FORMATION OF TOWNSHIP

That portion of Rock Island township lying south of the limits of the city of Rock Island and north of Rock river, was set aside as a separate township, to be known as South Rock Island township, by the county board, December 17,1877, such action to take effect March 1, 1678. Much interesting history, however, leads up to this event, and there was much controversy before the division was made.

Prior to 1873 all of the strip west of what is now Thirty-eighth street, belonged to Black Hawk township, while that to the east of this line belonged to Moliue township. On December 12, 1873, the first of these divisions was annexed to Rock Island township by action of the county board, the vote being 9 ayes to 8 nays, one member being absent from the meeting.

On December 16, 1875, a strip off the west end o£ Moliue township, a half mile wide, extending from the Mississippi river ou the north to Rock river on the south was detached and annexed to Rock Island township by a vote of 9 ayes to 7 nays, at a meeting of the county board, from which two members were absent.

During the greater portion of the time from l873 to 1877 the clerk of Rock Island township lived in what is now South Rock Island township, and had his office there, meetings being held in a schoolhouse which is now the South Rock Islaud town hall. For several of the latter years of this time, the ballot boxes of the various precincts of the city of Rock Island were, by order of the clerk, hauled to this old schoolhouse for the counting of the votes wheu elections for township officers oc­ curred. As this involved a journey by team of a mile and a half to two miles, and the counting required from two to three days, the opposition was finally beaten down, and the new body politic came into being as before stated.

 

Hawk was chief, while the Foxes were com­ manded by Keokuk. after whom tlie city of Keo- kuk. la., is named. What is now South Rock Isl­ and township was occupied principally by the Sacs. As near as can lie ascertained. Black Hawk's summer home was lor.ited on the bluffs overlooking what is now the town of Sears, in this township, his whiter home being further north at a point between what is now Eighteenth avenue and Aiken street, and east of Twelfth street. In this township was located the council house for the meetings of both tribes. It stood at a ix>int which would now be south of the Rock Island (.'aiming Company's plant, and west of the Bock Island and Peoria Railway tracks, in the valley close to Uock river. Here were held the scalp dances, and other ceremonial gather­ ings of the two tribes, as well as their council meetings. Their fields extended along the hillsides and in the valley. Their corn was cul­ tivated by dropping it between the hills of the year before, then scraping the soil from these over it with mussel shells. Their crops were principally corn, beans and piunpkiiis. In the autumn when the crops were gathered and the tribes were ready to move to their hunting grounds, their grain and other food supplies which were to be left behind, were concealed or cached in holes in the ground in hazel thickets, the brush from which had been removed to be afterwards cunningly replaced when the caching had been done.

Their principal burial ground was west of the Watch Tower, and east of Twenty-fourth street, on the bluffs overlooking Rock river, their mode of sepulcre being both under and oil top of the ground, the latter frequently in trees.