Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/22

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SUTHERLAND
SUTTER

with this office it has been his duty to visit the greater part of the Dominion, and he has won everywhere a reputation for eloquence. In 1879 he made a vigorous effort to clear the church missions department of a debt of $75,000, which resulted in the collection of $116,000. He was secretary to the conference again in 1878. and in 1879 received the degree of D. D. from Victoria college. He has published "A Summer in Prairie Land" (Toronto, 1882).


SUTHERLAND, Joel B., jurist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1791 ; d. there, 15 Nov., 1861. He was graduated as a physician at the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, served in the war with Great Britain in 1813, and subsequently was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was a member of congress in 1827-'37, chairman of the committee on commerce in 1835-'7, and judge of the court of common pleas in Philadelphia. He published "Manual of Legislative Practice and Order of Business in Deliberative Bodies" (Philadelphia, 1830), and "A Congressional Manual" (1839).


SUTLIFFE, Albert, poet, b. in Meriden, Conn., about 1830. After teaching in a private school in Kentucky, he removed in 1855 to Minnesota, where he has since resided. He first became known as a writer of verse for the " National Era," Washing- ton, D. C, and in 1854 was a contributor to the " Genius of the West," at Cincinnati. He pub- lished a volume of poems (Boston, 1859).


SUTRO, Adolph Heinrich Joseph, mining engineer, b. in Aix-la-Chapelle, Rhenish Prussia, 29 April, 1830. He was educated in his native place. His father was a cloth-manufacturer, and Adolph learned the details of the business and travelled for the factory, but the elder Sutro died before the son was old enough to continue the business, and the family, consisting of seven sons and four daughters, came to New York in 1850. During the voyage Adolph had learned of the gold fever in California, and, soon after establishing the family in Baltimore, he set out for the Pacific coast. Having studied mineralogy in the best polytechnic schools in Germany, he was much better prepared for mining operations than the majority who at that time were flocking to the gold-fields. He visited Nevada in 1860, and, after a careful inspection of the mining region there, he planned the now famous Sutro tunnel through the heart of the mountain where lay the Comstock lode. Having interested capitalists in the project, he obtained a charter from the Nevada legislature on 4 Feb., 1865, and the authorization of congress on 25 July, 1866. The mining companies agreed to pay a toll of $2 for each ton of ore, from the time when the tunnel should reach and benefit their mines. The work was begun on 19 Oct., 1869. It proceeded as rapidly as its character would permit, and before the close of 1871 four vertical shafts were opened along the line of the tunnel, one of which was 552 feet deep. The distance from the mouth of the tunnel to the Savage mine, where, at a depth of 1,650 feet from the surface, it formed the first connection with the Comstock lode, is 20,000 feet. Lateral tunnels connect it with the mines on either side of the main bore. In 1879 the great tunnel was finished, and its projector became a millionaire many times over. Some of the mines at the level of the tunnel were flooded with water to the depth of one hundred feet or more, and had long been abandoned; others were unworkable on account of the heat and noxious gases. The tunnel with its shafts effectually ventilated them, and within a few days they were rid of the accumulated water, which had a temperature in some mines of 160° Fahrenheit. Mr. Sutro has devoted a part of his fortune to the collection of a fine library and art gallery in San Francisco. In 1887 he presented that city with a copy of Frédéric A. Bartholdi's statue of “Liberty enlightening the World.”


SUTTER, John Augustus, pioneer, b. in Kandern, Baden, 15 Feb., 1803; d. in Washington, D. C., 17 June, 1880. He was of Swiss parentage, and his family name was originally Suter. He was graduated at the military college at Berne in 1823, entered the French service as an officer of the Swiss guard, and served in 1823-'4 through the Spanish campaign. In 1834 he emigrated to this country and settled in St. Louis. Afterward he carried on at Santa Fé a profitable trade with Indians and trappers, whose accounts of California induced him in 1838 to cross the Rocky mountains. He first went to Oregon, descended Columbia river to Fort Vancouver, and thence sailed to the Sandwich islands, where he purchased a vessel and went to Sitka, Alaska. After disposing of his cargo to advantage there, he sailed along the Pacific coast, and on 2 July, 1839, was stranded in the Bay of Yerba Buena (now San Francisco). Penetrating into the interior amid great difficulties, he founded in the same year the earliest white settlement on the site of Sacramento, received a considerable grant of land from the Mexican government, and in 1841 built a fort, calling it New Helvetia, which was afterward the first settlement that was reached by overland emigrants to California. The Mexican government appointed him governor of the northern frontier country, but, as he favored the annexation of California to the United States, the Mexicans regarded him with suspicion. When Capt. Charles Wilkes's exploring expedition reached San Francisco, Sutter gave him aid and information, and he extended a similar welcome to John C. Frémont and his party. When California was ceded to the United States in February, 1848, Sutter was the owner of a large tract of land, many thousands of cattle, and other property, but the discovery of gold on his estate near Coloma, El Dorado co., at the same time (see Marshall, James Wilson), proved his financial ruin. His laborers deserted him, his lands were overrun by gold-diggers, and the claim he had filed for thirty-three square leagues, which had been allowed by the commissioners, was decided against him on appeal to the supreme court. Despoiled of his property and reduced to want, he was granted by the California legislature a pension of $250 a month. In 1864 his homestead was burned, and in 1873 he removed to Litiz, Lancaster co., Pa. After California had been annexed to this country Sutter was elected first alcalde of his district, and a delegate to the convention to form a state constitution, and he was also an Indian commissioner. The illustration shows the mill on Sutter's property, near which gold was first discovered.