Author: The Peterson Family

PEARL ROCK

I found most of my the following information on Pearl Rock from Avice
McGregor's research, but Margaret Endres, Jerry Kleinschmidt, Marynee Stanley, Julie Primmer/H.Sargent, and Mary & Duane Tracy provided addition facts.

About three miles south of Nashua, is a large red barn with big white letters reading "PEARL ROCK". This farm is a part of what once was the pioneer village of Pearl Rock.
(Note a copy of the first plotting of the town of Pearl Rock is included in this report.  My great-great grandfather Aaron Medders and the Dellinger Bros. plotted the town on April 21st, 1874. Aaron Medders owned most of the land the town was started on and sold lots to people.)
Pearl Rock was developed on an Indian trail following along the Cedar River. This trail was also used as a stagecoach route, later named the Red Ball Route and now Highway 218.  The Illinois Central RR was built near this same route.  Located at the bend of the river, the earliest settlers found many clams containing pearls and also goedes,  a stone having a cavity lined with crystals.   From these rocks came the name Pearl Rock.
The plot of the town shows Main Street was an east to west street that was  just north of the barn mentioned above, now 305th St. and then to the river.  Most  of the town was east of the railroad tracks.  Another Street, Mill Street, was a   block north of this road. The only evidence of this road is found in the Doyle Johnson's home which is located just across the railroad tracks. They say the front of their house actually faces north rather than south as the road is now. They also say there are pieces of old foundations in their pasture indicating other building sites. A "ford" on the river is just east and south of their home and pieces of the dam in the river used for the grist mill can still be seen. Julie Primmer (granddaughter of Sargent's says that depressions of old foundations are seen on their property too.)
At one time about 100 people living in and around Pearl Rock. Aaron Medders operated a store on Main Street along with a Mr. Hall. Connected to the store was a post office. Further along on Main Street was a blacksmith shop and a row of houses. A spur of the railroad ran to the dam and grist mill on the Cedar River. The grist mill was owned by the Dellinger Bros. (Pieces of the dam still remain and it is now a favorite fishing spot.) In the late 1870's, the mill burned and was never replaced. The Dellinger's moved to Independence, IA. Records show the post office operated from 1872-1878. In 1903 rural free delivery started ,numerous post

offices were not needed. Mall carried by horse & buggy or wagon.

The following are two records Avice had of the Pearl Rock Schools.------      

On April, 1860 a petition was presented to the board of directors of Bradford Twp
by Enos. Ludd ? for a school district composed of Sections 30 &31. School must have been built in 1862 or 1863. Caroline Smith must have been one of the first teachers.  S. Tomas taught in 1870.  All went along fine until the Pearl Rock mill was built and a small village sprung up.  There were more pupils in the south end of the district.  In 1875 there was a larger house built. { For proof of this is a copy of the deed -Aaron Medders- included in this folder}, dated May 11, 1875 for the sum of  $60 for a lot that places the school on the west side of the RR tracks,
North of D. Scribner's land and near the end of Mill Street at Pearl Rock. This  schooI the second PR school. Two schools were taught for a few years, l think. The old house in the north end was closed and sold.

In 1879 a petition asking that the north 1/2 mile be set into the Nashua district.     A petition presented by Pierson to resind the vote. It was left as it was.
In 1880, a petition asking that the school house be more centrally located laid on the table. Later, another petition asking that the school house be moved to the center of the district.  The spring of 1881, it was voted to sell the Pearl Rock   school house and a new one was built on the old lot in center of district. All went fine until May 9,1918 when a tornado took that house.  The school was small and the children were taken to Nashua until 1923 when the present school house was built.
Second account--
  The first school In District No. 10 was held in a log school house located 1/2
mile north of the present school house, just north of the Jenn's Place on the east side of the road.
In May 1875, the people of the district decided to purchase land and build a new school house. An acre of land was purchased of a Mr. Medders and I think the following summer the present school building was built. My anut Nina Badger Tanner was teaching school in the log school house at this time and when they moved to the new building she continued to teach there for sometime. There was no P.T.A.'s at that time but the people of the community always took a great
interest in school affairs and through teacher, pupils and others of the
neigborhood some very good talent was obtained for an exhibition or spelling
school. All in the community took part, old and young, and caused much merriment during the winter months.
  The town of Bradford in those days had some very good talent and they were very
free to offer their assistance. A choir often came and sang.
  We always had Sunday School more or less in this neighborhood, also, Church on Sunday. Rev. Hoskins from Nashua used to preach here quite regular, also, a Rev. Crandall from Republic.
Later, when I became a teacher I taught In the school for sometime and there 
were no trees on the school grounds so one Arbor Day we celebrated. The men planted the trees and the ladies prepared a picnic dinner. The children gave a program and we had purchased our first flag, also some new pictures which were dedicated, I think Charley Longhorn was a pupil at this time.
The children marched out & formed a circle around our new flag pole which was erected just northeast of the schoolhouse and as a patron raised the flag the 
pupils gave the flag salute.
At this time a photographer lived in Bradford and he & his wife drove out and he took our pictures.  It was quite a gala day for District 10 and we still have the 
trees for reminiscence. (I don't believe Avice taught at PR, was it her mother ? 
and in recent times the school was #4, however the date and the purchase of property for the school are the same as the records.)
From records of Hazel Sargent's now Julie Primmer's is information from an old school register of 1881, there were forty pupils ranging In age from six to twenty years. They were divided into three groups: primary-from six to eight yrs., the middle -from nine to twelve, and the higher, from thirteen to twenty years. The pupils were graded according to the reading books they used. The school year was divided into three terms: fall, winter and spring.  Each term could present the 
pupils with a new teacher. In one book It was interesting to read the comments about the school. One term the teacher said it was a terrible school for one with little experience and too many rumors were spread. Another teacher had children from 20 yrs to 5 yrs and it appeared attendance was very spotty. She/he said they had 28 children to start the term and only 14 at the end either from desertion, sickness or death. Another said I don't know what the other teachers were complaining about, this is a very good school. Interestingly enough, many reports had somethings in Latin, or just quotations of things. "l came, I saw, I conquered!"                                                                                                           
  The school was also used for church services. The Catholics held mass at both Nashua and Pearl Rock homes,too. The curcuit riders travelled on horseback from place to place. These services were probably about once a month.
Another visible site is the cemetery. The one acre plot was donated by the O'Donnell family in 1870. The earliest burial was 1873--the last in 1924. In 
1904, four acres of new land was donated by N. Bloom (Vincent's Bloom's father)from land he purchased from Will Getsch. (This is the present Catholic Cemetery in Nashua) The bodies were then moved by Model T Ford truck to the new cemetery. Not all bodies were moved because permission was not given by the
relatives. Two dozen or more remained in the old cemetery--some with no 
markers. The Protestant cemetery was north of the present on Tracy land. Many 
of these graves were moved to Greenwood or Oak Hill cemeteries in Nashua. According to Frank Tracy,1977 only three graves remain. (No markers)An old civil war soldier,a relative of the Demro's and Will Wample ? and his wife, poor people she lived with Piersons whose home was moved back in from old 218 to where D. Kingery lives now.

Mahlon Brink owned a kiln west of Pearl Rock where bricks were made. Many of the bricks which came from his kiln may be seen in the old brick houses in Nashua. (Laura Janssen's house & Anna Kraft's.) Ad in Nashua newspaper 1 -3--1884

Bricks! Bricks! I have just opened a large kiln of Number 1, cherry red brick for the
fall and winter trade,one mile west and two miles south of Nashua.(Between
Tracy's and Zubrod's go along the fence west and there is a hole with water,etc.
D.Tracy said he had noticed it and wondered about it.
  A sorghum mill was run by Thomas Tracy.(First at the Lyle Thomas farm now a Bremer Co. park, then where Hazel Sargent/Primmer lived. There was,also, a different house when T. Tracy lived there).  He ground the cane with horse power. He also had three to four hundred stands of bees in 1866. Producing ten thousand pounds of honey a year, making him the leading beekeeper in IA. His son, Elmer Tracy purchased what they call Red Poll Cattle in about 1898.  They were exhibited at many fairs usually taking them by rail.  In the 1920's the herd had developed 
into about fifty head, consisting of twenty or more milk cows that were milked by hand.
  Johnson McLarnon had a race track on his farm (Diller place) where he trained horses and raced them in various places in the county. There was also a ball diamond at Diller's and one there yet in the 1930's. Zenas Thomas farm Bremer Co. Park - 1800-1880. Where Pete Welter lived-a Welsh family lived.
Some of the familiar names associated with Pearl Rock are: Allen, Barlett, 
Brink, Dellinger, Medders, Lockwood, McLarnan, Miller, Schoop, Scoles, Thomas and Tracy. *Note a copy of his life is included. (IAGenWeb Site Note: The 'copy of his life' was not obtained by IAGenWeb.)
On May 9,1918 a disaster, in the form of a tornado ripped through Pearl Rock on killing several people in the area, destroying homes and the school. The school 
was rebuilt on the same site in 1923. The only original home In the town of Pearl Rock is Mary & Doyle Johnson's home and the roof and an attached addition were destroyed.

See a 1918 copy of Nashua paper for details.
In 1912, the women of the area formed the Pearl Rock Industrial Club. Over the 
past 73 yrs. there have been 101 members. The club had set up its own 
constitution and by-laws.

  So, today the remaining sites of Pearl Rock are the school house foundation, the Pearl Rock sign on the red barn, Pearl Rock Catholic Cemetery, and the cement piling for the dam. The old Pearl Rock school can still be seen though, when school reorganization came it was sold and moved to Nashua where It was used as a school room and later converted to a private home. It still stands west of the Nashua High School and is occupied by Dale Baldwin.

********** Compiled by Grace Colburn McGregor********************

In an old Nashua Report, the following item was printed: In 1858 a store
building was erected by Aaron Medders and occupied by Trott and Green. (in Nashua).

  Aaron Medders moved to Bremer Co.(NOT SURE) He was buried at West Point Cemetery, Finchford,lA In 1894 in Bremer. Why he moved and other information is unknown.

*******
The Medders lived in Pearl Rock and ran the store. There was also a dam and mill-
-a spur RR ran to the mill in early times. A lady that lives in Nashua remembers about the store and mill when she was a girl. She went on errands to the store for her Mother but didn't remember the name of the store owner.