors were left. The lime wash paint had chipped away in many places leaving the mud bricks of the walls exposed. 148 People started to visit the Fort, some taking pieces as souvenirs or carving their initials into the structure. Despite the condition, Lawson was still living at the site in Her time at the Fort, however, soon ended when the structure became inadequate for her family and when she failed to pay taxes on her land claim. Three ejectment suits were executed by James R. Tolles in May 1868 against Olive Lawson for part of her Fort property. Her home at the Fort ended when she gave a quit claim deed to a land investor by the name of John C. Garland on April 9, Garland obtained more of the Fort property through quit claims and purchases. He obtained the property that was originally owned by Priest, Lee, & Company through a quit claim given by Richard Jones on May 15, Charles E. Pickett sold his 146 Some Unwritten History Part VII, Themis, 30 November Many sources refer to Olive Lawson by Torney despite her second marriage. 147 California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 6, 11 March Pipes, Letter of Jeems Pipes of Pipesville. 149 Sacramento City and County Directory, (Sacramento: H.S. Crocker & Company, 1868), Sacramento County Deed Book 52, p Sacramento County Deed Book 52, p.271. This property was sold many times before Jones obtained the property. None of the owners lived or made improvements on the land. Lawson was technically residing and claiming ownership of the land during her time at the Fort.

66 57 property to Garland for $ Samuel Deal, the heir of Dr. Grove Deal, gave a quit claim for the southeast bastion area to Garland on April 20, Garland was very ambitious in obtaining all known property claims of the original Fort grounds and the surrounding area. Owning several blocks of land, he sought to fence off his property, even streets and alleyways. Numerous complaints were made that the fences hindered travel and devalued the properties of those in the vicinity. 154 It was not long before Garland s fences were the subject of a lawsuit. Garland was arrested in February 1870 over this matter. John Rider, the street commissioner in Sacramento, filed a suit against Garland. It was decided the following year in favor of Garland on the basis that Sutter had never deeded the streets to the city. 155 This ruling was later reversed. 156 Because of the suits, Garland had a substantial amount of legal fees to pay. John Garland sold his Sutter s Fort property to H. O. Beatty, his lawyer, for $12,000 in September Beatty sold the property back to Garland once all legal matters were over and Garland moved to Chicago. While visiting, he sold Fort property to Lyman Bridges for $17,000 on December 19, Just a week later on the 26th, Bridges sold the property to Christian Engle for $20, Engle then sold the same 152 Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 37, No. 5717, 24 July Sacramento County Deed Book 52, p Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 38, No. 5911, 8 March Garland was a silent partner in the Mowe, Lansing, and Clunie street railroad project which was planning to run a trolley around Garland s property and develop the land for commercial use. 155 Decided Adversely to the City, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 40, No. 7092, 4 February Rider vs. Garland, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 43, No. 7478, 2 May The Sutter Fort Property, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 41, No. 7277, 9 September Returned Home, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 46, No. 7094, 29 December Sacramento County Deed Book 72, p. 341.

67 58 property to Benjamin Merrill on January 9, 1874 for $6, Merrill owned the property until All of the property owners from Garland to Merrill did not live at the Fort property or develop the land. While some individuals squatted on the property, the owners lack of maintenance spurred interest in the Fort s destruction. One of the last known individual to live at the Fort was a man by the name of Corder. He lived in the Central Building and made a living there boiling soap and artificially incubating chicken eggs. 161 Corder, however, almost destroyed the Central Building when his incubation system combusted. 162 Corder did not remain long at the Fort. Its condition was uninhabitable to even the destitute. Daniel, Edward, and Thomas Souney lived in the Central building in 1879 even after Corder moved because of its uninhabitable conditions. They used the basement as a horse stable and a chicken coop. The men lived on the second floor and cultivated the grounds for potato crops, other vegetables, and hay. 163 Their stay was not long at the Central Building either as they were squatters just like Corder was. The old Fort was a white elephant for the progressing Sacramento community. Development in the 1880s was at the Fort s doorstep and further destruction of the structure was on the horizon. The community, however, decided to take measures to save the old landmark. It is important to discuss the owners of the Fort after Sutter because their deeds illustrate not only the size of the original Fort, but its dilapidation over time. When Merrill purchased the Fort grounds in 1874, the deed included the remains of Sutter s 1880, Sacramento County Deed Book 72, p Sutter s Fort, The Sacramento Daily Union, 1 February Non-Incubation, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 45, No. 6875, 16 April The Fall of Sutter s Fort, Reno Weekly Gazette, 5 June 1879; Sacramento City Directory,

68 59 Fort. 164 Through this period after Sutter sold the Fort, there was a growing awareness of the Fort s condition and what the Fort began to represent for Sacramento. Through the progress and growth of Sacramento, the Fort crumbled. By the eve of its reconstruction, all what was left of the Fort was a dilapidated Central Building. It became a symbol of what Sacramento was before the city. It was the place citizens parents or grandparents visited when it was still a citadel. Because of the Fort s horrid condition, Sacramento started to not look forward to the city s expansion but backwards towards its pioneer past. 164 Sacramento County Deed Book 72, p. 411.

69 60 Chapter 4 PRESERVATION AND RECONSTRUCTION The preservation of historic structures was not new in the United States by the time of the reconstruction of Sutter s Fort. Even though historic preservation is understood as a rather recent trend today, it has its roots starting in the mid-1800s. Preservation started as a way of shaping public remembrance of monumental figures such as our founding fathers. The movement to preserve George Washington s plantation, Mount Vernon, started in 1853 by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, became the first historic preservation organization in the United States. Their goal was to restore Washington s mansion and preserve the over 200-acre plantation from further dilapidation. Driven by patriotic fervor, Mount Vernon was preserved through a grassroots movement by private citizens and organized by a private organization. 165 Other sites, for example the old Statehouse building in Boston, went through a series of restoration projects in the early 1880s to preserve the site and restore it to its original mid-eighteenth century appearance. 166 However, in California during the late nineteenth century, preservation of historic structures was not very common. California was still expanding, not just because of the Gold Rush, but because of its growing agricultural economy. There were isolated movements to preserve sites such as the tomb of Father Junipero Serra at the ruined San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel in 1882, 165 Robert F. Dalzell and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, George Washington's Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), Old State House," National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, accessed January 10, <

70 61 but Sutter s Fort was unique for its time in the preservation actions taken. 167 The call for its restoration and reconstruction became a public outcry and the result was the first reconstruction of a fort in the United States. 168 The only building left standing had no doors, stairs, or windows. Part of the roof had collapsed and sections of its walls had large cracks. In the early 1890s, the Central Building was restored to its original appearance and the surrounding walls and rooms were reconstructed as they appeared in the mid-1840s. The initial push for reconstructing the Fort was for its connection to Sacramento s first pioneer, John Sutter. While Sutter s Fort was physically preserved in the 1890s, the push for its reconstruction came from a movement to preserve the public memory of California s pioneer past. The old Fort represented a backlash to the modernity of the Gilded Age in California. Brenda Frink argued that Californians became interested in local history to cope with their distaste for modernity and the financial crisis of the 1890s. They joined patriotic societies that focused on preserving and resurrecting the pioneer past of California. In regards to the remains of the Fort, Frink argued that the reconstruction was driven to honor not just John Sutter but American pioneer men generally. It was also to dispute popular mythology that depicted California's pioneers as drunken, lawless hordes who had rushed greedily to the gold fields. These patriotic societies sought to portray the Gold Rush pioneers as exemplars of nineteenth century manhood. 169 Frink shares the same argument with David Glassberg that these early preservation or pioneer societies 167 Charles B. Hosmer, Presence of the Past: a history of the preservation movement in the United States before Williamsburg, (New York: Putnam, 1965), John Austin Matzko, Reconstructing Fort Union, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), Frink, Pioneers and Patriots,

71 62 were concerned with historic structures that represented white patriotism and their connection to the Gold Rush. Their representation of the pioneer past was perpetuated as well. It was a history that did not discuss the troubles pioneers faced or the impact those sites had on the Native population in the area. 170 Figure 7: Photograph of the dilapidated Central Building in the late 1880s. From the Harry Peterson Collection, Courtesy of the Sutter s Fort Pioneer Collection. Even though John Sutter was not involved in the creation of Sacramento City, he was often credited in the late 1800s with being Sacramento s founder. The legend of Sutter and James Marshall discovering gold at Sutter s sawmill in Coloma was rich in the public memory of Sacramento. Newspapers routinely published historic artwork depicting the Fort and the good old pioneer days. 171 The public knew of the Fort, but there was no concern up until the 1880s that the Fort was ever going to disappear entirely. Development and expansion of the city put the Fort s remains at risk. As 170 David Glassberg, Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001), The Gold Seeker's first Headquarters, California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Vol. 40, No. 15, 22 January 1874.

72 63 Sacramento s population increased the city started to expand farther east. In 1889, houses were built close to the Fort property and the Central Street Railway System operated as far east as 28 th Street. 172 Developers turned to the eyesore that was the dilapidated Central Building sitting on two empty city blocks. The city mayor proposed in November 1889 to demolish the Central Building to allow for new housing. The mayor s proposal created backlash and Sacramento s first preservation movement. Figure 8: Illustration of Sutter s Fort published in California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences on January 24, This drawing and the inscription that this is how the Fort appeared in 1849 was published many times in this newspaper in the 1860s and 1870s. These articles helped develop the connection between the Fort and the Gold Rush more than the years prior. 173 By the 1880s, the remnants of Sutter s Fort resembled ruins of ancient civilizations. Even though the Central Building was hardly forty years old, the impact from the environment and lack of maintenance had taken its toll. Despite its appalling state, individuals took notice and discussed how different it was from its original 172 F.M. Husted, Sacramento City and County Directory , A Landmark of Our Pioneers, California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Vol. 47, No. 17, 24 January 1878.

73 64 presence. There was a growing sense of romanticism with regard to the Fort. As mentioned before, citizens often visited the Fort s ruins to get a glimpse of the Fort s remains. Descendants of pioneers also grew up hearing stories of the Fort s appearance and the sanctuary it used to be for travelers. The Fort became a symbol of what Sacramento used to be, a time when pioneers settled the Central Valley and searched for gold in the foothills. An article written in 1854 encapsulated this romanticism: We greatly fear the progressive spirit of the age will shortly aid old Father Time himself in demolishing this sole landmark of the heroic veteran s valor in this valley, in the days prior to the golden age. 174 This romanticism grew over the decades as Sacramento started to push back against the growing urbanization of Sacramento. The Fort was a lasting symbol of the past before the city and the birth of American civilization in the region. What was to be done about the decaying Fort? Notable individuals such as John Bidwell, William Grimshaw, Stephen Massett, and civic-minded leaders, such as General James Martine, wrote magazine articles, newspaper entries, letters, and poems, but there was no concentrated effort to save or preserve the old relic. The city of Sacramento was growing and Sutter was a figure of the past. Sutter was a celebrity during the Gold Rush, but that fame faded away. The image of its eighteen feet high walls, large gates, and the shops remained in the memory of Sacramento. The citizens did not know what to do with the Central Building. It was private property, but people visited the old site. The land had been surveyed, and it was only a matter of time until the remains of the Central Building 174 Sacramento Daily Union, 17 October 1854.

74 65 would be destroyed for impending development. Proposals were presented to the public on how the Fort could be repurposed. One columnist, for example, wrote in 1871, I would suggest that the fort, with the grounds surrounding it, be purchased by the several Pioneer societies of the State; that its walls be restored; a garden planted inside; trees planted on the grounds; and that a subscription fund be raised and invested, for the purpose of converting the old fort into a home for indigent Pioneers. 175 Nothing went further than a proposal. Starting in the 1880s, sentiment changed towards the old Fort. The idea of adaptive reuse was no longer a thought. John Sutter passed away in June 1880 in Washington D.C. but was still viewed as first pioneer for Sacramento. In January 1881, a Convention of Pioneers met in Sacramento to consider the most appropriate method of perpetuating the memory of General Sutter. Their proposed ideas of honoring Sutter were a simple monument or a memorial chapel, but the most popular idea was to restore the Fort as close a semblance as possible to what it was when General Sutter lived there. The purpose of the restoration, according to their plans, was not only to memorialize Sutter, but also the era he inaugurated. 176 Pioneers and their descendants associated the Fort not with Sutter, but the pioneers who inhabited the area before statehood. Once again, this was just a plan. The action to restore the Fort did not come to fruition until it was almost too late. Saving Sutter s Fort did not happen overnight. Proposals were published in newspapers and local clubs met to discuss what to do with the historic site. It was not 175 Pioneers and Sutter s Fort, Sacramento Daily Union, 14 July The Convention of Pioneers, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 12, No. 123, 12 January 1881.

75 66 until fraternal organizations, whose very mission was to preserve California history, became interested in the historic structure that any action took place to save the Fort. The biggest support for restoring Sutter s Fort to its original appearance came from the Native Sons of the Golden West (NSGW). The Native Sons was a fraternal society that was founded in 1875 by General Albert M. Winn, formerly Sacramento s first de facto mayor, to preserve California history. The first preservation effort by the organization involved Sutter s Fort. That effort began at the annual Native Sons convention, Grand Parlor, of April 1888 in Fresno, California when Carl Ewald Grunsky of Sunset Parlor #26 offered a resolution that read: There is no spot in California more intimately associated with the history of the pioneer days of this state than Sutter's Fort. It commands the veneration of all Native Sons of California and it is the duty of our organization to perpetuate the memories associated with the spot and to preserve the site of the Fort from further desecration; therefore be it resolved, that a Committee of five be appointed by the Grand President to devise ways and means for the restoration of Sutter's Fort and its permanent preservation. 177 Grunsky s message became a rallying message for the movement to restore the Fort. By the next Grand Parlor in 1889, Grunsky s plan was approved. Despite having a plan to restore the Fort, the NSGW could not acquire the property. Benjamin Merrill still owned the property and was not willing to sell. Merrill was living in Chicago and saw his Fort property as an investment in a growing city. 178 His decision to keep the property changed when his public image was tarnished by James G. Martine. 177 Carl E. Grunsky, The Restoration of Sutter s Fort: The Native Sons Committee and The First Board of Sutter's Fort Trustees, May 1926, 3-4. Grunsky took interest in Sutter s Fort in the early 1880s. He made many works of art depicting how the Central Building looked at different angles. These artworks are in the Fort s museum collection, today. 178 James G. Martine, Doomed to Ruin, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 62, No. 64, 5 November 1889.

76 67 James G. Martine started a letters to the editor campaign in the summer of 1889 in the Sacramento Daily Union. As a member of the Sacramento Pioneers Association, Martine became interested in preserving what he thought was Sacramento s most sacred relic. He first brought attention to the public that Sacramento city trustees were planning to open 27 th Street from K to L Street through the Fort property, which would mean the Central Building would be demolished. 179 Martine advocated that Benjamin Merrill, the owner of the Fort grounds, could help prevent further destruction to the Fort by giving the property to the Native Sons. Martine s letters to the Sacramento Daily Union verged away from kind-hearted words to a swift call to action, and in November 1889 he started to blame Merrill for the Fort s condition. 180 Within a month of Martine s criticism of Merrill for not offering to sell the Fort or help with the preservation of the site, Merrill set a price. W.P. Coleman, the agent representing Merrill, met with Martine and set the price at $20,000 for the two blocks of land. Additionally Merrill offered to donate $2,000 for the Fort s restoration. 181 It was a slow process for donations though. A committee was created by the NSGW to oversee the fundraising and the overall project. That committee consisted of C.E. Grunsky, W.M. Sims, and Frank D. Ryan. 182 The Native Sons raised membership dues to collect money for the effort. What really encouraged public awareness of the proposed reconstruction and spurred donations was an article published in Sacramento s short-lived newspaper 179 The Old Fort, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 62, No. 39, 5 October Twenty-Seventh Street and the alleyway were never properly surveyed in 1848 by Captain Warner because the Fort obstructed the work. 180 Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 62, No. 65, 6 November Sutter s Fort Captured, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 62, No. 89, 3 December Richard S. Kimball and Barney Noel, Native Sons of the Golden West, (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), 52.

77 68 Themis. The article detailed Grunsky s plans for reconstructing the Fort. The article gave a comprehensive design of how the Fort looked at the beginning of the Gold Rush, with dimensions of all the rooms. It noted each room s purpose, offered first-hand accounts from men who worked at the Fort in the 1840s, and detailed how the Fort would look once the reconstruction was completed. The Fort would be reconstructed to its 1848 iteration, to represent both daily life at the Fort before the Gold Rush and the time immediately following the gold discovery. 183 Figure 9: Illustration of C.E. Grunsky s plans for the Fort s reconstruction originally published in Themis on November 23,1889. His plans detailed what he thought, through research, was the original design of Sutter s Fort Sutter s Fort: Bird s-eye View of the Historic Spot in Carefully Prepared Data in Regards to Its Occupancy at That Time, Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 1, No. 28, 24 November Ibid.