History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

590
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
that they had so quickly changed their national characteristics
as already to forfeit the good opinion of
their fellow-men.
Such was Zion in 1860, and such its population.
Of the progress and condition of other settlements
established soon after the Mormon occupation, and
the founding of which has already been mentioned, I
shall have occasion to speak later. During the thirteen
years that had now elapsed since first they entered
the valley, the saints had pushed forward their
colonies in all directions almost to the verge of their
territory. Especially was this the case toward the
west, where, at an early date, they came into antagonism
with settlers from California. In 1850 a few
persons from that state had settled in Carson valley
for trading purposes, the migration of gold-seekers,
some of whom wintered in that region, being then
very considerable. During the following year several
Mormons entered the valley, John Reese, who arrived
there in the spring with thirteen wagon-loads of provisions,
building the first house, known for several
years as the Mormon station, on the site of the present
village of Genoa. 45
Reese first came to the valley
alone, his nearest neighbor, James Fennimore,
living in Gold Canon, some twenty-five miles distant,
in a " dug-out," or hole scooped out of the bank, the
front part covered in this instance with rags and
strips of canvas, the man being thriftless and a dramdrinker.
He was nicknamed Virginia, and after him
was named the city whence more bullion has been
shipped in a single year than would now replace
the floating capital of the states of California and
Nevada. 46
45 It served as hotel and store, and was a two-story log building, 50 x 30
ft. Reese's Mormon Station, MS.; Taylor's Rem., MS.
46 Reese states that Virginia had a flume in the canon for gold-washing,
and that Comstock, who came to Carson Valley in 1856, bought him out, the
latter living but a short time afterward. Id. , 5. In Jennings' Carson Valley,
MS., 3, it is related that Comstock came to the valley in the autumn of
1856, in charge of a herd of sheep, but in a destitute condition. In 1852
Reese was engaged in farming on a considerable scale, selling his produce