577

John Sutter 1849 Power of Attorney to Selling Lots in Vernon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
John Sutter 1849 Power of Attorney to Selling Lots in Vernon

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
matted and framed with image of Sutter in his later years. 10 x 13.5" plus 5.25 x 7" visible; verso also visible with 13.5 x 15.25" opening; frame 19 x 20.5". Legal document appointing Archibold C. Pealhy as attorney to sell Sutter's land in the city of Vernon, at the confluence of the Feather and Sacramento River. With Sutter's signature and witnessed by John McDougal and Frederick Billings, also notarized by Billings as Commissioner of Deeds on verso.

John Augustus Sutter (1803-1880), a Swiss citizen born in Germany, immigrated to California when it was still part of Mexico and Native Americans outnumbered Europeans about 30 to 1. He became a Mexican citizen in 1840 so he would qualify for a land grant of 48,827 acres, which he named "New Helvetia" (New Switzerland). Sutter's Fort was for a time the most prosperous (European) settlement in California, and a destination for many settlers (including the ill-fated Donner party).

In 1847 he contracted with James Marshall for a sawmill to be constructed in Coloma on the American River. He already had a tannery operating. As Marshall was building the mill in 1848, gold flecks appeared in the gravel, and the rest, as they say, is history. Although he tried to keep the discovery secret, Sutter's land was over-run with prospectors. As noted in his deposition to the government seeking compensation for the destruction, the miners took everything - including the mill stones - in addition to digging up the land. The tannery, which had been prospering, lay idle, since no one was interested in hides. Apparently, by the following year, Sutter needed to sell part of his land to survive, since the Coloma property was destroyed. 

Condition: Minor toning along folds; scattered light foxing; slight ink "burn" through paper at Sutter's signature.