Geneva’s memory is deep, with roots stretching back to the very beginnings of white settlement in Allen County.
Richard Fuqua (pronounced Fu-qway) set up shop to trade with the indigenous people of the area before Geneva and its sister city, Neosho Falls, had even come into being, in his cabin on a rocky hill beside a now almost-dry bend in the river.
Fuqua and his family arrived in the deathly frigid winter of 1855, bringing along with them about 60 head of cattle, and he took advantage of a nearby labyrinth of limestone that formed natural “chutes” to drive them to slaughter.
Running my hand along the pale stone formations one fall afternoon, I dreamed them there, the cattle pressing roughly through various apertures, calling loudly, perhaps already smelling the blood of others.
And above the din were the Fuquas, driving and prodding, east of the derelict log cabin that had once been their home.
While at the cabin as well, which had already been abandoned by the time early colonists arrived at Geneva, Fuqua and his sons, Leonard and William, acquainted themselves with the Sac and Fox tribe who camped along the river.
In order to gain their favor, Fuqua held sumptuous feasts featuring enormous kettles of stew, and in return, the native people showed their appreciation by performing intricate ritual dances.
Their favorite menu item? Dog.
Despite being friendly with the Sac and Fox people, especially when it came to wheeling and dealing, it seems by contrast Fuqua and his sons had trouble getting along with other whites.
In reference to a land battle, for instance, it’s noted how “Fuqua used his rifle as a club and Mr. Esse’s head still aches when he thinks of the blow he got that day.”
“J.E. Redfield also came in contact with this same gun barrel and for awhile it was thought he had received his death blow.”
Not surprisingly, then, at one of the first court meetings at Cofachique, Allen’s first (proslavery) county seat, several indictments were leveled against the Fuquas, though they somehow managed to escape prosecution.
Leonard Fuqua even went on to become the first sheriff of Woodson County in 1858.
AS FOR Geneva itself, a fellow by name of “Lawyer” Adams recalled visiting the settlement between Martin and Indian Creeks when it was still called Eureka, and hence made a bad pun about how the colonists must have “found it.”
He writes “I found the place and found that the town consisted of a hole in the ground (where they had been digging for water), and the people camped around the creek.”
