Muscatine Journal and News Tribune, Friday, December 23, 1932, page 8
Transcribed by Lynn McCleary, May 25 2018

COMPLETES ROAD TO RURAL CHURCH
Early History of Cedar County Recalled in Connection With South Bethel Church.

Tipton – The South Bethel M. E. church and cemetery located six miles south of Tipton, are now served by a surfaced road. The surfacing of that portion of the road from Primary road No. 38 to the church and cemetery, a distance of one half mile, was completed this week.

The surfacing of the road was obtained through the efforts of Rev. Otig Moore, pastor of the South Bethel church, and other interested residents of that community. It is an interesting fact that Mrs. Moore, wife of the pastor, is a granddaughter of Washington Rigby, early Cedar county settler, who, in 1836, plowed a furrow from Bloomington (now the city of Muscatine) to Red Oak Grove, five miles north of Tipton. This furrow later became the main travelled highway and it is a portion of this highway which has just been surfaced.

The South Bethel community had a large share in the early history and religious education of Cedar county settlers. Here the first store was established in Cedar County. The community was then called Centerville and early settlers had visions of a thriving settlement at that point. Here it was that the United States cavalry forced unruly Indians to surrender, after they had trailed them from Davenport prior to the arrival of the first white settlers to Cedar county. The first settlers found a flag pole erected in that spot to commemorate the surrender.