IAGenWeb - Marion County |
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This township is situated in the northern tier and embraces that part of congressional township 77, range 20, lying north of the Des Moines River. It is one of the ten townships erected by the county commissioners on January 6, 1847, and as at first created included, in addition to its present territory, all of the present township of Summit, that part of Polk lying north of the Des Moines River, and all of township 77, range 20, south of the river, now a part of Union Township. On January 8, 1850, its boundaries were extended to include sixteen sections in the northeastern part of township 76, range |p. 123| 20, but it was reduced to its present area (about thirty square miles) by the formation of Summit, Polk, and Union townships. It is bounded on the north by Jasper County; on the east by the townships of Summit and Polk; on the south by the Des Moines River, which separates it from Union Township, and on the west by the Township of Perry.
John D. Bedell is credited with having been the first white man to settle within the present limits of Red Rock Township. He was born in Bath County, Kentucky, September 25, 1817, and came to Iowa in the fall of 1842, when he took up a claim and built a cabin near Farmington, Van Buren County. After a residence of about two weeks he sold his claim and went to Missouri. Early in the year 1843 he returned to Iowa and in company with a Frenchman, Louis Le Plant, who could speak the Sac and Fox language, set out for the new purchase. The Indian title was not yet extinguished and at the Sac and Fox agency (now Agency City, Wapello County) Mr. Bedell applied to Captain Allen, then in command of the post, for permission to cross the line into the Indian country. Captain Allen explained that he had no authority to grant such permission, but informed Mr. Bedell and his companion that they could cross the line at their own risk, at the same time warning them to keep a sharp outlook for the dragoons who were guarding the Indian domain.
Leaving the agency early in March, the two men followed an old Indian trail up the Des Moines River until they came to the site of the present village of Red Rock. Here they marked a boundary of a claim by blazing the trees, after which they went to Missouri for a supply of provisions. They returned to their claim in April, 1843, and on the first day of May a pole cabin, fourteen feet square and covered with bark, was built about twenty yards from the river bank--the first house of any kind in Red Rock Township. About two weeks later, in company with John Jordan, who had a trading house on the opposite side of the river, Mr. Bedell went to Keokuk, where he bought a keel boat and at Alexandria loaded it with about ten tons merchandise suitable for a frontier trading house and hired some men to bring it up the Des Moines River.
Amos Shaw came soon after Mr. Bedell and he also established a trading house, in which he lived until his death about two years later. Other settlers who came in 1843 were: John H. Mikesell, Claiborne Hall, Elias Prunty, Thomas Black, Joel and David B. Worth, James Scott, Israel Nichols, William Williams and his four sons--John, George, James M. and Joshua, Simpson B. Matthews, Nathan Tolman and a man named Shoemaker. |p. 124|
Among those who came in between that time and the organization of the township were: Robert D. Russell, John W. and Elihu Alley, Ray Alfrey, James Harp, Ezra H. Baker, Daniel Hiskey, the Metz and Johnson families and James A. Chestnut.
John H. Mikesell, with two of his oldest sons and a man named Thomas Martin, came to the township in May, 1843. He selected a claim in section 25, about a mile northeast of the present village of Red Rock, and leaving Martin and the two boys to hold the claim and build a cabin returned to Brighton, Washington County, for his family. The house at that time erected was of the wickiup type, open in front with a bark roof sloping one way. Mr. Mikesell returned with the other members of the family and took possession of the new home on May 29, 1843. Some years later he built a large brick residence on the hill just above the old wickiup. He became quite intimate with the Indians and was regarded by them as a friend upon whom they could rely.
Claiborne Hall was born in Virginia in 1819. In 1829 he went with his parents to Missouri and in the fall of the same year to Menard County, Illinois. In the spring of 1843 he came to Marion County and settled near the present village of Red Rock. Two years later he returned to Illinois and married Miss Susan T. Duncan, whom he brought back to his Iowa home. He was elected county surveyor in 1846; was then probate judge, and in 1849 was elected sheriff, when he took up his residence in Knoxville. Subsequently he held the triple office of recorder, treasurer and tax collector, and in 1856 established the Democratic Standard, the first paper published in Marion County in the interests of the democratic party. He was likewise a minister of the Christian denomination and was superintendent of the first Sunday school in Red Rock Township.
First Things--The first postoffice in the township was established at Red Rock in the fall of 1845, with Robert D. Russell as postmaster. Rev. M. J. Post, whowas one of the early settlers of Pella, carried the first mail to this office from Fairfield, via Agency, Ottuma and Eddyville and going on to Fort Des Moines, making the trip once a week.
The first religious services were held at the house of Joel Worth, by an itinerant Methodist minister named Johnson, in 1844. Soon after that Rev. M. J. Post conducted services for the few members of the Baptist faith living in the vicinity of Red Rock.
The first saw mill was built in 1846 by Ose Matthews, Jr., about three-fourths of a mile northeast of the village on Brush Creek, then called Mikesell's Creek. Some two years later Daniel Hiskey built |p. 125| a saw mill about a mile above that of Matthews on the same stream, and in 1845 Wilson Stanley and John D. Bedell built steam saw mills near the town. The first flour mill was built in 1854 by Simpson B. Matthews. It was operated by steam and was run by Mr. Matthews until he sold out to Talbott & Setzer, who removed the mill to Otley in 1869.
The first divorce case in Marion County came from Red Rock Township. In the spring of 1844 Ray Alfrey, a son-in-law of Ose Matthews, Sr., came from Lake Prairie and moved into the cabin erected the previous year by John D. Bedell, the owner boarding with the Alfreys. It appears that Ray was in the habit of wandering away from home to such an extent that Mrs. Alfrey employed J. W. Alley to procure a divorce, which he accomplished without much difficulty. Mr. Alfrey was away from home at the time the decree was granted and upon returning and finding himself a grass widower, he disappeared from Marion County altogether.
Dr. Reuben Matthews was the first physician to practice his profession in what is now Red Rock Township. Dr. C. M. Gilky came a little later and soon afterward Dr. J. W. McCully opened an office at Red Rock.
The territory now comprising the township was included in the Red Rock election precinct, as established by the county commissioners by the order of March 2, 1846. The first election was held at the house of Robert D. Russell in April of that year. James A. Chestnut, Claiborne Hall and Robert D. Russell were the judges, and J. W. Hart and John D. Bedell were the clerks. Forty-six votes were cast. Donnel tells the following amusing incident connected with this election:
"Many people were present from all parts of the precinct and the voting was pretty lively, not a few of the voters receiving a drink of whiskey apparently in exchange for their tickets, which they handed through the open window of the cabin. An Indian that happened to be present noticed this proceeding and thught it would be a nice plan for him to get a drink. So he presented himself before one of the persons who distributed the tickets, with the request delivered in his best English: 'Me paper, me vote, get drink whis.' His request was readily granted and forthwith he proceeded to vote. Amused at his boldness in attempting to do so, and aware of his motive, those who had charge of the ballots took his ticket and handed him a small drink. Pleased with his success thus far, he thought the plan worth repeating and applied for another paper. It was given him--either a ticket or some other paper that answered the same pur- |p. 126| pose with him--and again he voted with like success. Thus encouraged he continued to vote at intervals all day, or till he got as much of the election as he could carry. Of course, the tickets he handed in counted nothing for anybody but himself."
The first school was taught by Daniel Hiskey, in the Village of Red Rock, in the winter of 1845-46. The schoolhouse was a small cabin that stood near the river and about twenty scholars were enrolled. Miss Margaret Brown, afterward Mrs. Pendray, taught the first school in the northern part of the township in 1851. The first house built expressly for a schoolhouse was erected in 1854 or 1855 in Red Rock Village. In 1914 there were eight independent school districts in the township, in which fourteen teachers were employed and the value of school buildings was $5,100.
The Wabash Railroad runs through the southern part of the township, following the course of the Des Moines River. A branch leaves the main line at Cordova and runs to the sandstone quarries west of the Town of Red Rock. Dunreath is the principal station. The population of Red Rock in 1910 was 693, and the value of taxable property in 1913 was $696,924.