Translated and edited by Erwin G. and Elisabeth K. Gudde. Includes illustrations, map and index. Dust jacket torn at lower edge, no portion missing. Not price clipped

From St. Louis to Sutter's fort, 1846

Lienhard, Heinrich

Oklahoma University Press

An adventurer in both the physical and intellectual senses of the word, Heinrich Lienhard was born in Switzerland in 1822 and immigrated to America in 1843. Published here for the first time in either the original German or in English translation, this initial section of Lienhard’s enormous manuscript autobiography (more than half a million words) covers the years after his birth through his first several years in America.
Lienhard’s account of his early years consists of four segments: his early years and boyhood in the Swiss canton of Glarus, 18221843; his journey to America, August-November 1843; his two and a half years in Highland, Illinois; and his life in the upper Mississippi Valley. This section ends in April 1846, when Lienhard began the arduous and dangerous journey from St. Louis to Captain John Sutter’s fort at New Helvetia, California.
Lienhard has provided an unusually full account of his early life. The book contains fifty-one chapters, with each chapter featuring one or more life-shaping incidents for this pioneer who would successfully cross the Rocky Mountains at the same time the Donner party, taking a different and more obvious route, perished.
A few of the chapter titles demonstrate both the flavor and the thoroughness of this autobiography: "Father’s Thoughtless WordsAbuse from Brother Peter and Undeserved Punishment by Father"; "An Appropriate Warning to FatherHow Brother Peter Treated Me Deceitfully and TreacherouslyHow Apprentices Are Treated"; "Becoming More or Less American"; and "Short Stay at Schneider’sGoing to Mollet’s Where Three Times Daily for a Period of Nine Weeks I Am Fed Bad Cornbread, Oversalted Bacon, and Wheat Slop."
In his foreword, John H. Lienhard IV characterizes his great-grandfather: "Certain family writings and comments suggest that my grandfather had trouble understanding Heinrich’s who-cares’ attitude toward the consumption of his fortune. The irony is clear. Heinrich’s fortune was the result of his pursuit of freedom, not of fortune. His son enjoyed the settled life that Heinrich’s gains had provided. My grandfather could far better understand good business’ than the forces driving Heinrich."

New Worlds to Seek: Pioneer Heinrich Leinhard in Switzerland and America, 1824-1846

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Southern Illinois University Press

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Books by Lienhard, Heinrich

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lienhard, Heinrich. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

From St. Louis to Sutter's fort, 1846

New Worlds to Seek: Pioneer Heinrich Leinhard in Switzerland and America, 1824-1846