"Hometown" - Rosedale, Parke County, Indiana

Parke County, Indiana "The Covered Bridge Capital of the World"

Rosedale is one of those special places in Indiana that my family can rightfully claim as "Hometown". It's getting close to Fall Foliage season, and Parke County will soon be getting beautiful and busy! The annual Covered Bridge Festival takes place this weekend, where thousands of visitors will flock to view over 30 of the remaining structures & to take in the Autumn scenery.

Rosedale was the first village in what is now Parke County, settled in 1817 by our ancestor John Martin Doty, who called it Dotyville. It served as the original county seat. Later on, Chauncy Rose, who had business interests in nearby Roseville, offered to pay for incorporating the town if the locals would give it a better name.

John Martin Doty was the 2nd great-grandfather of our grandpa Leroy Yowell, and great-grandfather of our great-grandmother Eleanor (Cleghorn) Yowell. These folks are buried at the Rosedale Cemetery. Other family places included the Fred Yowell Farm east of the Thorpe Ford Covered Bridge, the Forks of the Creek community south of Jessup, and Bridgeton where grandpa Leroy grew up.

John Martin Doty was born in Sussex County, New Jersey in 1789. As a young man he moved to Ross Co., OH, where he served as a private in the War of 1812 with the 2nd Battalion of the Ohio Militia. Following the war, John Martin Doty became a surveyor, contracted by the federal government after the Louis and Clark Expedition to plat out land in the Northwest Territory prior to offering it for land grants and for public sale. During the course of surveying, Doty picked out land for himself in what is now Rosedale for his own purchase. John died in 1853 in Parke County, and is buried at the Rosedale Cemetery.

The original deeds were destroyed in a courthouse fire, but it is known that he owned land at the northeast corner of Rosedale’s Main and Central Streets. This corner remained Doty property until the Mary Doty house was torn down to build an IGA grocery store in the early 1900s.