Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Part II, Chapter XIX

Polk - Geography and Early History - “White Breast” - Death of White Breast -
Names of Early Settlers - First Schools - First Preaching - First Saw Mill - Richard R. Watts -
John Babcock - Destitution - Rouseau and Coalport

On the 4th of July, 1848, town. 76., range 19, was declared a township to be known as Polk, thus dating the beginning of its municipal history on the seventy second anniversary of our national independence. The place of holding elections was appointed to be at the house of Warren D. Everett.* The formation of this township took that part of Red Rock in town. 76, range 19, lying north of the Des Moines river.

----------
*At the first election - the date of which we have been unable to obtain - about 40 votes were cast; Warren D. Everett and Lowery were chosen justices, and Andrew Hopkins, clerk. The names of the other officers are not remembered.
----------

The formation of this township was in opposition to a remonstrance of Josiah Bullington, and others; so, on the 3d of October, of the same year, in response to a petition of Jeremiah Shepperd and others, the whole of the township was attached to Knoxville. But it appears that the court shortly afterwards, in defining the boundaries of the township recognized the legal existence of Polk by describing it as all of town. 76, range 19, except the two southern tiers of sections, and all of town. 76, range 20. But on the 8th of January, 1850, town. 76, range 20 was struck off, thus limiting the township to four tiers of sections, which is as it now exists.

Polk is bounded on the north by Summit, on the east by Lake Prairie and Clay, on the south by Knoxville, and on the west by Union. The Des Moines and White Breast rivers run through, the first from north-west to south-east and the latter from south-west to north-east. The township being mostly within the margins of these streams, is timbered and uneven in surface; but the bottom lands are level, and are noted for their great depth and fertility of soil. White Breast prairie, north of the river, and bordering its bank, is a beautiful strip of farming land, highly adapted tot he culture of corn. And here many of the first settlers took claims, by which the place was known as the “White Breast Settlement.”

The Indian name for White Breast was Waupa-Cauki, and was said by them to have originated by the circumstance of a bear having been killed near the creek having a white spot upon its breast. But at what period this event transpired tradition does not state. At an early date in the history of the settlement of this part of the county, there lived here an Indian chief also named White Breast. He is remembered by some of the early settlers as a large man, coarse-featured, and badly pock-marked. He was somewhat noted as a warrior, and loved to recount his military exploits against the Sioux; and once after their removal to the west, whilst engaged in this favorite pastime, surrounded by a small but appreciating audience, his life and his glory suddenly ceased forever. Some one, probably actuated by a love of sport, or by a malicious motive, informed a white man of a sort of desperado character, who happened to be present, that White breast was plotting mischief against him. Without stopping to question or investigate the truth of this statement, the enraged man instantly dashed upon the chief, knocked him down and leaped upon his breast with both feet, causing his instant death.

The names of those who settled within the present limits of Polk at the earliest date are the Sevison family, George, James, Andrew and their father; Edward, George and Rachael Billaps; George Wilson, Mikel S. Morris, (who served as the first justice of the peace within the present limits of the township before its organization; Richard R. Watts, Alexander Caton, Mardica Yearns, and Andrew Stortz. These all settled on the north side of the river in 1843, except Watts, who settled near where Coalport now is. John Babcock, Warren D., Frank and John Everett, Andrew, George and William Karr, and Robert Ethrington settled in the township at later dates from ‘45 to ‘47. But few of these still live in the county, Andrew Stevison being the only one of the first named still living near where he first settled. Robert Ethrington lives in Summit.

The first school was taught by an Englishman, whose name our informant could not remember, in a small log house built for that purpose, near the creek, at the head of White Breast prairie, in ‘48 or ‘49. John Everett next taught in the same house. This little long school house also served the purpose of a church occasionally, where Warren D. Everett, Baptist, and John Demoss, United Brethren, preached in it. The flood of ‘51, a never-to-be-forgotten event, as we have already seen, swept the house away; and not far from where it stood, but above high water mark, now stands a well-finished frame building large enough for any ordinary use in a country district.

W. D. Everett, Jas. Karr and Mike Morris erected the first saw mill in ‘50, being a temporary affair, driven by horse-power. It stood near the south bank of the river.

Richard R. Watts was a native of Ohio, where he was born in 1815, moved to Indiana in ‘20; to Illinois in ‘30; to Jefferson county, Iowa, in ‘42, and from thence to Marion county in the spring of ‘43, and settled near the present site of Coalport. During his early residence here he and his family suffered some of the privations common to the times. During one winter they were dependent upon the services of a coffee mill for their daily bread, and with it they ground ten bushels of buckwheat that season.

John Babcock was also a native of Ohio. When he settled here his family consisted of a wife and seven children, mostly girls. He was a Mormon in faith, and his wife was a member of that church. At one time during a period of about six weeks, his family was reduced to the verge of starvation, subsisting almost entirely on nettles boiled for greens. On rare occasions they obtained a piece of corn bread for Mike Morris. This kind of diet produced a change in their complexions from a natural to a dark, greenish hue, suggestive of poor health.

There were two villages laid out in this township, but they were never improved to any extent. The first is Rouseau, on the south bank of the river, in section 9. It was located by Wm. Kent, and surveyed by James Rouseau, April 25, 1850, and named for him. Here a pretended effort was once made to erect a dam and lock in the great visionary enterprise of improving the navigation of the Des Moines river.

Coalport is located in section 14, at the point of a large bend in the river, on the south side. It was laid out by Wm. Welch, May 11, ‘57, and so named on account of the vast quantity and superior quality of coal in its vicinity. No post office was ever established in either place, and they still remain mere hamlets.

The population of Polk township by the U. S. census, was:

Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .879

Transcribed by Mary E. Boyer, 12/06, reformatted by Al Hibbard 12 Oct 2013.