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Genoa Town Historian and Fourth
Generation Genoan In June of 1849, H.S. Beatie and his party
camped at a location now known as Genoa. They learned from
traders passing by their camp that a heavy emigration was
expected through the area. So Beatie and his men got busy and
built a two room, double logged, one story house, 20 X 60 feet,
without floor or roof. They also built a corral for their
animals. Beatie and Abner Blackburn crossed the mountains into
California with an extra 3 yoke of cattle to sell or trade for
supplies they intended to sell to immigrants passing by their
trading post. They brought back flour, dried fruit, bacon, sugar
and coffee to the post, although their principal trade was in
horses and mules. Remembering the April 1846 Donner Party
tragedy, Beatie and his party did not want to chance the winter
in the Valley so they abandoned their trading post in September
and returned to Salt Lake City where Beatie clerked in the J. &
E. Reese Mercantile. The first permanent settlement was
established in the spring of 1851 by Colonel John Reese, a
Mormon, who planned to open a trading post on the overland
trail. He was a partner with his brother Enoch in the J. & E.
Reese Mercantile firm at Salt Lake City. The party arrived in
Carson Valley with 13 wagons loaded with eggs, bacon, flour,
seed grain and other kinds of seeds. Stephen A. Kinsey, Reese's
nephew, acted as guide. Kinsey stopped for a time at a place on
the Carson River called Ragtown. This point did not seem
favorable so he moved up the river into one of the most fertile
of valleys. On July 4, 1851, Kinsey waited for his party at
Beatie's old trading post. On November 12, 1851, the settlers
formed and organized a settler's or squatter's government. It
was impossible to settle a legal matter or send records back to
Salt Lake City, 500 miles away because Indians, bandits, thieves
and desperados took advantage of riders on the trail. The
settlers adopted rules for taking up land and elected John Reese
recorder and treasurer. Reese recorded the first claim for
himself in December of 1852 in the new Utah Territory settlement
he named Mormon Station (Genoa). Resolutions, by-laws, rules for
water rights, officers to be elected and many other acts took
place in Genoa to build a solid and lasting community. Many
passing emigrants stayed in the valley and recorded land. The
first principal business was trading. Those who settled in Genoa
traded garden produce to travelers for whatever was usable.
During these early years, the Genoa people established their
church, businesses, a school, political institutions and
developed extensive ranch lands. The Genoa Post Office was
established December 10, 1852 with the appointment of E. F.
Barnard as postmaster; the first important land and Carson River
water rights were taken up at Genoa, the first printed newspaper
- The Territorial Enterprise was founded. In 1854, a school was
opened in Israel Mott's home a few miles south of Genoa. Mrs.
Eliza Mott, wife of Israel, was the first white woman to settle
in Carson Valley and Mottsville was named for this early day
family. Other families began to arrive and set down their roots
in the new settlements on the west side of the Carson River.
Mormon leader Brigham |
