Sutro, Adolph, 1830-1898

Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro, originator of the Sutro Tunnel in Nevada and well-known figure in San Francisco, born of Jewish parents in 1830 at Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany, left school at sixteen, but continued his education by reading voraciously. From his father, a cloth manufacturer, Sutro learned factory management. After his father's death in 1847, with business ruined by the Prussian war, his mother, having to raise seven sons and four daughters, decided to emigrate to the United States in 1850.

Adolph Sutro soon left for California via Panama, the rest of the family remaining in Baltimore. Sutro became a merchant in San Francisco and Stockton from 1851 to 1859. In 1855 he married Leah Harris, and from this marriage were born six children, four girls and two boys. As early as 1860, Sutro visited Nevada, learned to amalgamate tailings and created stamp mills in Carson and Virginia City. Here he planned his famous Tunnel, to drain and ventilate mines in the Comstock Lode, hoping to reach lucrative financial agreements with mining companies who would thus be benefited, hoping also to strike a rich vein himself while digging the tunnel. He eventually succeeded in obtaining financial backing in this country and in Europe, got a charter from Nevada in 1865 and an authorization from Congress in 1866. A company, known as the Sutro Tunnel Company, was formed, stock sold, and work started in October 1869.

Until 1880 Sutro fought many legislative battles in Washington, D.C., against the Bank Ring and the Bonanza owners, traveled to New York and Europe incessantly to consult with engineers and capitalists, and at times stayed in his mansion in the town of Sutro to supervise the tunnel work. Although the tunnel reached the Comstock Lode in 1879, Sutro, weary of the constant hassles within the Company, sold his interests, investing the proceeds in real estate in San Francisco. He occupied the decade 1880 to 1890 with a trip around the world, a sojourn in Europe, one in Mexico, the organization of the Cliff House and Sutro Heights, tree planting, and the collection of rare books. In 1892 he constructed the Sutro Baths. In 1894 he was elected Mayor of San Francisco on the Populist Party ticket. The last year of his life his health declined greatly. He died in 1898.

From the guide to the Adolph Sutro papers, 1853-1915, (The Bancroft Library)