Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 708
DANIEL ROCK

Daniel ROCK, who owns a portion of sections 9 and 16, of Douglas Township, has been a resident and an honorable citizen of Harrison County since 1868, arriving in the spring of that year. He rented, a farm on Pigeon Creek, in Cass Township, where he cultivated the soil for three years, during which time he purchased eighty acres on section 16, on Douglas Township, upon which there was a small house and forty acres under cultivation. This house was occupied until 1888, when it was superseded by a new one, 18x24 feet, with an addition 14x16 feet, built one story and a half high. As prosperity smiled upon his labors, and the soil yielded forth its bountiful harvests, he from time to time bought other lands, until he now possesses two hundred and fifty-five acres of Harrison County's fertile soil, all of which shows the marks of industrious and intelligent husbandry.

To acquaint the reader more thoroughly with the early years of him for whom this biographical sketch is written, we will ask him to go in imagination across the great ocean and to the inland county of Maid, Ireland, where our subject was born, and where grew the shamrock rose. There we might have seen a youth spending the first sixteen years of his life as a dutiful son. At that time he had visions of the New World, and desiring to get from under the thralldom of British tyranny, he came to America where he found work as a railroad grader in New York State, which he followed for thirty years, and was one whose brawny arms helped to construct the first railroad across the Alleghany Mountains.

About 1846 he left New York and went to Harrisburg, Pa., where he remained for several years, and learning of the new West, came to Clinton County, Iowa and there lived until 1868, when he came to Harrison County. Since coming to Iowa, he has turned his attention to the cultivation of the soil.

He was married in Huntington County, Pa., to Miss Mary DOLAND, by whom he has reared the following children: Hanorah, John, Katie, Bridget, Edward and Mary.

Our subject was bereft of his wife, who passed from the scenes of this life in the month of June, 1875. Mr. and Mrs. ROCK both adhered to the faith as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Politically, our subject believes in the principles of the Democratic party.

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