Heinrich Lienhard
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Lienhard was a Swiss immigrant to the United States
. He left Switzerland
at the age of 21. His reminiscences for the years 1822 to 1850 are an important historical source re California Trail
and Sutter's Fort
in California
from 1846 to 1850.
at the hamlet Ussbühl near Bilten
, Canton Glarus
. He spent his childhood and youth together with his three siblings on the farm of his parents. Knowing that several of his cousins had emigrated to America
, his childhood dream of following their example came true when he left Switzerland in 1843 and traveled to New Switzerland, later Highland
, in Illinois.
He spent the next two and a half years mainly at that place, it being a time of adjusting to new conditions. At first Lienhard worked as a farm hand and later left the Swiss settlement on occasion to travel up the Mississippi
, taking on several jobs along the way in the hope of finding better-paid work. In the spring of 1846, while working in a shop in St. Louis
, he met some old friends from Galena
with whom only a year before he had talked about emigrating to California
. They were just then preparing for that venture, and little effort was needed on their part to persuade him to join them in their undertaking.
The journey of the “Five German Boys,” as Heinrich Lienhard and his four companions were called by the other emigrants, lasted six months and led them from Independence, Missouri
, to New Helvetia, also called Sutter's Fort
, in California. In 1846, there was no fully established trail yet to that Mexican domain for emigrants, let alone for their oxen-drawn wagons, so that especially the second half of the way required the utmost effort and skill of humans and animals alike. In his reminiscences Lienhard describes the exact route and various aspects of daily life on the trail
such as the shifting relationships among the emigrants, the encounters with the Indians
, the changing landscapes as well as the trials and dangers travelers faced on difficult passages such as the Great Salt Lake Desert
and the Sierra Nevada.
Even before arriving at Sutter's Fort
, the emigrants were met by a recruiting agent of the United States Army. Urged on by a companion to whom he owed money, Lienhard too signed up for a three months’ service in the American military then engaged in war against Mexico
in order to annex all its claimed possessions north of the Rio Grande
, a goal the United States had been pursuing already for decades. On the trek to Monterey
, however, Lienhard became severely ill and barely survived the ordeal. On his return from Monterey in February 1847, he entered the service of the Swiss John Augustus Sutter
(1803–1880). For the next six months he tended Sutter’s fruit and vegetable garden on the Yuba River
, then served several months as his mayor-domo at the Fort, and briefly also as a supercargo on Sutter’s wheat laden schooner traveling to San Francisco. In January 1848 gold
was discovered at Coloma
where Sutter’s sawmill
was being built. At that time Lienhard was planting and tending a new garden of fruit trees, vines, vegetables, and flowers near the Fort. He was to join the miners only in August and, like others, in partnership with Sutter.
When Sutter’s oldest son John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
arrived from Switzerland in September, Sutter, Sr. asked Lienhard to lend him his half of the gold he had mined, so that Sutter could impress his son with a large amount of the precious metal. However, when Lienhard later went to the Fort, Sutter, Jr.
, having taken charge of his father’s debt-ridden business, was unable to return his share of the gold to him. Lienhard finally accepted Sutter’s flock of sheep instead and spent the following winter with Jacob Dürr, also a Swiss, at the sheep farm not far from the Fort.
In April 1849 Lienhard and Dürr went as partners to the mines to trade the sheep. Several weeks later Lienhard sold out to Dürr and, back at the Fort, acquiesced in Sutter, Jr.’s
request of going to Europe in order to bring the rest of his family to California. Heinrich Lienhard left San Francisco in June 1849, traveling via the Isthmus of Panama
to New York
and from there via England and Germany to Switzerland. Taking the same route, he returned to San Francisco in January 1850. Only half a year later he decided to leave violence-ridden California for good. Although he loved its climate, prairies, valleys, and mountains, he could not tolerate the lawlessness as well as the exploitation and destruction of the indigenous peoples. On the last day of 1850 and after a journey of six months he was back at his parental home in Switzerland.
In summer 1851 Heinrich Lienhard married Elsbeth Blumer of Bilten. They purchased a homestead in Kilchberg
near Zurich
, where in 1852 their first son Caspar Arnold and the following year John Henry were born. In September 1853, however, the Lienhards sold their farm and in April 1854 left Zurich, first settling for two years in Madison, Wisconsin
, where in 1855 they had their third son, John Jacob. In 1856 they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois
, on the Mississippi, where Heinrich Lienhard was to live for 47 years as a well-to-do farmer and respected citizen. In Nauvoo he and Elsbeth Lienhard had six more children, but they lost their oldest son in 1878 and their daughter Dora in 1884. In the same year Lienhard’s wife passed away and in 1892 the youngest daughter Barbara Adela. Heinrich Lienhard died on 19 December 1903 after a brief illness and, like his wife and seven of their children, was buried in Nauvoo’s Presbyterian cemetery.
Wherever Lienhard happened to be during his years of traveling, his full attention was drawn to nature in all its variety, to landscapes, climatic conditions, soil quality, geological details, and plants and animals previously unknown to him, while many passages of his account deal with people, with lasting friendships as well as with brief, yet unforgettable encounters. With these portraits he created a monument to many of his friends and acquaintances who otherwise would long be forgotten, portraits, which always reflect his own personality, too. This shows itself impressively in his relationship with the founder of New Helvetia John A. Sutter
, whom he got to know well.
Lienhard’s keen sense of observation was not limited to outward features, but involved his heart and mind as well. Although he respected the indigenous people
from the start as the natives of the land, his early comments are not free from the typical ethnocentric views of the whites. Gradually his perspective changed, especially during his stay at Mimal on the Yuba River
, where he lived for six months in isolation from white settlers and in close contact with the indigenous peoples of the surrounding villages. Some gathered regularly at his house, observed his activities with interest, traded, or occasionally helped with garden work. They taught him to become a first-rate archer, now and then took him along to their families, and nursed him back to health when he fell ill. Thus Lienhard began to observe their daily life and marveled at their skill in basketry, hunting and fishing. He often joined them in those pursuits and describes their methods of procuring and preparing food. His observations led him to understand that these people had organized their style of life in creative symbiosis with their surroundings, that their customs, though different, were ingenious, and that assessing them from a culturally biased vantage point did not do them justice. His growing understanding was extraordinary and increasingly run counter to the then dominant views. One night in the winter of 1848–49, he overheard his young Indian herdsmen talking of the times before the whites had invaded their valleys and of the ever worsening conditions. “The subdued talk of the Indians caused me to ponder,” he wrote. “In my thoughts I tried to put myself in the position of the Indians; and I wondered whether I would acquiesce if I were driven out of my and my ancestors’ homeland as had been the fate of the poor Indians. I confess that I was overwhelmed by strong feelings of revenge, always coming to the conclusion that I would take revenge on the shameless, greedy invaders in every possible way.” He knew from first-hand experience, however, that cooperation, escape, or resistance could all mean death for indigenous people.
Thus Lienhard’s text may be read from various perspectives. It fascinates as a detailed and captivating account of landscapes, fauna, and flora as well as of peoples and events. Far more than a story of adventure, it is a complex report of a racial conquest. The white intruders’ destruction of the environment, of animals, of indigenous peoples, and of their millennia-old communities as well as their infliction of forced servitude on the Indians, sexual exploitation of the indigenous women, of expulsion and death emerges with merciless clarity. Heinrich Lienhard’s account is thus a factual part-description of the Anglo-American conquest of the northern Western Hemisphere with its Janus-face of environmental destruction, racial annihilation, and of a simultaneous build-up of a vibrant Anglo-American variation of Western culture.
in Berkeley, California
, where it is accessible in its original form as well as on microfilm. Yet it had already awakened the interest of people outside the family in Lienhard’s own lifetime. The first to deal with the text was Kaspar Leemann, a friend from Lienhard’s days in Kilchberg (1850–54), whose edition was published in 1898, a reprint in 1900. However, Leemann’s version contains many errors of transcription, substantial omissions, changes and additions, so that the original is often barely recognizable. Lienhard, then approaching his eighties, was deeply disappointed as notes in the margins of his personal copy reveal.
In the United States the first partial edition, prepared by Marguerite E. Wilbur, was published in 1941 as A Pioneer at Sutter’s Fort, 1846–1850: The Adventures of Heinrich Lienhard. Wilbur translated the sections relating to Lienhard’s stay in California, excluding his trip to Switzerland in 1849. On the whole she follows the original, yet often omits episodes that, according to her judgment, “proved to be of slight historic value.” This severely weakens, partially falsifies the text and also seriously damages its authenticity.
In 1951 J. Roderic Korns
and Dale L. Morgan
used Lienhard’s original text―in their view “a record of the highest importance”―as a source in their research on the “Hastings Cutoff
” since Lienhard and his friends were among the first to cross that section of the trail. In 1961 Erwin G. and Elisabeth K. Gudde edited a textually accurate, if somewhat uninspired translation of the trail under the title From St. Louis to Sutter’s Fort. In their preface they characterize Lienhard’s text as “one of the three classical reports of the great western migration of 1846.”
John C. Abbott’s book New Worlds to Seek, issued in the year 2000, is a translation of Lienhard’s text about his youth and his years in Highland, Illinois. In 2010 Christa Landert published a partial German edition, titled “Wenn Du absolut nach Amerika willst, so gehe in Gottesnamen!”. It represents about half of the manuscript and covers the years 1846 to 1849, that is, Lienhard’s travel from Missouri to California and his stay in California during the early years of the Anglo-American takeover.
Two newspaper articles written by Heinrich Lienhard were published independently of his manuscript. The first appeared in the Glarner Zeitung after his short stay in Switzerland in 1849. It gives a first-hand account of California, Sutter’s Fort, the discovery of gold, and life in the mines as well as the most advantageous route to California, undoubtedly then of much interest for many readers. The second article appeared in 1885 in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. Lienhard had sent it as a letter to the editor to recall that eventful time of the gold discovery and the beginning of the gold rush.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He left Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
at the age of 21. His reminiscences for the years 1822 to 1850 are an important historical source re California Trail
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
and Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is a state-protected park in Sacramento, California which includes Sutter's Fort and the California State Indian Museum. Begun in 1839 and originally called "New Helvetia" by its builder, John Sutter, the fort was a 19th century agricultural and trade colony in...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
from 1846 to 1850.
Biography
Heinrich Lienhard was born on 19 January 1822 in SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
at the hamlet Ussbühl near Bilten
Bilten
Bilten is a former municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Bilten is part of the municipality of Glarus Nord.-Geography:...
, Canton Glarus
Canton of Glarus
The Canton of Glarus is a canton in east central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus.The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German.The majority of the population identifies as Christian, about evenly split between the Protestant and Catholic confessions.-History:According to legend, the...
. He spent his childhood and youth together with his three siblings on the farm of his parents. Knowing that several of his cousins had emigrated to America
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
, his childhood dream of following their example came true when he left Switzerland in 1843 and traveled to New Switzerland, later Highland
Highland, Illinois
Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....
, in Illinois.
He spent the next two and a half years mainly at that place, it being a time of adjusting to new conditions. At first Lienhard worked as a farm hand and later left the Swiss settlement on occasion to travel up the Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, taking on several jobs along the way in the hope of finding better-paid work. In the spring of 1846, while working in a shop in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, he met some old friends from Galena
Galena, Illinois
Galena is the county seat of, and largest city in, Jo Daviess County, Illinois in the United States, with a population of 3,429 in 2010. The city is a popular tourist destination known for its history, historical architecture, and ski and golf resorts. Galena was the residence of Ulysses S...
with whom only a year before he had talked about emigrating to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. They were just then preparing for that venture, and little effort was needed on their part to persuade him to join them in their undertaking.
The journey of the “Five German Boys,” as Heinrich Lienhard and his four companions were called by the other emigrants, lasted six months and led them from Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, to New Helvetia, also called Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is a state-protected park in Sacramento, California which includes Sutter's Fort and the California State Indian Museum. Begun in 1839 and originally called "New Helvetia" by its builder, John Sutter, the fort was a 19th century agricultural and trade colony in...
, in California. In 1846, there was no fully established trail yet to that Mexican domain for emigrants, let alone for their oxen-drawn wagons, so that especially the second half of the way required the utmost effort and skill of humans and animals alike. In his reminiscences Lienhard describes the exact route and various aspects of daily life on the trail
California Trail
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California...
such as the shifting relationships among the emigrants, the encounters with the Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, the changing landscapes as well as the trials and dangers travelers faced on difficult passages such as the Great Salt Lake Desert
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large dry lake in northern Utah between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border which is noted for white sand from evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits...
and the Sierra Nevada.
Even before arriving at Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park is a state-protected park in Sacramento, California which includes Sutter's Fort and the California State Indian Museum. Begun in 1839 and originally called "New Helvetia" by its builder, John Sutter, the fort was a 19th century agricultural and trade colony in...
, the emigrants were met by a recruiting agent of the United States Army. Urged on by a companion to whom he owed money, Lienhard too signed up for a three months’ service in the American military then engaged in war against Mexico
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
in order to annex all its claimed possessions north of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
, a goal the United States had been pursuing already for decades. On the trek to Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, however, Lienhard became severely ill and barely survived the ordeal. On his return from Monterey in February 1847, he entered the service of the Swiss John Augustus Sutter
John Sutter
Johann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...
(1803–1880). For the next six months he tended Sutter’s fruit and vegetable garden on the Yuba River
Yuba River
The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is one of the Feather's most important branches, providing about a third of its flow. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into North, Middle and South...
, then served several months as his mayor-domo at the Fort, and briefly also as a supercargo on Sutter’s wheat laden schooner traveling to San Francisco. In January 1848 gold
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
was discovered at Coloma
Coloma, California
Coloma is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, USA. It is approximately northeast of Sacramento, California. Coloma is most noted for being the site where James W. Marshall first discovered gold in California, at Sutter's Mill on January 24, 1848, leading to the California...
where Sutter’s sawmill
Sutter's Mill
Sutter's Mill was a sawmill owned by 19th century pioneer John Sutter in partnership with James W. Marshall. It was located in Coloma, California, at the bank of the South Fork American River...
was being built. At that time Lienhard was planting and tending a new garden of fruit trees, vines, vegetables, and flowers near the Fort. He was to join the miners only in August and, like others, in partnership with Sutter.
When Sutter’s oldest son John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr. was the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California, a U.S. Consul in Acapulco, Mexico and the son of Swiss born American pioneer, John Augustus Sutter, Sr.-Biography:...
arrived from Switzerland in September, Sutter, Sr. asked Lienhard to lend him his half of the gold he had mined, so that Sutter could impress his son with a large amount of the precious metal. However, when Lienhard later went to the Fort, Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr. was the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California, a U.S. Consul in Acapulco, Mexico and the son of Swiss born American pioneer, John Augustus Sutter, Sr.-Biography:...
, having taken charge of his father’s debt-ridden business, was unable to return his share of the gold to him. Lienhard finally accepted Sutter’s flock of sheep instead and spent the following winter with Jacob Dürr, also a Swiss, at the sheep farm not far from the Fort.
In April 1849 Lienhard and Dürr went as partners to the mines to trade the sheep. Several weeks later Lienhard sold out to Dürr and, back at the Fort, acquiesced in Sutter, Jr.’s
John Augustus Sutter, Jr.
John Augustus Sutter, Jr. was the founder and planner of the City of Sacramento, California, a U.S. Consul in Acapulco, Mexico and the son of Swiss born American pioneer, John Augustus Sutter, Sr.-Biography:...
request of going to Europe in order to bring the rest of his family to California. Heinrich Lienhard left San Francisco in June 1849, traveling via the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and from there via England and Germany to Switzerland. Taking the same route, he returned to San Francisco in January 1850. Only half a year later he decided to leave violence-ridden California for good. Although he loved its climate, prairies, valleys, and mountains, he could not tolerate the lawlessness as well as the exploitation and destruction of the indigenous peoples. On the last day of 1850 and after a journey of six months he was back at his parental home in Switzerland.
In summer 1851 Heinrich Lienhard married Elsbeth Blumer of Bilten. They purchased a homestead in Kilchberg
Kilchberg, Zurich
Kilchberg is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.Its coat of arms features a sky-blue shield with a trillium.Kilchberg is also the site of a regional cemetery.-History:...
near Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, where in 1852 their first son Caspar Arnold and the following year John Henry were born. In September 1853, however, the Lienhards sold their farm and in April 1854 left Zurich, first settling for two years in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, where in 1855 they had their third son, John Jacob. In 1856 they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, on the Mississippi, where Heinrich Lienhard was to live for 47 years as a well-to-do farmer and respected citizen. In Nauvoo he and Elsbeth Lienhard had six more children, but they lost their oldest son in 1878 and their daughter Dora in 1884. In the same year Lienhard’s wife passed away and in 1892 the youngest daughter Barbara Adela. Heinrich Lienhard died on 19 December 1903 after a brief illness and, like his wife and seven of their children, was buried in Nauvoo’s Presbyterian cemetery.
Heinrich Lienhard’s Manuscript
In the mid-1870s Heinrich Lienhard began to chronicle the experiences of the first 29 years of his life from his childhood and youth in Switzerland up to his return home from California in 1850. In regular and fluent old German script he filled nearly one thousand pages, a task that was to engage him for several years, thus leaving behind a legacy of a very special kind.Wherever Lienhard happened to be during his years of traveling, his full attention was drawn to nature in all its variety, to landscapes, climatic conditions, soil quality, geological details, and plants and animals previously unknown to him, while many passages of his account deal with people, with lasting friendships as well as with brief, yet unforgettable encounters. With these portraits he created a monument to many of his friends and acquaintances who otherwise would long be forgotten, portraits, which always reflect his own personality, too. This shows itself impressively in his relationship with the founder of New Helvetia John A. Sutter
John Sutter
Johann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...
, whom he got to know well.
Lienhard’s keen sense of observation was not limited to outward features, but involved his heart and mind as well. Although he respected the indigenous people
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
from the start as the natives of the land, his early comments are not free from the typical ethnocentric views of the whites. Gradually his perspective changed, especially during his stay at Mimal on the Yuba River
Yuba River
The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is one of the Feather's most important branches, providing about a third of its flow. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into North, Middle and South...
, where he lived for six months in isolation from white settlers and in close contact with the indigenous peoples of the surrounding villages. Some gathered regularly at his house, observed his activities with interest, traded, or occasionally helped with garden work. They taught him to become a first-rate archer, now and then took him along to their families, and nursed him back to health when he fell ill. Thus Lienhard began to observe their daily life and marveled at their skill in basketry, hunting and fishing. He often joined them in those pursuits and describes their methods of procuring and preparing food. His observations led him to understand that these people had organized their style of life in creative symbiosis with their surroundings, that their customs, though different, were ingenious, and that assessing them from a culturally biased vantage point did not do them justice. His growing understanding was extraordinary and increasingly run counter to the then dominant views. One night in the winter of 1848–49, he overheard his young Indian herdsmen talking of the times before the whites had invaded their valleys and of the ever worsening conditions. “The subdued talk of the Indians caused me to ponder,” he wrote. “In my thoughts I tried to put myself in the position of the Indians; and I wondered whether I would acquiesce if I were driven out of my and my ancestors’ homeland as had been the fate of the poor Indians. I confess that I was overwhelmed by strong feelings of revenge, always coming to the conclusion that I would take revenge on the shameless, greedy invaders in every possible way.” He knew from first-hand experience, however, that cooperation, escape, or resistance could all mean death for indigenous people.
Thus Lienhard’s text may be read from various perspectives. It fascinates as a detailed and captivating account of landscapes, fauna, and flora as well as of peoples and events. Far more than a story of adventure, it is a complex report of a racial conquest. The white intruders’ destruction of the environment, of animals, of indigenous peoples, and of their millennia-old communities as well as their infliction of forced servitude on the Indians, sexual exploitation of the indigenous women, of expulsion and death emerges with merciless clarity. Heinrich Lienhard’s account is thus a factual part-description of the Anglo-American conquest of the northern Western Hemisphere with its Janus-face of environmental destruction, racial annihilation, and of a simultaneous build-up of a vibrant Anglo-American variation of Western culture.
Publications
In 1949, a granddaughter sold Heinrich Lienhard’s manuscript to the Bancroft LibraryBancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired as a gift/purchase from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, where it is accessible in its original form as well as on microfilm. Yet it had already awakened the interest of people outside the family in Lienhard’s own lifetime. The first to deal with the text was Kaspar Leemann, a friend from Lienhard’s days in Kilchberg (1850–54), whose edition was published in 1898, a reprint in 1900. However, Leemann’s version contains many errors of transcription, substantial omissions, changes and additions, so that the original is often barely recognizable. Lienhard, then approaching his eighties, was deeply disappointed as notes in the margins of his personal copy reveal.
In the United States the first partial edition, prepared by Marguerite E. Wilbur, was published in 1941 as A Pioneer at Sutter’s Fort, 1846–1850: The Adventures of Heinrich Lienhard. Wilbur translated the sections relating to Lienhard’s stay in California, excluding his trip to Switzerland in 1849. On the whole she follows the original, yet often omits episodes that, according to her judgment, “proved to be of slight historic value.” This severely weakens, partially falsifies the text and also seriously damages its authenticity.
In 1951 J. Roderic Korns
J. Roderic Korns
J Roderic "Rod" Korns was a 20th century editor, researcher and historian of the American west. He is best known for West from Fort Bridger: The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails Across Utah 1846-1850, completed with the assistance of historiographer and author Dale L. Morgan...
and Dale L. Morgan
Dale Morgan
Lowell Dale Morgan , generally cited as Dale Morgan or Dale L. Morgan, was an American historian, accomplished researcher, biographer, editor, and critic. He specialized in material on Utah history, Mormon history, the American fur trade, and overland trails...
used Lienhard’s original text―in their view “a record of the highest importance”―as a source in their research on the “Hastings Cutoff
Hastings Cutoff
The Hastings Cutoff was an alternate route for emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings.In 1845, Hastings published a guide entitled The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California...
” since Lienhard and his friends were among the first to cross that section of the trail. In 1961 Erwin G. and Elisabeth K. Gudde edited a textually accurate, if somewhat uninspired translation of the trail under the title From St. Louis to Sutter’s Fort. In their preface they characterize Lienhard’s text as “one of the three classical reports of the great western migration of 1846.”
John C. Abbott’s book New Worlds to Seek, issued in the year 2000, is a translation of Lienhard’s text about his youth and his years in Highland, Illinois. In 2010 Christa Landert published a partial German edition, titled “Wenn Du absolut nach Amerika willst, so gehe in Gottesnamen!”. It represents about half of the manuscript and covers the years 1846 to 1849, that is, Lienhard’s travel from Missouri to California and his stay in California during the early years of the Anglo-American takeover.
Two newspaper articles written by Heinrich Lienhard were published independently of his manuscript. The first appeared in the Glarner Zeitung after his short stay in Switzerland in 1849. It gives a first-hand account of California, Sutter’s Fort, the discovery of gold, and life in the mines as well as the most advantageous route to California, undoubtedly then of much interest for many readers. The second article appeared in 1885 in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. Lienhard had sent it as a letter to the editor to recall that eventful time of the gold discovery and the beginning of the gold rush.