Old Settlers' Association Park and Rhodham Bonnifield House

Last updated
Old Settlers' Association Park and Rhodham Bonnifield House
Rhodham Bonnifield House.jpeg
Rhodham Bonnifield House
USA Iowa location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationB St.
Fairfield, Iowa
Coordinates 41°01′08″N91°57′24″W / 41.01889°N 91.95667°W / 41.01889; -91.95667 Coordinates: 41°01′08″N91°57′24″W / 41.01889°N 91.95667°W / 41.01889; -91.95667
Area1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
NRHP reference No. 86001601 [1]
Added to NRHPAugust 14, 1986

Old Settlers' Association Park and Rhodham Bonnifield House, also known as Old Settlers' Park and Bonnifield Cabin, is a nationally recognized historic district located in Fairfield, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. [1] The park was established in 1907 as a preserve for the grasses, flowers and animals native to this area. It was also meant to memorialize the pioneers to Jefferson County and the sentiments of "freedom and equality, hospitality, sympathy and love of fair play" that motivated them. [2] The focal point of the park is the Rhodham Bonnifield House, a log cabin built in 1838 in Round Prairie Township. It was used as a residence until 1902, and moved here when the park was established. This is the first park of its kind established in eastern Iowa. [2] The house's historic designation is attributed to its 1907 reconstruction, and not its original construction. There are few pioneer log structures in Iowa that remain in their original setting. Those that remain have been reconstructed at another site to preserve them.

Related Research Articles

Turkey Run State Park United States historic place

Turkey Run State Park, Indiana's second state park, is in Parke County in the west-central part of the state along State Road 47, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of U.S. 41. The first parcel of land was purchased for $40,200 in 1916, when Indiana's state park system was established during the state's centennial anniversary of its statehood. The origin of the name "Turkey Run" is unknown, but the most accepted theory is that wild turkeys would congregate for warmth in the gorges, where early settlers could easily trap and hunt them. The Lusk Home and Mill Site and the Richard Lieber Log Cabin within the park's grounds were included as individual sites on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and 2001, respectively. The park itself was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. Turkey Run also includes a system of trails, Rocky Hollow Falls Canyon Nature Preserve, a suspension bridge across Sugar Creek, camping sites and other recreational areas. The Turkey Run Inn was built in 1919. Several guest cabins near the inn date from the 1930s and 1940s.

Elkmont, Tennessee United States historic place

Elkmont is a region situated in the upper Little River Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Throughout its history, the valley has been home to a pioneer Appalachian community, a logging town, and a resort community. Today, Elkmont is home to a large campground, ranger station, and historic district maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park National Historical Park in LaRue County, Kentucky, US

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park preserves two separate farm sites in LaRue County, Kentucky where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived early in his childhood. He was born at the Sinking Spring site south of Hodgenville and remained there until the family moved to the Knob Creek Farm northeast of Hodgenville when he was 2 years old, living there until he was 7 years old. The Sinking Spring site is the location of the park visitor center.

Moses Merrill Mission United States historic place

The Moses Merrill Mission, also known as the Oto Mission, was located about eight miles west of Bellevue, Nebraska. It was built and occupied by Moses and Eliza Wilcox Merrill, the first missionaries resident in Nebraska. The first building was part of facilities built in 1835 when the United States Government removed the Otoe about eight miles southwest of Bellevue. Merrill's goal was to convert the local Otoe tribe to Christianity; he had learned the language and translated the Bible and some hymns into Otoe.

Dewitt Log Homestead United States historic place

The Dewitt Log Homestead is a historic building near Oxford, Ohio, listed in the National Register on 1973-04-13.

Murie Ranch Historic District United States historic place

The Murie Ranch Historic District, also known as the STS Dude Ranch and Stella Woodbury Summer Home is an inholding in Grand Teton National Park near Moose, Wyoming. The district is chiefly significant for its association with the conservationists Olaus Murie, his wife Margaret (Mardy) Murie and scientist Adolph Murie and his wife Louise. Olaus and Adolph Murie were influential in the establishment of an ecological approach to wildlife management, while Mardy Murie was influential because of her huge conservation victories such as passing the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 and being awarded with the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for her lifetime works in conservation. Olaus Murie was president of the Wilderness Society, and was an advocate for the preservation of wild lands in America.

Buckner Homestead Historic District United States historic place

The Buckner Homestead Historic District, near Stehekin, Washington in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area incorporates a group of structures relating to the theme of early settlement in the Lake Chelan area. Representing a time period of over six decades, from 1889 to the 1950s, the district comprises 15 buildings, landscape structures and ruins, and over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land planted in orchard and criss-crossed by hand-dug irrigation ditches. The oldest building on the farm is a cabin built in 1889. The Buckner family bought the farm in 1910 and remained there until 1970, when the property was sold to the National Park Service. The Buckner Cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The rest of the Buckner farm became a historic district in 1989. Today, the National Park Service maintains the Buckner homestead and farm as an interpretive center to give visitors a glimpse at pioneer farm life in the Stehekin Valley.

Col. James Graham House United States historic place

The Col. James Graham House is a historic log cabin located on West Virginia Route 3 in Lowell, West Virginia. It was built in 1770 as a home for Col. James Graham, the first settler of Lowell, and his family. It was later the site of an Indian attack on the Graham family in 1777. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976. The Graham House is the oldest multi-story log cabin in West Virginia. It is currently operating as a museum.

Studabaker-Scott House and Beehive School United States historic place

The Studabaker-Scott House and Beehive School are two historic buildings near the city of Greenville in Darke County, Ohio, United States. Located along State Route 49 south of the city, both are unusually well-preserved remnants of the architecture of the middle third of the nineteenth century.

Roswell Spencer House United States historic place

The Roswell Spencer House was an historic property located in Pleasant Valley, Iowa, United States. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It has subsequently been torn down.

Historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park United States historic place

The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.

Johnson–Hansen House United States historic place

The Johnson–Hansen House is a historic house located in Provo, Utah, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mercer Log House United States historic place

The Mercer Log House is a large log cabin in the city of Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Home to the city's first settlers and changed very little since their time, it is one of Ohio's best preserved log cabins from the settlement period, and it has been named a historic site.

Saxon Lutheran Memorial (Frohna, Missouri) United States historic place

The Saxon Lutheran Memorial in Frohna, Missouri, commemorates the German Lutheran migration of 1838/1839, and features a number of log cabins and artifacts from that era. The memorial opened in 1962 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Urjans Iverson House United States historic place

The Urjans Iverson House is a historic log cabin in Gilchrist Township, Minnesota, United States, built in 1866. It was restored in 1990 and is preserved within Fort Lake Johanna Roadside Park off Minnesota State Highway 104. The cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its local significance in the theme of exploration/settlement. It was nominated for its broad associations with the early settlement of Pope County.

Alexander Young Cabin United States historic place

The Alexander Young Cabin is a historic building located in Washington, Iowa, United States. Alexander Young built this log cabin for his home in 1840, and it served as the family home for 36 years. It is the only cabin that has been preserved in Washington County. Besides a residence, the Young's opened their home to hospitality, overnight travelers, church services, the post office, and as a school for at least one term. The two remaining family members donated the cabin to the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1912 as a memorial to all pioneers. It was moved from its original location to Sunset Park in Washington. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 2018 it was included as a contributing property in the West Side Residential Historic District.

Spirit Lake Massacre Log Cabin United States historic place

The Spirit Lake Massacre Log Cabin, also known as the Gardner Log Cabin, is located in Arnolds Park, Iowa, United States. Rowland Gardner had led a group of settlers into the region in 1856, and he built this cabin in July of that year. On March 8, 1857, a band of renegade Wahpekuta Sioux who had been alienated from the tribal structure attacked the Gardner family and other settlers in the immediate area in an incident known as the Spirit Lake Massacre. Led by Inkpaduta, the band of outlaws raided both Indians and white settlers for a period of about 30 years.

Theophile Bruguier Cabin United States historic place

The Theophile Bruguier Cabin is a historic building located in Sioux City, Iowa, United States. Bruguier was a Quebec native who was a trader with the American Fur Company. He was the first Caucasian settler in what would become Sioux City. He settled at the confluence of the Missouri and the Big Sioux Rivers in 1849. With him were his two wives, Dawn and Blazing Cloud, and his father-in-law War Eagle, a chief of Yankton tribe, and extended family. He built a number of log structures on his 560-acre (230 ha) claim. Bruguier took up farming and set up his own fur-trading company. War Eagle and his two daughters, Bruguier's wives, died in the 1850s. Bruguier sold a tract of land to Joseph Leonnais in 1855, and it became the original townsite for Sioux City. He built this single-room cabin for his home about 1860, and married Victoria Brunette in 1862. Bruguier and his wife moved to a farm near Salix, Iowa, where he died in 1895.

Old Settlers Association of Johnson County Cabins United States historic place

The Old Settlers' Association of Johnson County Cabins, also known as City Park Cabins, are historic buildings located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. These are two log structures built by the Old Settlers' Association of Johnson County. The single-room log cabin was built in 1889 for Johnson County's semicentennial. It had been located at two different county fairground sites until it was moved to City Park in 1918. The second cabin was built here by the association in 1913. It is a dogtrot house that is meant to be a replica of an early trading post in this area. These are typical log house forms from Iowa's pioneer era whose existence are now rare. They also represent an effort by a social organization to commemorate the community's common pioneer heritage. A third element that is part of the historical designation is a bronze plaque affixed to a granite boulder. Located southwest of the cabins, it was installed in 1929 to mark a "Grand Army Tree" that was planted nearby. It is not known if the tree survives. The buildings and plaque were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Podhajsky-Jansa Farmstead District United States historic place

The Podhajsky-Jansa Farmstead District is an agricultural historic district located southwest of Ely, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. At the time of its nomination it consisted of 12 resources, which included five contributing buildings, four contributing structures, and three non-contributing structures. The historic buildings include two small side gabled houses ; a two-story, frame, American Foursquare house ; a gabled barn that was moved here from another farm ; and a feeder barn. One of two corncribs (1933), a hog house, and a chicken house are the historic structures. Another corncrib and a couple of metal sheds from the mid to late 20th century are the non-contributing structures.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 William C. Page, James E. Jacobsen. "Old Settlers' Association Park and Rhodham Bonnifield House". National Park Service . Retrieved 2016-05-25. with four photos from 1984