William S. Delk, descended from English colonists who landed at Jamestown in 1623, was the first settler at Rock Springs. At age 38, he purchased 3,000 acres in 1854 and built a home near the springs at what is now Kelly Park. With his son and 19 slaves, he cleared 400 acres for farming. The Civil War from 1861 to 1865 divided families and neighbors, and in the Delk family the father was a Unionist while his son, William P. Delk, was a Confederate who went off to war in 1861. The younger Delk died of pneumonia in Tallahassee on July 15, 1862, at age 22 without seeing action. After the war, freed slaves and homesteaders moved into the Rock Springs area, and the township of Ethel was born, though the origin of its name remains unknown.