Once upon a time in San Francisco

Théophile de Rutté saw similarities between the Californian landscape, such as Yosemite National Park, and Switzerland

More than 150 years ago, the man who became the first Swiss consul of California took a look at the New World's coastline and thought it reminded him of home.

Théophile de Rutté was 23 and already well travelled, according to a new book looking back at the history of Swiss consular activities in the Bay area and beyond.

“The Swiss Experience in San Francisco” is edited by Catherine Bosshart-Pfluger, a historian at Fribourg University.

De Rutté was born in Sutz near Lake Biel and left Switzerland in 1846 to work as a merchant in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Three years later he was unhappy with his life and decided to make a new life for himself in California, lured by stories of gold.

On his arrival on October 27, 1849 he found the rolling hills dotted with grazing cattle not dissimilar to those in canton Bern.

De Rutté was not alone in being attracted to San Francisco by gold. Some ore had been found on the land of a compatriot, the self-styled General John Sutter, in Coloma, New Helvetas in California.

The discovery sparked off what became known as the Californian Gold Rush, which began in January 1848 and lasted for seven years.

Honorary consul

Sutter also played a key role in making de Rutté the area’s first honorary consul.

He took an instant liking to de Rutté, who was selling goods from Brazil with a friend in a minuscule makeshift office that also served as their living quarters.

Sutter noticed that the discovery of gold on his land had led to increasing numbers of Swiss people showing up to try their luck. He knew that it would soon be necessary to appoint a consul to deal with their affairs but he did not want Bern to appoint their man of choice.

Enter de Rutté. “He was a very young guy… and in fact he was chosen by the people living there. I think de Rutté did a good job,” Bosshart-Pfluger told swissinfo.

Fourteen months after arriving in San Francisco as an almost penniless immigrant, Consul de Rutté took up his position.

Mutual Benefit Society

One of the main problems he was faced with were Swiss impoverished by their rush to get rich quick.

Between 1845 and 1879, nearly 150,000 Swiss emigrated abroad – 75 per cent chose the United States as their final destination.

De Rutté’s solution was to set up the first Swiss Mutual Benefit Society of San Francisco after consulting the local community.
During the society’s inaugural meeting, 42 Swiss nationals donated $520 and pledged to give five dollars a month each.

“This society really helped to sustain all those people in real need, who had lost everything and were digging for gold and not finding anything, or their families were gamblers,” Bosshart-Pfluger explained.

Mediator

De Rutté was also busy with consular matters of a more administrative nature. He was a mediator, dealing with correspondence and issuing official documents.

For example he would receive letters from Switzerland from people trying to locate missing relatives in San Francisco.

Maintaining postal contact was tough in any case, given that mail took weeks to arrive, if at all.

The book also profiles de Rutté’s numerous successors but offers more than a potted history of the consuls themselves, says Bosshart-Pfluger.

“The creation of San Francisco is reflected in this story – you can feel it. This was not an already established society with a legal framework,” she said.

“There were even consuls who were thrown out, missing in action… maybe they died in a struggle in a goldmine!”

swissinfo, Faryal Mirza in Fribourg

Key facts

In 1850 Swiss immigrants made up 0.5 per cent of the US population.
This increased to 2.0 per cent by 1870.
California had the largest share of Swiss Americans of all US states from 1900-1920.
Between 1816 and 1939, a total of 507,000 Swiss people left Switzerland for greener pastures.

The book

“The Swiss Experience in San Francisco – 150 years of Swiss consular presence in San Francisco” is divided into three parts:
Swiss presence in the US; history of the Swiss consulate; and the consulate today.
Copies are available from:
Consulate General of Switzerland
456 Montgomery Street
Suite 1500
San Francisco, CA 94104-1233
USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]