This home dates back to the late 1850s

With the cooperation of the Southeast Iowa Union/Mt. Pleasant News, The Mt. Pleasant Historic Preservation Commission will be publishing, every week or two, peeks at some of the featured homes in the 1909 book, Mt. Pleasant Beautiful.

In the series, the 1909 picture will be contrasted with one of recent vintage. The Commission has been collecting information for the eventual issuance of a new book updating the information on the still standing homes from the 1909 publication.

You can test your knowledge of historic Mt. Pleasant with this column. The identity of the featured home will be published with the next featured home.

The last featured home, the Van Cise House at 603 East Monroe, has a significant relationship to this week’s featured home.

In reviewing materials about historic homes and families in Mt. Pleasant, it is not unusual to find the same names cropping up in any number of searches. After all, in the mid-19th century, Mt. Pleasant was a town of only about 4,000 residents and overlap is to be expected in a small community.

This time, we find that the builder of the 603 East Monroe home, at a young age, became a resident of this week’s featured home when his family arrived from Pennsylvania in 1858.

At the time the home was almost new, having been built the year before by brick mason and real estate agent Albert Pepper. Pepper was not long for Mt. Pleasant, but Dr. Edwin Van Cise and his descendants became stalwarts of the community for over 100 years.

Our home in question was purchased by Dr. Edwin and Maria Van Cise, with their nine children, shortly after they got here, after what could only be classed as an arduous trip from Pennsylvania.

Interestingly, Dr. Van Cise chose Mt. Pleasant because his rather liberal views of religion and education met unfriendly opposition in the east.

Van Cise paid $1,450 for the home and bought it from Hiram Dicus who had paid $1,500 for it when he bought it from Pepper.

Van Cise opened a medical practice and drug store. Last week’s builder, son Isaac, took over the drug store and operated it until 1914.

Two Van Cise daughters, Emma and Maria, never married and lived out their lives in the home.

Their niece, Grace Roberts (daughter of their sister Elizabeth Van Cise Roberts), was also single and lived with and cared for them. The sisters died in 1923 and 1932.

Grace lived until 1959 and except for her final years, lived in the home which was subsequently was sold out of the family.

In 1948 Grace, at age 78, hosted a great social event celebrating 90 years of occupancy of the house by some member of the same family.

Grace was especially proud of the antique artifacts belonging to the family, many of which were unfortunately stolen in a major theft in 1955, when Grace was no longer living in the house.