Sullivan, John H.

Flourished: Scott County, Iowa

Around 1835, Sullivan moved from Zanesville, Ohio, to the Rock Island, Illinois, area. He established a dry-goods store in Rock Island and over the next year he purchased over seven hundred acres of federal land in Rock Island and Henry counties, Illinois. He made further purchases in Scott County, Iowa, where in 1836 he helped to establish the town of Rockingham, located near present-day Davenport. The town's first postmaster, he also constructed a hotel and built the county's first steam-powered sawmill and flouring mill.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Rock Island County, 710:11, 14, 29; Henry County, 707:81, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Scott County, IA Terr., 245; History of Scott County, Iowa (Chicago: Inter-State, 1882), 1227, 1229-31.