The Sutter Hock Farm is the first non-Indian settlement in Sutter County, USA established in 1841 by John Augustus Sutter. John Sutter's Hock Farm was the first large-scale agricultural settlement in Northern California, composed of grain, cattle, orchards and vineyards. Located on the

Feather River The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over . The main stem Feather ...

, Hock Farm was intended by Sutter to be a retirement location where he would relocate his wife and children. By 1864–65 Sutter could no longer maintain the farm as the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

had depleted the area of manpower and Sutter could no longer hire workers due to his dwindling financial situation, squatters looting his beloved property of its cattle and timber and his own son, August Sutter, losing vast amounts of property holdings to swindlers as well as Capt. Sutter's own failed business dealings with swindlers and thieves that left him nearly penniless. The Mansion located on Hock Farm was destroyed by an arson fire on June 21, 1865, deliberately set by a vagrant ex-soldier, whom Sutter allowed to loaf around the farm,*Captain John Sutter: Sacramento Valley's Sainted Sinner, 1967, Richard Dillon. Chpt XIX. who retaliated against Sutter for having him bound and whipped after being caught stealing. The blaze destroyed all of Sutter's personal records of his pioneer life as well as works of art and priceless relics except for a few treasured medals and portraits that Sutter was able to save. Despite the vast land holdings given him by the Mexican government Sutter ultimately lost Hock Farm as well due to the enormous cost of litigation trying to perfect his land titles in the now United States courts. Sutter left Hock Farm and California completely five months after the fire and went to Washington DC to petition congress for redress, where he died in a Pennsylvania hotel room in 1880.

External links

Discovery of Gold
by John A. Sutter, '' Hutchings’ California Magazine'', November 1857. Sutter describes how he wanted a sawmill near the

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

and how Marshall told him of the gold.
History of the Donner Party
History of the Donner Party C. F. McGlashan, ©1879 and 1880, by C. F. McGlashan. * Sutter Hock Farm photo circa 1927 by Edward von Geldern. Contributor Gretchen Eberle

References

Companies based in Sutter County, California California Historical Landmarks John Sutter {{US-hist-stub

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