John Jacob Moreland (1976)

MCFARLIN, MOCK, MORELAND, WALKER, WURMNEST

Posted By: Ida Morse
Date: 3/25/2006 at 20:18:40

Earlham Library Obituaries
Earlham, Iowa
October 1976

JOHN MORELAND DIES OCTOBER 16

John Moreland succumbed to a heart attack about 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon, October 16, at his home in Earlham.

He had willed his body to the University of Iowa College of Medicine where it was taken Monday morning by the McKee Mortuary service.

John Jacob Moreland, eldest child of Elizabeth Wurmnest and Silas Cyrus Moreland, was born June 25, 1894, on a farm near Clearfield, Iowa.

At the age 9 he moved with his parents to Earlham, where he attended elementary school and the Earlham Academy, graduating as valedictorian of the Class of 1911.

For a time after high school he operated in partnership an auto sales and service garage, and then did electrical wiring of many of the homes and business establishments in Earlham while superintendent of the electric power plant.

He embarked on a college course in Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University, but gave it up to serve in World War I. He enlisted on his 23rd birthday in the 109th Engineers of the United States Army, and during his two years attained to the rank of 1st Lieutenant in the 604th Army Engineers in France. He was honorably discharged June 4, 1919.

On October 8, 1919 he married Hattie Louise Walker and began farming near Macksburg, Iowa. They moved in 1923 to 160 acres southwest of Earlham where they raised their two children.

During his 42 years on the farm John was always active and involved in the community; in the Penn Center church as teacher and Sunday School superintendent; Penn township school, and Madison County Farm Bureau. He served 12 years on the Madison county AAA committee and 12 years in the Earlham Co-op Elevator Board. He was named as an Iowa Master Farmer in 1951.

He retired from the farm in 1965 to live in Earlham and serve as city clerk for four years. He has served on the CARE Board since its inception.

Of his many diverse interest, John enjoyed taking movies and showing films to Earlham residents and the wider community for many, many years.

He also loved to travel with Louise in their camper, all over the United States and parts of Canada.

Now he sets forth alone on his final journey, leaving his wife Louise, daughter Dorothy Mock of Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and son Dorrence DeVere of Whittier, California; his sister Marie McFarlin of Dexter, Iowa, and six grandchildren; Jerry and Danny Moreland, Jeffrey, Deverie, Danci and Jon Mock.

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