The lives of Carson City's founders

All four of these pioneering men had come to western Utah Territory in 1858 from Downieville, Sierra County, California.

Abraham Curry

Abraham Curry accomplished a great deal for Carson City, including setting aside the square for the capitol building of the state he hoped would be established. He was the first superintendent of the U.S. Mint in Carson City established in 1870. He influenced railroad officials to make Carson City the headquarters of the V&T Railroad.

Curry died on Oct. 19, 1873, in Carson City at the age of 58. His accomplishments are marked with a statue on the legislative grounds, dedicated in 1979.

Francis Marion Proctor

Frank Proctor was born in Kentucky on Feb. 6, 1828. He was an attorney. On Dec. 31, 1857, he married Benjamin Green's daughter. Suffering from poor health, he left Nevada for Texas, and then New Orleans, returning to the West in 1877 to the Black Hills in Dakota Territory, then on to Montana Territory in 1881. From 1888 until the time of his death, April 25, 1892, at the age of 64, he lived in Buckley, Wash., where he was the town attorney.

John Jacob Musser

John J. Musser was born in Pennsylvania on Dec. 21, 1829. He was an attorney and was elected Delegate to Congress in 1859. He was granted a charter to establish a water system and a franchise for a gas company for Carson City in 1861.

Leaving his family behind, he moved to Shermantown in White Pine County in 1869 to practice law. He fell ill in October 1870 and returned to Carson City, where he died on March 8, 1871, at the age of 41.

Benjamin Franklin Green

Benjamin Franklin Green (no known photo) left Carson City prior to the creation of Nevada Territory, and may have sold all his properties here following the Pyramid Lake Indian War in 1860. He then lived in Virginia City before moving to Placerville, Calif., where he worked as a shoemaker at the time of Nevada's statehood in 1864. He died and was buried there on Dec. 8, 1883, at the age of 74. `