Old State Road Trail

Old State Road Trail. Historic Marker. In 1832 Elisha Kellogg purchased 160 acres of land just west of the present Morgan-Scott County line. He and his son-in-law, John Williams, laid out a town of 94 lots and named it Geneva. Geneva was located on the well-traveled State Road, from Springfield to Naples. The town lots began to sell, gradually, and then in early 1939, a group of members of the Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) came from Missouri, where they had been mistreated, and purchased 200 acres of land, half a mile east of Geneva. With the Geneva residents, Mormons and other nearby residents, Geneva became a busy small town, with a post office, a hotel, several stores, a distillery, a corn mill, and a blacksmith shop. Stephen A. Douglas even made a campaign speech in Geneva. The Mormons began to build the foundation for a tabernacle, but left off building it in 1841, when Joseph Smith, their prophet leader, called upon them to gather at Nauvoo. After the last Mormons left, in 1845, the town had diminished in population, and the lots were take off the tax rolls. In 1868, the last home in Geneva was torn down. Now the only remnants of this town can be seen at plowing time in the fertile farm fields.