Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Jefferson County Freedom Rock to be dedicated Saturday
FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County’s Freedom Rock will be dedicated during a ceremony on the morning of Veterans Day, which is Saturday, Nov. 11.
The ceremony will commence at 10 a.m. that day outside the Jefferson County Courthouse, where the Jefferson County Freedom Rock has greeted visitors ever since Robert Estle of Estle Construction donated and delivered the 17,000-pound boulder to the courthouse lawn in 2018. The Freedom Rock was painted three years later in the summer of 2021, and subsequent improvements were made such as a paved sidewalk around the rock and landscaping features. Though the rock has been painted for a couple of years, the committee that spearheaded the project never had a chance to formally dedicate it until now. The Jefferson County Freedom Rock Committee consisted of Lyle Maudlin, Ernie Riepe, Kim Winslow and Tammy Jones.
Jefferson County’s Freedom Rock was part of a series of large rocks that artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II began painting in 2013 when he started his Freedom Rock tour. Sorensen’s goal was to paint a Freedom Rock honoring veterans and other heroic figures in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. The rock Sorensen painted in Fairfield was the 97th in the series.
Maudlin said he got the idea of bringing a Freedom Rock to Jefferson County when he was traveling through a small town in northeast Iowa and saw a sign that said “Future home of a Freedom Rock.” He thought that Fairfield, being a much bigger town, should surely have a Freedom Rock if this small town could have one, too. He enlisted Riepe to help him, and then brought up the matter at the Fairfield Elks Lodge, where he got Winslow and Jones to join the group.
Riepe said that when he was president of the VFW’s Men’s Auxiliary, the group gave away money it had been saving up, with half going to the Ladies’ Auxiliary and the other half destined for the Freedom Rock. Maudlin added that it took many donors, large and small, to raise the money necessary for the Freedom Rock. The committee ended up raising over $10,000.
The committee plans to turn the rock over to Jefferson County Veterans Affairs. It’s also planning to install solar-powered lights so it will be visible at every hour of the day.
Each Freedom Rock is unique and profiles famous people from that county. Sorensen said he relies on a local committee from each county to research people or groups they’d like to include on the rock, and Sorensen supplements that with research of his own.
Jefferson County’s Freedom Rock includes an homage to the 34th Army Band and 224th Engineer Battalion, longtime staples in Fairfield. The main, flatter surface of the rock facing east includes a portrait of Major Mehitable E. Woods, a resident of Fairfield and a woman who played an essential role in supplying troops during the Civil War. During an interview with The Union in 2021, Sorensen said he read a book about Woods and was impressed with her life story and the role she played during the war. For her efforts, she was inducted into the Grand Army of the Republic (for Union veterans) and the American Legion.
