Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 907
EDWARD ROCK

The Emerald Isle has contributed to this country citizens who have followed almost every vocation in life, men who have succeeded in business, in the professions and in agriculture. Whatever position they have filled, the Irish people and their immediate descendants have been honored in many cases with great public responsibilities. The Irish people are natural leaders, no matter in what vocation they may be engaged.

Edward ROCK, who represents the second generation of Irish stock, is a successful farmer of Douglas township, Harrison county, Iowa. Mr. ROCK was born on September 7, 1867, near Wheatland, Clinton county, Iowa, the son of Daniel and Mary (DOLAN) ROCK, natives of Ireland. The elder ROCK left Ireland when sixteen years of age and came to the United States, locating first in New York state, where he followed railroad construction work and helped build the first line across the Alleghany mountains.

Samuel ROCK moved, with his family, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1846, where he lived until he came west, in the early fifties, locating in Clinton county, Iowa. The family came to Harrison county in 1869, where the father lived until his death, January 11, 1911. His wife, Mary DOLAN, was a daughter of Edward and Bridget DOLAN. Her death occurred on June 7, 1875. They were the parents of six children, Hannorah, John, Katie, Bridget, Edward and Mary. After coming to Harrison county the family spent the first winter in Dunlap, and in the spring of 1870 they moved to Cass township, where they rented land for three years. They bought eighty acres of land in section 16, of Douglas township, in this county, in 1873, and to this the father added more acreage from time to time, until, at his death, he was one of the largest landowners in Douglas township.

Edward ROCK received his education in the schools of Harrison county, his first school teacher being L. W. WHITE. His present home is one of the best located in the township, and was built in 1888. Mr. ROCK built a new barn, forty-six by fifty-two by twenty-two feet, in 1912. The farm is well improved, and consists of two hundred and fifty acres of Harrison county's best farming land. Mr. ROCK carries on a general system of diversified farming, and finds that no little profit is secured from the raising of live stock for the markets. He has never married, while his sister, Bridget, who is the widow of William SCHOBERG, makes her home with him. She has one child, Mary, who married Henry PRYOR, and has three children, Evelyn, Gertrude and Helen.

In politics, Mr. ROCK is an adherent of the Democratic party, but has not taken the time to engage, to an active degree, in political matters, preferring to devote all of his time and attention to his agricultural interests. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and is a devout member of the Catholic church. He is highly respected in the community where he lives and where he has acquired an enviable reputation for sterling integrity, moral courage and a genial disposition. He is prosperous, enterprising and alert to all questions which concern, not only his private business interests, but the public welfare, as well.

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