Volume 1, Number 7 - Spring 1963
Before It Was Rockaway Beach
By Elmo Ingenthron
The first inhabitant believed to have made his home at the present site of Rockaway Beach came up White River in 1818. He was Joseph Price, a member of a party which took a keel boat down the Ohio River and the Mississippi River to the mouth of White River. Joseph Price obtained a government patent on June 18, 1849, to the portion of Rockaway Beach around the bathing island and north slope adjacent to it.
My father, J. J. Ingenthron, now nearing 87 years of age, recalls the old Rufus Renshaw home as being a very old home when he could first remember. It was located on the mainland, north of the old river across from the upper end of the bathing island. It is believed to have been built there perhaps as early as the late 1830's by Joseph Price who is believed to have sold it to Rufus Renshaw. Rufus lived there for some time, obtaining other land north of the Price land, and at one time consisting of 160 acres or more.
When Rufus and Ellen Renshaw reached old age, their son Albert took care of them. He built a house, later referred to as the old farmhouse on a little flat on the point above Captain Bill's Hotel and about straight up the hill from the dance pavilion. Wilson Renshaw obtained the west half of the estate and lived in a house just above the New School House. So Rockaway Beach is now located on what was once two farmsteads.
The Merriam real estate company purchased the Renshaw land March 27, 1914. They also bought land from L. C. (Fate) Walker, the Aneys, and others.
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