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| Penn - 100 Years AgoIn February 1946, Penn township will be 100 years old. The people of North Liberty read the fact in their ancestral memoirs, and tradition tells it to modern day citizens, whose forefathers were not necessarily residents of "Big Bend," North Liberty, or Penn, on February 10, 1846. That was the day the county commissioners decreed that Penn township should come into being as township 80 north, Range west 1/2 of 6, north 1/2 of 7, with what became Madison township included. Madison was excluded there from in 1880. the three pioneers who formed the first board of trustees of the township were Alonzo C. Dennison, Jacob H. Alt, and Stephen Maynard. Mr. Alt was born in Virginia, 130 years ago, and came west with his father, who settled in Ohio. Jacob H. married Miss Mary Wein in Illinois in 1837, and came to Iowa City in 1840. He was class leader in the North Liberty church for many years. Mr. Dennison had settled here two years before as one of the earliest of our pioneers. George and Joseph Dennison came not long after their brother had aided in establishing "North Bend". Mr. Maynard was senior warden of the Episcopal church in Iowa City in 1853. The meeting over which he presided was the first in the history of the church (at least, the first whose minutes have been preserved in any form.) John W. Alt was the first clerk of the township. He came here in 1840. Jon Wilson was the first treasurer. For eight years after the official creation of Penn, the work of assessing property for the tax records of that township was performed by township clerks or justices of the peace. In 1854, the voters began to elect assessors for that specific duties. A list of "firstlings" in the district shows that Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Dennison's three-months-old boy was the first male child to come to the township. John Saylor, one of the men, who with Mr. Dennison settled in the township among the very first, was the father of the first girl born in his new home. Judge Fernando H. Lee was the first officiating magistrate at the first marriage in the township. He pronounced the words that made Nathaniel Scales, Sr. and Miss Nancy Crozier, one. this was on August 30, 1842. The first school house built in North Liberty was of logs, and the township, trustees held their meetings therein. The first teacher was Benjamin Horner of Iowa City. In 1860 the first frame school building was erected. J.B. Dennison, a native of Ohio, joined his brother, Alonzo, on the first prairie farm they occupied, and they broke the first furrow on the Issac Myers farm of after years. J.B. Dennison once recalled that Martin Harless' child was the first to pass away in the township. It was laid to rest on Mr. Harless' claim. Alexander Koser in modern years owned that farm. Records are lacking as to the history of Dr. William Crawford, who left the township, after establishing practice there, as the first physician and surgeon of Penn. -J.E.R. Navigation: Home
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