Western Pioneer. Founder and Planner of the city of Sacramento. John Augustus Sutter, Jr. was born in Switzerland to a father who had served in the Swiss military. When his father, John Augustus, Sr., became overwhelmed with debts, he decided to start over, leaving his wife and children and seeking his fortune in America. John Jr. was just seven years old when his father left, and was raised by his mother Anna. Fourteen years passed before John Jr. and the family reunited with John, Sr. in northern California in 1848. His father who had wanted to establish an agricultural utopia, almost succeeded having successfully acquired almost 50,000 acres of land from the Mexican government in an area he named New Helvetia which included Sutter's Fort. The discovery of gold on the American River in 1848, forever changed the lives of the Sutter family, and not for the better. John, Jr., in an attempt to disentangle his father's failing fortunes as the stampede of gold-seekers overran his property, became the primary City Planner for a viable city near the fork of the American and Sacramento River to be known as the city of Sacramento. His father was not happy with his son's decisions and they became estranged. John, Jr. fell ill and by 1850 decided to leave California for the town of Acapulco, Mexico. His health somewhat restored in the Mexican beachside community, he undertook some mercantile pursuits. He made little if any money from his planning efforts and property in California. He married twice in Mexico and was the father of 12 children. He was appointed American Consul to Acapulco and served in that position 1870-1887. He retired as U.S. Consul in 1887 and lived out his final decade on the family plantation with his second wife and children. He died in Acapulco in 1897 and was originally buried in Mexico, but in 1964 through the efforts of family members, especially his youngest and by then only surviving daughter, Anna Sutter, he was reinterred with great ceremony at historic Sacramento City Cemetery, the cemetery to which he had donated 10 acres of land in 1849.