Lamoni Rose Hill Cemetery

History of Lamoni

Below is an account of Lamoni's beginnings published right after the town was incorporated in its first newspaper. See Lamoni and the Order of Enoch¹ for a more detailed RLDS² church account of this from The Story of the Church, by Inez Smith Davis. Articles in the Lamoni Chronicle by local historians Alma Blair in 1999 and T.S.Williams decades earlier, shed light on Lamoni's first century of history.

History of Lamoni
The Lamoni Gazette, Vol 1 No 8, Jan 14, 1886, page 4

The first settlements were made in about 1835; but they were sparse and scattering, so that when, in 1870, the Order of Enoch¹ was organized, and representatives of it came into this region to buy land, large bodies of good land were still unoccupied, and held by absentees. One lone farm house stood on an eighty acre farm which is now the north side of Lamoni. This farm was the property of a Mr. Shepherd, and later, of his widow, who sold it to F. Drummond. He built the house now occupied by E. Dancer, in 1877, the original farm house is the one owned by J. Foreman. The next nearest farm was that of E. Ferguson, half mile east. The Methodist faith was represented by a meeting house on Mr. Buck's farm—built in 1872, and since moved into town. There was a school house on the farm now owned by W.A. Hopkins; and a post office, called Sedgwick at the farm of Capt. Andrews—-now owned by N. Riggs. The only member of the L.D. Saints² church was A.J. Green, now deceased, living then three miles west of this point. He was, at the time of his death, the oldest inhabitant; he having settled there when his nearest neighbor was fourteen miles away, and the nearest mill, on South Grand river, sixteen miles beyond Bethany.

The school house at his place was used for preaching services by Elder Moffit of Pleasanton, who claims to have seen, in vision, men with a team passing over this country, and digging holes in the soil, at intervals; and furthermore, that years afterwards he saw in reality the same scene when agents of the Order of Enoch were testing the lands they afterwards bought.

Another of the three houses standing here before the town was laid out is that owned by Wm. Deam—built by the Order as a farm house.

The grocery store of the settlement was kept by S.H. Gurley in the School house at Hopkin's corner. He started business there in 1876, and succeeded Capt. Andrews as Post Master.

E. Banta managed the business of the Order of Enoch from 1870 to '76. He lived at Sandwich, Ill., and made frequent trips back and forth; his efforts were directed to changing the great body of wild lands under his care, into well appointed farms. D. Dancer succeeded him in office, and continued till the company disposed of their lands.

The railroad was built and the town laid out in 1879, and in the same year T. Teale built his hardware store, S.H. Gurley his drygoods store, and Bissel, Dickson and Ferguson their boarding houses, and D. Dancer started his lumber yard. In 1880, Z.T. Earl & Co. began business, Paul Biggs built the office and grain house now owned by Jas. Smith, and Wm. Earl built the store now owned by W. Hudson.

In 1881 N. Reeder and D. Dancer began selling implements, and E.C. Dodson, selling furniture. In this year also, the Herald publishing house was built, and the Methodist church was moved into town.

In 1882, the school house was built, and Geo. Young built the store now owned by N. Reeder.

In 1883, the cheese factory was built, by a joint-stock company, and the mill, by P. Harris; the L.D.S.² church was built In 1884.

The part of Lamoni Lying west of the original survey was laid out by D. Dancer; it is devoted to private residences.

The first child born in the town was Bertie Lamoni White; the first couple married, were Neal Hammer and Lillie Brown; the first funeral was that of father Smith³.

¹The Order of Enoch was an organization of shareholders with a 20-year charter, whose aim was to acquire a large tract of land and facilitate the development of a gathering community of RLDS church members—that became Lamoni, Iowa.

²Early members of the RLDS Church (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) often omitted 'Reorganized' from their name, seeing themselves as the true continuation of the church founded by Joseph Smith Jr. and led by his son, Joseph Smith III. Over time, 'LDS' became associated with the Utah-based Mormon church. Today, the RLDS Church is known as the Community of Christ.

³Nehemiah D. Smith who died February 7, 1880 at age 82 is the "Father Smith" referred to here.