This home was built by a prominent attorney and public servant

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 Riggs House, now at 100 East Clay St. Did it move from its initial Main Street location as shown in the 1909 book? No, but the main entrance was moved around the corner and the address changed.

This week’s featured home was built in 1898 by LeRoy and Lizzie Palmer, on property that had been owned since 1841 by LeRoy’s grandparents, Isaac and Rhoda Bowen. An earlier home on the lot was apparently integrated into the new construction. His ties to the area ran deep since his mother’s sister was the wife of Mt. Pleasant’s ultimate pioneer, Presley Saunders.

Another sibling of his mother, Thomas Bowen, had a long career in the judicial and politics including being a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, governor of Idaho Territory, and senator from Colorado — all this apparently in addition to accumulating a degree of wealth in the mining industry.

LeRoy’s father practiced law in Mt. Pleasant and after “reading the law” with his father’s firm, LeRoy became a partner. His father’s brother was governor of Illinois and also served as a senator from that state.

LeRoy Palmer’s first wife, Lucy, died in 1887 shortly after giving birth to their fourth son. Two years later he married Elizabeth McClelland and they moved to Tacoma, Washington where he established a law practice. They returned to Mt. Pleasant in 1895 because of his father’s ill health.

The senior Palmer died in 1904 and LeRoy and Lizzie moved on again, this time to Arkansas with a subsequent move to Washington, D.C. There he served in the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Wilson administration. He later worked for the Federal Trade Commission. LeRoy died in Washington in 1933 and was returned to his hometown where he was buried in Forest Home Cemetery next to his first wife Lucy and was joined by Lizzie at her death in 1948.

In addition to his distinguished career as an attorney and public servant, LeRoy Palmer was an accomplished musician and artist and from all reports could have made a life for himself in either of these artistic areas.

Currently, the home has been divided into apartments.