CHAPTER 1. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BEGINNINGS OF DAYTON, 1849-1857

Immigrant Supplies and Gold Discovery Cause Settlement of Dayton.
In 1844 Col. John C. Fremont, on one of his exploring expeditions, went up the Carson River and named it in honor of his favorite scout and guide, Kit Carson. Five years later on the banks of that river the settlement of Dayton was begun as a Mormon trading-station. This was one of about twenty trading-posts built on the Carson River before the close of 1850 for the accommodation of the immigration trade of California. From Dutch Nick's (Empire) to Dayton was a long stretch for the traveler, and the latter was therefore favorably located for business, although the Truckee River road at times diverted considerable travel. In this same year of 1849 the discovery of gold in the vicinity gave to the station another reason for continuance. For Dayton is located at the mouth of a ravine extending from Mt. Davidson to the Carson River, and now known as Gold Canyon. The old immigrant road passed through the mouth of this ravine, and hence the spot was familiar to '49 travelers going to California. In the summer of 1849 a Mormon trader, while waiting for his partners to bring supplies over the mountains from the California mining country, occupied himself in prospecting in the hills, and found gold in small quantities in Gold Canyon.(1)

(1) Reatie. H. 8. The First in Nevada. See Nevada Historical Society Papers I, 169-170.

Mining Parties in 1850.
Early in the spring of 1850 several parties bound from Salt Lake to California were detained from making the crossing by snow on the mountains. With a view to prospecting they followed the Carson down to the mouth of the canyon where gold had previously been found, and there in the waters of the canyon creek, they tested for gold, and got gold. It was on the fifteenth day of May that William Prouse washed a little of the surface dirt in a milk pan at the mouth of Gold Canyon where Dayton now stands. John Orr and Nicholas Kelley, members of the same party, named the place Gold Canyon. On June first Mr. Orr thrust a butcher knife into a crevice and pried out a nugget worth perhaps ten dollars. Not being miners, these men did not follow up the clew but packed up and went on to California. The news of the discovery in 1849 had reached the mining camps of California. In July of 1850 Mr. C. N. Note-ware met a party of miners from California on the divide near Empire, who were going with a mining outfit to work at the canyon. Capt. Rob't. Lyon also testified that he saw placer mining carried on when he passed the mouth of the ravine in July of that year. In August some emigrants camping in the valley saw a train of Mexicans with mules, wooden bowls, provisions, and some mining tools cross the hills to Gold Canyon."


Old Virginia and Others in 1851.
In 1851 Col. John Reese, leading a party of Mormon colonists into the upper Carson Valley, (2) brought with him a "feather-brained bibulous teamster" named James Fennimore, familiarly known as "Old Virginy." This famous man, for whom Virginia City was later named, went from Mormon Station in the summer of 1851 , with eleven others of the Reese party, to join six miners who were already at work in Gold Canyon. Before the close of the season the number had increased to one hundred.(3) For the year 1852 there are few records, but enough exist to show that the field was not abandoned.

(2)They established the trading post at Mormon Station which in the 50's was the inn in settlement in Western Utah.
(3) Angel. Hist, of Nev., 31. The Ellis Journal and 1853.

With 1853 the story becomes more complete and authentic, for in that year James Ellis and his wife, Laura M., arrived and took up a ranch about one and one-half miles below the present Dayton. Here they built a log house and here Mrs. Ellis (4) kept a journal of the happenings of those pioneer days. When this family came to Gold Canyon they found a log-cabin trading-station located on what is now Main Street.(5) It was near the present assay office of Davis & Sayres, and was kept by Spafford Hall, assisted by James McMarlin and wife, the latter receiving sixty dollars a month as housekeeper. Across the road stood a blacksmith shop built of wagonbeds. In 1853 a number of miners were working in the lower end of the canyon.

(4) Later Mrs. George Dettenreider. Her first husband was accidentally killed. Angel, Hist, of Nev., 35. "
(5) This was the first house ever built in Nevada east of Carson City. It was erected by James McMarlin in the fall of '49. Nev. Directory, 1862, 105. Other authorities say it was built by Spafford Hall.

Dayton, the Scene of Nevada's First Dance.
As in all pioneer mining communities there was a dearth of women. In the summer of 1853, outside of Carson Valley, Mrs. McMarlin, Mrs. Walter Cosser, and the wife of" the blacksmith (6) were the only women in western Utah. Mrs. Cosser had a twelve-year-old daughter. Late that year a new family arrived which boasted several members of the fair sex. Perhaps it was the latter encouragement that decided the citizens to celebrate the advent of the new year by a dance in the upper story of Spafford Hall's log-cabin store. It is recorded that three women did not attend and the blacksmith's wife had gone to California. Still, the women and girls at the dance numbered nine and ranged in age from ten years up, hence some of them came from a distance. Even Indians were welcomed as partners. Probably among these was the Princess Sarah Winnemucca who habitually attended the dances at Johntown later. Her father was chief of the Paiutes, and had been named "Onemucca" by two white trappers because they saw him wearing but one moccasin. Glorying in the appellation, he had adopted it, and had sanctioned its corruption to "Winnemucca," or "Winnemuck." (7)

(6) One authority says that this woman was the wife of Henry Van Sickle, but Vngel says that Thos. Pitt was the blacksmith in 1853.
(7)The town of Winnemuoei was named for him by S. B. O'Bannon, 1863. Sarah Winnemucca was later educated at an eastern seminary and married to a lieutenant in the army. She wrote a book entitled "Life Among the Paiutes" and went east to lecture and work in behalf of her people. She was accomplished in needle work and often in later years personally sold her work in Dayton and other towns. Mrs. Hazlett purchased embroidery from her.

(8)Verified by a relative of the Cosser's whom Mrs. Hazlett met in Carson City in 1920.
(9) Bancroft. Hist, of Nev., 74.

(10) Dan de Quille, "Big Bonanza.", 28. It is interesting to note that the present big dredging work was started at Johntown.

Indian War Averted.
One event in 1855 is worthy of mention. Numaga, a friendly Indian chief, was sent with three hundred warriors to carry a note to Mrs. Ellis from Asa Kenyon, at Rag-town, near the Carson Sink. The note asked for arms and ammunition with which to fight the Washoes. But the wise Mrs. Ellis gave the chief instead of firearms an order on William McMarlin for flour. The miners feasted the Indians, and intertribal war was thus averted for that time.


Why Dayton Was Called Chinatown.
On October twenty-seventh of this same year at a special term of court held in the Mormon Station country, John Reese and others were given a franchise to build a ditch for the purpose of taking water from the Carson River to be used in Gold Canyon for mining and other purposes. (11) In 1856 Chinese, in considerable numbers, were imported to work on the ditch and, as they formed a majority of the population at the mouth of the ravine, the name of Chinatown was given to the place. The Chinese soon discovered that they would be allowed to work the placers in certain less desirable places and, as even these paid well in gold, it was not long until the Mongolians were there in force. Sometimes nearly two hundred Chinamen were at work on the placers alone. (12) The name of Hall's Station, later that of McMarlin's, seems to have been the first designation given to this one particular spot to distinguish it from the remainder of Gold Canyon. The first indication that it had advanced to the dignity of a town came with the adoption of the name "Chinatown." It is probably by reason of this suffix "town" that Bancroft makes the statement that in 1856 the "little burg of Dayton took its rise." (13)

(11) Bancroft, Hist, of Nev., 77.
(12) Dan de Quille, "Big Bonanza.", 29
(13) Bancroft, Hist, of Nev., 79.

Loss of Mormon Population.
The influx of Chinese in '56 and '57 was balanced by another event that threatened to depopulate the country of western Utah. For in 1856 Orson Hyde, the leader of the Mormon Church in this section, returned to Salt Lake. In 1857 all members of this church, who, by the way, constituted the greater part of the population of western Utah, were ordered by Brigham Young back to Salt Lake City to defend that place against a threatened invasion of United States troops. Thus was ended the aggressive early colonization of what is now Nevada by the Mormon Church. But until 1861 all this part of the country was claimed as a part of Utah.