Alonzo Meredith (1857-1941)

MEREDITH

Posted By: Debra Scott Hierlmeier (email)
Date: 11/14/2008 at 19:31:05

LON MEREDITH 1857-1941
Was Found in Cornfield
Disappeared September 6 from his home; Gun found by his side

The body of Lon Meredith, 83, was found Sunday afternoon about three o’clock in a cornfield about 300 feet east of the Rock Island railroad bridge east of Avoca and about 220 feet south of the track in a cornfield on the Jenks farm.

The body was found by Bill Yeager who had been looking for Mr. Meredith nearly every day since he disappeared from his home on September 6 when he was last seen. Mr. Yeager was walking down the east river south of the bridge and smelling an odor he went into the cornfield where he found the body of Mr. Meredith laying with his face up. The body was in a very bad condition, the face being partly eaten away by insects. Mr. Yeager immediately informed Sheriff McKinley who with others went to the scene.

Funeral services were held from the Blust Funeral Home Tuesday afternoon at two o’clock with burial in the Avoca cemetery.

Lon Meredith was born at Brooklyn, Iowa, November 2, 1857. He came to Avoca with his parents eighty years ago and was raised on a farm two miles east of Avoca. On September 2, 1886, he was married to Lydia foster. They moved on a farm now known as the Emil Peters farm east and south of Avoca. In 1900, they moved to Avoca where Mr. Meredith operated a dray line for several years, later moving back to the farm. In 1923 they retired from active farm life and again moved to Avoca.

Mrs. Meredith preceded her husband in death on March 25, 1935. Surviving is one daughter, Mrs. Banks Richardson of near Hancock and two grandsons: Ward of Council bluffs and Edwars at home, also one sister, Clara Bartlett of Pasadena, California.

In the death of Lon Meredith there has been taken from this community another one of the very few pioneers of this section. He saw the coming of the railroads, the going of the moving wagons and horse and buggy days, to the coming of the automobile and airplanes.

From the Scrapbooks of Bessie Gross Gustafsen
Source: Avoca Journal Herald