Mt. Pleasant Beautiful

Three years ago, in August 2020, the first of this series, prepared by the Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission, was published with the cooperation of the Southeast Iowa Union/Mt. Pleasant News.

Since that time, we have presented profiles of 81 homes that appear in the 1909 Mt. Pleasant Beautiful book. This is number 82 and the final one of the series. The book contains photographs of 120 Mt. Pleasant homes but alas, almost 40 of them no longer exist. Some were destroyed by fire, others fell into disrepair to the point of being destroyed to make way for “modern” construction, and some no doubt were torn down at the owner’s whim.

The goal of the Commission is to issue a new book, featuring the surviving homes and information about each. The 1909 book only pictured the home, the street, and the current owner’s name.

In addition to the pictured homes there are dozens of pictures of businesses, schools, churches and other 1909 Mount Pleasant scenes.

In addition to the pictured homes there are dozens of pictures of businesses, schools, churches and other Mt. Pleasant scenes.

Copies of the 1909 book are available locally from the Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission. Please contact Lea Bradley at 319-931-0671 if you would like to purchase one.

Starting off this week we will identify last week’s featured home as the Seventh-day Adventist Church which was built between Lincoln and College Avenue. The house to which it was converted carries the address of 200 East Second Street.

Since this is the last of the series, we will immediately identify it as it was in 1909, the corner of Washington and Walnut. However, like several other homes we have featured it was moved: this one down the block on Walnut and currently sits at 306 South Walnut.

The exact date of construction is something of a mystery, but it looks like it was there in 1859. The lot was purchased by Robert and Nancy Scott in 1855 and the 1859 city directory has the Scotts living at that location, so by then we must assume there was a house there.

In 1867 the home was purchased by Vermont native Jacob Sherman and his wife Mary, who he had married in Illinois during an extended trip west with his brother Horace, a fellow carpenter. The boys made their way west via New Orleans, St. Louis and Illinois before settling in Southeast Iowa. Horace settled in Van Buren County and Jacob lived out his life in Mt. Pleasant.

In 1905 the home was purchased by Charles and Lillian Rogers. Rogers was a longtime editor of the Mt. Pleasant News. A September 1905 news item indicates Rogers intended to move the house down Walnut and build a new house on the Washington/Walnut corner. And in December 1905 the paper reported that Mr. Easton of Fairfield was in town to move the house.

However, four years later, Mt. Pleasant Beautiful pictures the home that now stands at 306 South Walnut as the home of “Mr. C.S. Rogers, East Washington Street.” It is clear that the house was moved at some point, but do we really know when?

And now for some trivia for all you genealogy fans. If you count back, you will find that you have eight “great-great grandfathers.” The number doubles with every generation,

Remember Jacob Sherman, our Vermont carpenter? He and his wife had a number of children, one of them, daughter Stella, married Herbert Hanson and they lived in Nebraska. Their daughter Laura married a man named Cecil East; they died in California. Their daughter Dorothy (born in Oklahoma) married Seth Joplin. Dorothy and Seth had a daughter named Janis. Yep, the one you have heard of had roots in Mt. Pleasant as long as you go far enough down the rabbit hole of genealogy.