After Albert Petty surveyed this site in 1859, pioneers came, built homes, and erected a meeting house from logs cut by William Gibson and Asbury Parks. In 1861, Bishop Robert L. Johnson opened the first store and hotel. Polly Johnson was the first Relief Society President, and Catherine Oldroyd served as midwife. Bernard Snow supplied flour from his burr mill in 1867, and John Green operated an adobe and brickyard. The Black Hawk War forced settlers to move for safety, but they returned and built a fort in the fall of 1866. The bell atop this monument had rung from the tower of the first schoolhouse in 1880, and as each new schoolhouse was built, the bell was transferred, tolling time, fire, and curfew for 88 years.