Iowa trip - day 3
Posted: 8 June 2002 at 23:55:00
Today is day three of the "Family History Quest" trip to Iowa.
Salem Quaker Shrine
Our first activity this morning was visiting the Quaker Shrine in the town of Salem, which is south of Mount Pleasant. At this museum of Quaker and Salem history, we learned about how Quakers in Salem, Iowa worked as part of the "Underground Railroad" during the U.S. Civil War hiding slaves in secret rooms or crawlspaces in their houses to keep them safe as they moved north.
Because Iowa was a Union state and Missouri to the south was a slavery state, Iowa was the first free state for slaves escaping from the south. However, even though slavery was illegal in Iowa, it was illegal to harbor slaves from the south because they were legally someone else's property.
Anyway - the Quaker Shrine was an amazing glimpse into history of southeastern Iowa and the Quaker people.
Barton Bethel Cemetery
After the Quaker Shrine, we drove north to the Barton Bethel cemetery - the old site of the Barton Bethel church which was owned and operated by Thomas Barton - my great great uncle.
The cemetery and remains of the church foundation sit by a river called Big Creek. The road which passes by the church goes down to a wide, shallow spot in Big Creek which was known as "Barton's Ford" where people would cross the river in their horse-drawn wagons.
Across Big Creek from the Barton Bethel church-house was a sawmill run by my great, great grandfather William Henry Barton.
We identified several tombstones as Bartons and made some notes. My dad had been here a year and a half ago, but he never went over to the other side of Big Creek to see if he could find evidence of the sawmill we'd read about. I waded over to the other side - it was only about a foot deep at the most - and went up to see if I could see anything. There was a big field of grass on the other side. I had shorts on and there will stinging nettle bushes all over in the grass, so I wasn't about to spend a lot of time in the field, so I took some pictures and went back over to the cemetery side.
![]() Looking down Big Creek from the Ford |
![]() Dad and Allison on the cemetery side of Big
Creek |
![]() Doran, Allison, & Dad near Barton's
Ford |
![]() A panoramic view of Barton Bethel cemetery |
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Lunch
After visiting the Bethel Cemetery, we went back into Mount Pleasant. My shoes and socks were drenched from crossing Big Creek in search of the site of the old sawmill, so we stopped at Wes's house so he could give me a pair of sandals for me to wear. They were a couple sizes too big, but it's better that they were too big and not too small. Wes said they'd been sitting around in his garage for about four years and nobody knew who they belonged to.
I suggested Taco Bell partly as a joke and everyone else seemed to want to do that, so we went to the KFC/Taco Bell over by our hotels.
Some of us had chicken, but most of us had Taco Bell items.
After we ate, I had dad take me over to the hotel because I wanted to change out of my shirt, which had gotten dirty, and put on some dry socks.
Dad, Connie, and Joyce McElewe went to the Mount Pleasant Library to get more copies of some genealogical documents. I stayed in the car and read some anti-Mormon literature that was handed to me in Nauvoo. Allison told me to just throw it away, but I was curious to know what problems they had with the LDS Church.
While we were at the Library, Allison and the others went to the Mount Pleasant City Fest which was running in the City Square.
Lambirth Cemetery
Our next stop was the Lambirth Cemetery where many other family members are buried. We located the graves of Benjamin Robert Barton and Christiana Beaber Barton Reiney (who married David Reiney after her first husband, William Roberts Barton, died).
While we were at Lambirth, Bill McElewe showed up with some other relatives. Wilma Barton - wife of the late Dale Barton - came with two of her daughters Judy and Janet. Wilma and Dale spent 25 years in Brazil as Baptist missionaries. Janet and her husband are still missionaries in Brazil.
![]() Everyone checking out gravestones |
![]() Dad walking in Lambirth |
The evening
After spending time at Lambirth Cemetery, I went back to the hotel to transfer pictures off my camera to the computer. Edson, Sharon, and Julie went over to their hotel to rest. Everyone else went to Wes's house to visit and eat dinner.
Just before 9 p.m., Edson called me to say they were going to head over to Wes's house. I went over to their hotel and met them and we went over to Wes's and had some dinner.
After we ate, everyone wanted to go catch the end of the bluegrass festival going on in Salem. We caught the last hour or so. It was fun.