The birth of a new city

Editor's note: This is the second of a series on the history of Carson City written by State Archivist Guy Rocha. Profiles of people, events and places instrumental in Carson City's history will be featured throughout 2008 on this page in celebration of Carson City's Sesquicentennial.

Two events provided the impetus and opportunity for Abraham Curry, John Jacob Musser, Francis Marion Proctor and Benajmin Franklin Green to look into acquiring land in western Utah Territory. In September 1857 hundreds of Mormon settlers in Carson, Jack's, Eagle, Washoe, Pleasant and Steamboat valleys, as well as the Truckee Meadows, were called back to Salt Lake City by church leader Brigham Young in anticipation of a conflict with the federal government over the administration of Utah Territory. In many cases, there was little time to sell their land and much of it was available for the taking, given the general antipathy for the Mormon Church and its followers.

The political chaos in western Utah Territory occasioned by the so-called "Mormon War" and the attaching of Carson County to Great Salt Lake County earlier that year, which effectively stripped the remaining citizens of most of their rights of self-government, provided great opportunity for ambitious men.

Efforts orchestrated by William M. Ormsby, who arrived in Genoa from California in April 1857 following his filibustering activities in Nicaragua with William Walker, resulted in a memorial from the citizens of Carson Valley addressed to President James Buchanan asking for a separate territory in the western Great Basin. Endorsed by the governor and legislature of California, and signed by Ormsby, the petition was presented by the president to the House of Representatives on April 9, 1858.

On the occasion of Ormsby's death in the Pyramid Lake Indian War in May 1860, the Territorial Enterprise wrote that, "... his name has been prominently connected with everything of moment transpiring in Western Utah, whether in a financial or political view. He was the first man who conceived and carried into execution the plan of applying to Congress for a separate Territorial organization. The future history of Nevada Territory will bear honorable testimony to the memory of Maj. Ormsby." There is evidence to suggest that Ormsby knew Curry, Musser, Proctor and Green while operating stage lines and other businesses enterprises in northern California and western Utah Territory.

At the same time, a disastrous fire swept through Downieville on Jan. 1, 1858, leveling much of the community. All four men apparently sustained financial losses, Proctor losing his residence and all it contained. Downieville, and the Mother Lode country, was in decline. Miners were leaving the area in droves, some to the Fraser River country in British Columbia and others across the Sierra into the western Great Basin.

From all indications, Curry, Musser, Proctor and Green relocated to the "Eastern Slope" or "Washoe Country," the names commonly applied to western Utah Territory by Californians, in July 1858 following a trip to the area earlier that year. Curry tried to purchase a lot in Genoa, the principal community in Carson Valley and Western Utah, to build a store for general merchandising. The price was said to be $1,000 and despite all his efforts he could not negotiate a better deal. The story goes that the exasperated Curry finally turned to the prospective sellers and retorted, "'Well, then, I will build a city of my own'." Travelling northward to Eagle Valley, Curry met up with Musser, Proctor and Green in search of suitable land for purchase.

On Aug. 12, the Eagle Ranch was acquired from John B. Mankin. The sale concluded between Mankin and Curry, Musser and Proctor (as Green merely witnessed the transaction), included some 865 acres plus a separate one-half section claimed and taken up by George Mankin. The Eagle Ranch dated back to November 1851, and John Mankin acquired the property following the Mormon departure from the valley in September 1857. Contrary to the popular version of the sale in Myron Angel's "History of Nevada," (1881) which had Mankin receiving $500 and some mustangs, the selling price was $1,000, with $300 in coin down, and the balance to be paid within 30 days from the date of the deed. Mankin had earlier mortgaged the land to Lewis Holdridge of Carson Valley on June 7 for the sum of $216.76 with interest at the rate of 2 percent per month. Holdridge had the option to buy the land for an additional $783.24 before the mortgage came due on Nov. 7; however Curry and his consortium moved quicker. The unpopular and contentious Mankin soon left Utah Territory with his family for Santa Cruz to avoid his creditors.

By early September, a town was being platted by surveyor John F. Long of nearby Chinatown (now Dayton). A correspondent for the Placerville Register writing from Genoa on Sept. 8, 1858 noted that "they have named the new town in Eagle Valley which I noticed in my last letter, Carson City, and already buildings are going up." The four men subdivided the new town, with Green building the first house, Proctor the second, and Musser the third. William Ormsby, with his wife Margaret, moved from Genoa to open the first hotel and store.

Curry was not to be outdone and the emerging community saw commercial and residential buildings being erected at his direction. "Mr. Curry at this very early day looked forward to some time in the near future when Utah Territory would be divided, the western portion be given to a new territory, which in short time would assume the proportions of a State of the Union," reminisced the Nevada Tribune on July 22, 1876, "the plaza, or Capitol Square, was fully designed by Mr. Curry to be the site for the Capitol building of the new State ..."

Next Sunday: Good fortune and vision lead to rapid growth

Last Sunday: State Archivist Guy Rocha introduced us to the four people who played the most important roles in the founding of Carson City in 1858.