Benny Lynch Yuba County's shortest Pioneer, and John Sutter's Gun

** Entry is from Peter J. Delay's 1924 publication; "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"

*** This entry is "as is" and unaltered.

Titled: "A Yuba County Sportsman" The gun is 6' 3" long and weighs 35 pounds. Benny J. Lynch was Yuba Counties shortest man and was 4' 2" tall. A complete description of the gun is found on page 219 of Peter J. Delay's "History of Yuba & Sutter Counties, California," published in 1924.

The 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.

Benny Lynch, Yuba County's Lilliputian Pioneer

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 contactk.


Additional Info-

John Sutter's gun and this photo are now on display at the Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County in Yuba City.

Find a Grave for Hugh J. Lynch

Find a Grave for John A. Sutter

Unfortunately further information on Benny J. Lynch could not be found.