Sutter-Yuba County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter 1 General Sutter's Gun 1924
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 4, 2012, 8:59 pm

Book Title: History Of Yuba And Sutter Counties

CHAPTER I 
GENERAL SUTTER'S GUN 

    No more striking relic of the times when Yuba and Sutter Counties were in
the swaddling-clothes age is to be found anywhere than a gun owned by Dr. J. H.
Barr, of Yuba City, physician of Marysville and Yuba City and collector of
ancient and modern firearms. At first sight, this immense firearm appears more a
cannon than a gun. Six feet three inches in length and weighing thirty-five
pounds, the weapon was used as a cannon by Gen. John A. Sutter, after whom
Sutter County was named. Mounted on a swivel, it many times served to repel
attacks made by the Indians in the very early days of Sutter County, when
General Sutter maintained his fort at Hock Farm, nine miles south of Yuba City
on the west bank of Feather River. 

    The immense gun was added to Dr. Barr's collection of firearms and curios in
September, 1895. The doctor has ever since steadfastly refused to part with it.
At one time the officers of the Grand Parlor of Native Sons of the Golden West
offered him $1000 for the relic, realizing its worth as a souvenir of the days
the memory of which the order seeks to perpetuate in California's history. 

    Better than any story that can be written of the gun as to its authenticity
and record, is an affidavit which Dr. Barr always keeps attached to the relic.
This affidavit reads as follows: 

    "This gun being a most valued historical relic,, its authenticity is hereby
preserved by the following affidavit: 

    " 'David J. Kertchem being duly sworn says that the large gun with swivel
attachment and the words and figures "Moore, 1770" on barrel and lock was
originally the property of General John A. Sutter, and that it was one of the
guns that were mounted for defense and used for several years prior to 1868 in
the fort at General Sutter's ranch on the Feather River, nine miles south of
Marysville, known as Hock Farm; that the said gun became, in the year 1870, the
property of deponent's father, D. J. Kertchem, Sr., who in that year, being the
lessee of Hock Farm, received said gun as a present from the son of General
Sutter; that the said gun remained in the possession of deponent's family until
the year 1895, when deponent presented it to Dr. J. H. Barr. Signed, D. J.
Kertchem, Jr.' 

    "Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of September, A. D. 1898.
G. W. Harney, Notary Public, Marysville, Yuba County, California." 

    Dr. Barr has another gun, a relic of General Sutter's days. It is an odd
looking air rifle made in Vienna, Austria, and brought to this country by
General Sutter from Switzerland. The barrel of this weapon, which carries a
small-caliber bullet, is of brass, and is covered with reed. The stock is
tapering, with a chamber of similar shape, into which air was pumped at a
pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch. It is of the type of gun that since
has been held to be unlawful to possess, on account of the absence of a report. 

    As the large gun represents the activities of early days in Sutter County,
the diminutive form alongside of it represents pioneer days in Yuba County. The
Lilliputian is Benny Lynch, Yuba's shortest male resident, who, when asked his
height, invariably replies: "The length of a cord stick and two inches added,"
indicating that he is four feet two inches tall. Lynch, who long has been a
character on Marysville's streets, was born in Kentucky in 1848, and never grew
much. He came to California in 1852, arriving in Marysville with his parents on
the same boat that brought to this city Col. John O. Packard, who gave to
Marysville the site and building known as the Packard Free Library, situate at
the northwest corner of Fourth and C Streets. As a young man, he engaged with
his brother, Hugh Lynch, in the live-stock business. In his prime, which
included many palmy days, he could ride broncos "with any of 'em"; and though
not much for height, he always held his own with the rough characters with which
his business brought him in contact. 


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF YUBA and SUTTER COUNTIES 
CALIFORNIA 
WITH 
Biographical Sketches OF 
The Leading Men and Women of the Counties Who Have Been Identified with Their
Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present 

HISTORY BY 
PETER J. DELAY 

ILLUSTRATED 
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME 

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1924



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