The United States, Appellants v. John A. Sutter

This cause comes to this court by appeal from a decree of the District Court of the United States for the northern district of California, which affirms a sentence of the board of commissioners to settle private land claims in that State, in favor of the appellee, upon a claim to thirty-three square leagues of land in the valley of the Sacramento river. The record shows that the claimant, a native of Switzerland, immigrated to the Department of California about the year 1839, was naturalized as a citizen of Mexico, and with the leave of the Government formed a settlement near the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers, which he designated New Helvetia. The country at the time was uninhabited, except by bands of warlike Indians, who made frequent depredatory incursions upon the undefended settlements to the south and east of this place. In two or three years after his arrival, the claimant was commissioned by the Governor of California to guard the northern frontier and to represent the Government in affording security and protection to its inhabitants against the invasion of the Indians and marauding bands of hunters and trappers, who occasionally visited the valley for plunder. In the year 1841 he commenced the erection of a fort at New Helvetia, at his own expense. It was surrounded by a high wall, and was defended by cannon. Within this fort there were dwelling-houses for his servants and workmen, and workshops for the manufacture of various articles of necessity. There was a gristmill, tannery, and distillery, attached to the establishment. A number of Indians were domesticated by him, and contributed to cultivate his fields of grain, and to defend the settlement from more savage tribes. He was possessed of several thousands of horses and neat cattle, which were under the care of his servants. There were collected at different times from twenty to fifty families, and there were in the course of years some hundreds of persons connected with this settlement. He is described as having been hospitable and generous to strangers, and the Governors of California bear testimony to the vigor with which he performed the duties of his civil and military commission. In March, 1852, he placed before the board of commissioners a claim for eleven leagues of land, to include his place at New Helvetia, and extending thence north, which were granted to him by Juan B. Alvarado, Governor of California, 18th of June, 1841.