First settlements: 1833, near the site of the town

1833–1836

The first settlements in the township were made in 1833, near the present townsite. The two county histories agree on the year, the place, and the men. Chapman: "The first settlements were made in 1833 near North Liberty, by John Kane, John and Jacob Earhart and Isaac Townsend. But few other settlers came into the township till 1836. John Rupel came in January, this year, soon followed by David Rupel, Jas. Cole, Jacob Rupel and Joseph Liggett." Howard gives the same four for 1833 and a fuller early list: Daniel Ross, Jesse Palmer, James Loring, John and David Rupel, Joseph Liggett, Amos Liggett, Levi and Benjamin Collins, Daniel Antrim, James P. Antrim, Samuel Loring, James Cole, Franklin Pearce, Jacob Dukeman, Samuel and S. G. Williams, Rheinhard Cripe and Mr. Waldsmith. Before any mill stood in the township, Chapman records, the settlers "had to go to Elkhart in order to get wheat or corn ground for bread, and sometimes would have to wait nearly a whole week before their turn would come." Both histories describe the stock the township filled with: Chapman, "mostly of German ancestry, or what are called Pennsylvania Dutch"; Howard, "chiefly of the sturdy Pennsylvania German stock." One conflict inside Chapman himself prints here because the Story of North Liberty section is where firsts belong: his narrative names no single first settler, but his biographies make David Rupel "second permanent settler in Liberty tp." while John N. Rupel's sketch calls his father John Rupel "the first settler in Liberty tp." — although the narrative dates John Rupel's arrival to January 1836. No version is preferred.