Abraham (or Abram) Van Santvoord Curry was the founder of Carson City and a businessman who greatly influenced the evolution of Nevada territory and the early state. Curry was born in 1815 in Ithaca, New York, married Mary Cowen in Ogdensburg, New York, and spent a brief time in business in Cleveland, Ohio. Little more is known about him until he turned up in western Utah Territory, now western Nevada, in 1858. He and his three partners, B. F. Green, Frank M. Proctor, and J. J. Musser, hoped to establish a mercantile business in the thriving town of Genoa.