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This township is one of the northern tier and embraces congressional township 77, range 19. It was a part of Red Rock Township until March 3, 1854, when a petition signed by Jacob Pendray and sixty-one others was presented to the county judge asking for the division of Red Rock and the erection of a new township to be called Summit. This name was selected because at that time the popular belief was that the highest point of land in the county was on the ridge between the Skunk and Des Moines rivers, in what is now Summit Township. Judge Brobst granted the request of the petitioners and ordered that the first township election should be held on the first Monday in April, at the house of Jacob C. Brown. At that election John Ribble and A. F. McConnell were chosen justices of the peace; I. N. Crum, Ira Kelsey and George Reynolds, trustees; Abram B. Scott, clerk; Ira Kelsey, assessor; P. P. Harp and A. Donnel, constables.
Summit is bounded on the north by Jasper County; on the east by Lake Prairie Township; on the south by Polk, and on the west by Red Rock. Its area is thirty-six square miles. There are no large streams in the township, but several small ones have their sources on the ridge known as "The Divide" and flow each way into the Skunk |p.127|or the Des Moines. When the first white men came to this part of the county they found a beautiful prairie in the northern and eastern parts of what is now Summit Township, while in the southeastern part was a considerable body of timber. The coal deposits are quite extensive and as early as 1849 a mine was opened and worked by John A. Scott.
Probably the first white men to select claims in this township were James Price and Jonathan Donnel, who came togeteher from Burlington early in the spring of 1843. After building a small cabin, Mr. Price broke about nine acres of prairie land and planted a crop of corn. That fall he obtained some seed wheat from Fairfield and sowed a few acres, the first wheat ever sown in this part of the county.
Others who came in 1843 were: Samuel Martin, David Fritz, William Metz, Humphrey Blakeway, David and Allen Tice and William Hodge. They were soon joined by Isaac N. Crum, John A. Scott, James Deweese, S. S. Roberts, Allen Lawhead, Alexander B. Donnel, Joseph S. West, Charles Harp and a few others, most of whom located claims along the edge of the timber in the southeastern part of the township.
Some trouble occurred in this township over the possession of certain tracts of land. In one case Andrew Donnel had selected a claim and hauled some logs to the site upon which he proposed to erect his cabin, when business called him elsewhere for a short time. Upon his return he found that John A. Scott had "jumped" the claim and used the logs to build a cabin, in which he was then living. Instead of trying to oust the intruder, Mr. Donnel accepted the situation philosophically and selected another claim in the vicinity, which afterward proved to be greatly superior to the one Mr. Scott had jumped.
In 1862, in response to a petition of a number of citizens of the township, that part of Polk Township lying north of the Des Moines River was attached to Summit, but in 1867 the territory was restored to Polk.
The first orchard planted in the township was that of David and Allen Tice, who sent to Illinois in the spring of 1845 for about fifty apple trees, which they set out on their claim, near the western line of the township. Most of these trees were living forty years later.
The first postoffice was called Divide and was established in 1847, with John A. Scott as postmaster, but Mr. Scott declined the appointment and the office was discontinued. In 1857 a postoffice called Newark was established a little northwest of the center of the township, with William H. Anderson as postmaster. It was afterward |p. 128| moved to Otley and the name changed to correspond to that of the village.
The first school was taught by Abram B. Scott, in the southern part of the township, but the date cannot be ascertained. Probably the second school was the one taught on the divide by a one-armed man named Watson. His schoolhouse was a small cabin, in which the first Sunday school was organized in 1849, under the superintendency of Andrew Donnel. Religious services were also held in the house at irregular intervals. According to the report of the county superintendent for the year 1914, there were then eight districts in the township, in which thirteen teachers were employed during the preceding school year, and the school buildings were valued at $6,150.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad crosses the township diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, and the Wabash Railroad touches the southwest corner. Otley, on the former, and Cordova, on the latter, are the only railroad stations.
Of the fifteen townships in the county Summit stands seventh in population and fourth in the value of taxable property. In 1910, according to the United States census, the population was 952, and in 1913 the property was assessed for taxation at $1,249,800.