Mendon City, in Cache County, with a 1990 census population of 687, is eight miles west by southwest of Logan and five miles north of Wellsville on county road 23. Situated near the confluence of the Little Bear and Logan rivers, the town lies snug against Wellsville Mountain between converging foothills on the west side of Cache Valley. Mendon epitomizes the landscape of the Mormon village: it was located to take advantage of water, arable land, climate conditions, defense possibilities, and accessibility.

In the spring of 1855, Alexander and Robert Hill, brothers from Mill Creek in Salt Lake Valley, drove a herd of range cattle over the mountains from Malad Valley to Cache Valley. They built a cabin at the site of Mendon and started farms. In 1856 William Gardner and his family settled to the south of the townsite at Gardner's Creek.

Spring of 1859 saw the beginning of a great influx of settlers from the Mill Creek and Big Cottonwood areas to North Settlement (beyond Maughan's Fort). Most were immigrants from England, Scotland, and Denmark. Others came from the Atlantic coast, the Midwest, and Canada. They included the Anderson, Atkinson, Bird, Farr, Findley, Forster, Gibson, Jensen, Larsen, Lemmon, Luckham, Shumway, Sorensen, Sweeten, and Willie families. According to E.W. Tullidge, the date of arrival was 2 May 1859. Charles Shumway, a member of the Council of Fifty, served as LDS presiding elder, with James Willie, recent captain of the ill-fated Fourth Handcart Company (1856), as his counselor. The Richards brothers built a cabin, which became the first in a fort of log houses. Jesse Fox surveyed the site for the Territory of Utah. Ira Ames and George Snyder built a sawmill.