This home had a ‘twin’ in another part of town

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 was the Putnam House at 1301 East Monroe.

This week’s featured house was built in 1893. In fact, two nearly identical houses were built on a large corner lot near the college drill grounds on the north side of town. The builders were William Kitch and his recently widowed mother-in-law, Martha Lafferty. She, at age 59, had sold the family farm near Hickory Grove, to move to town. The Indiana native died 10 years later in August of 1912

William Kitch was born in Ohio in 1853 and came to Henry County as a 10-year-old and married Belle Laferty in 1876. Educated in local schools and at Howes Academy in Mt. Pleasant, he farmed but also pursued a career as a schoolteacher, putting in several years in Wayland and Marion Township.

While he retained his farm after moving to town in 1892, he became very active in the Mt. Pleasant business community as well. Among his achievements were president of the Henry County Savings Bank and the Henry County Mutual Insurance Company and a director of the First National Bank. He was also active in the leadership of the Methodist Church.

Belle Kitch died in 1915 and William remarried three years later, wedding widow Anne Nixon White, 20 years his junior. She survived until 1963 when she died at age 89.

William Kitch met an unfortunate and unexpected end in 1934 at age 81. As best can be deduced from the contemporary newspaper reports, he was taking a walk west of his residence along the Burlington tracks and somehow managed to get struck by the engine of a westbound train just west of White Street. He was seen walking between the north and south tracks and what caused him to get in the way of the engine will never be known. He was struck in the head resulting in instant death and no further bodily damage was done.

Following William’s death, the home was passed on to his and Belle’s daughter Estelle Richenberger. She in turn sold the home to Sumner Garretson in 1940 and it remain in that family for almost 50 years. The current owners purchased the home in 1990 and the second house on the lot was razed in the mid-1990s.