County Home Cemetery
Eden Township, Section 14
 
Nearest town: Leon
Cemetery GPS Coordinates: 40.6916699,-93.7016101
Earliest tombstone burial: May 27, 1900 #1-9
Latest tombstone burial: Dec. 24, 1912 #2-2
Latest known unmarked burial: 1939 #12
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History: On January 4, 1866, Dozier B. Gammon sold 160 acres to the county and the Decatur County Poor Farm began. The poor were housed in the original homestead house built by Dozier Gammon and his sons. An area was set aside for a cemetery. There are now 18 matching markers in two rows, mostly from 1900 to 1910. They were made alike [18"h x 12"w] of concrete at the county home and were hand-lettered. Very few are readable today. There are probably many unmarked graves. When the county farm was sold in 1975, a large ledger containing residents information (including burials) was burned. The last known burial (unmarked) was in 1939.

An early burial policy of the County Poor Farm, according to History of Decatur County by Himena Hoffman, was: "When death came to an inmate, he was dressed in a three dollar robe and buried in a $10 casket in the burial grounds on the farm, unless the family who had left him to end his days at the "Poor Farm" claimed the body and gave him burial elsewhere,"

The location of the cemetery was slightly south of the large county farm house, then east to the top of the ridge. However, the county farm house was torn down not long after it was sold. The cemetery area is fenced with an opening but no gate. It is not mowed.

There are few records left of the farm and the inmates. The Auditor's office, housed at the Decatur County Courthouse, has a few pages of the minutes of the "Poor Farm" committee. And, the Decatur County Museum has one list of inmates that were at one time living at the farm.

INTERMENTS: An * means no tombstone, but records indicate a burial.
NAME
ROW#, GRAVE#		 DATE of BIRTH DATE of DEATH COMMENTS
AYRES, Lea  19 May 1900* County Home Records
BAIRD or BEARD, Robert  05 Aug 1913
aged 82y		* County Home Records
BALES, George
2-5		  13 Oct 1904* W.P.A. Records
BANCROFT, H.  21 Jan 1905* W.P.A. Records
BECK, Rebecca  24 Aug 1905* W.P.A. Records
BECK, Rueben
2-5		  29 Aug 1906
aged 60y		 
BONNETT, Nicholis  27 Jan 1905* County Home Records
CARTER, Albert  25 Jun 1924* Courthouse Records
COFFEE, Thomas
1-13		  17 Feb 1902 
E___, E.
1-6		  13 Nov 1912
aged 89y		W.P.A. Records ~ Mrs. E. EWINS
EVANZ, Samuel  22 Apr 1898
aged 56y		* Courthouse Records
FAIL, George  08 Oct 1904* County Home Records
FORBES, William  15 Apr 1915
about 85y		* County Home Records
GILBERT, David  05 Mar 1926
aged 70y		* Courthouse Records
HALE, John
2-1		  18 Mar 1911, aged 80y
 
HANES, Robert  22 Aug 1914
aged 52y		* Courthouse Records
HICKS, Frank  25 Jul 1922
aged 83y		* Courthouse Records
HUMPHREY, Fanny
a widow		  17 Mar 1914
aged 79y		* Courthouse Records
HUNTLY, Emma   * Courthouse Records
JOHNSON, H. M.  13 Feb 1903
aged 71y		* County Home Records
JOHNSTON, William  07 Mar 1939
aged 76y		* Slade Funeral Home Records
KELLY, Susie  09 Nov 1905Shared gravestone with Molly (unknown)
KLING, John W.  06 Mar 1890
aged 81y		* County Home Records
LADD, William  12 Sep 1907
aged 71y 5m 11d		* Courthouse Records
LENTZ, William  05 Mar 1936
aged 78y		* Courthouse Records
LEONARD, J.C.
1-7		  11 Nov 1901 
LOCKART, S.
1-9		  27 May 1900
aged 80y		 
LOCKNER, L.  1905* W.P.A. Records
McCULLOUGH, Minerva
1-8		  00 Nov 1900
McDONALD, Sarah
2-3		  23 Sep 1909
aged 61y		Courthouse Records
MENDALL, Johnca. 1844 00 Jul 1904*W.P.A. Records
MENDAL, Sarah
2-3		  24 Dec 1912
aged 89y		 
MITCHELL, William  03 Apr 1931
aged 75y		* Courthouse Records
NASH, Daniel Monroe  31 Aug 1933
aged 75y 15d		* Courthouse Records
PESSTER, John  08 Mar 1903
aged 18y		* W.P.A. Records
PORTER, John  11 Jan 1929* Courthouse Records
POSTLEWAITE, William  20 Mar 1933
aged 85y		* Courthouse Records
ROGERS, William  16 Mar 1903* W.P.A. Records
SCOTT, "Aunt" Rachel  AE 92y
widow of John Scott
SMITH, Asa Marion24 Nov 1859 25 Sep 1912md 1st Frances CONGER (1866-1887)
inter. Bozwell Cemetery, Cincinnati IA
md 2nd Susan Jane BOZWELL ( - 1898)
inter. Bozwell Cemetery, Cincinnati IA
STAFFORD, Edwin  06 Feb 1901* County Home Records
TALLMAN, Abigail
1-11		  02 May 1903 
unknown, Mollie or Molly  ca. 1907Shared gravestone with Susie KELLY
unknown
1-1		   stone illegible
unknown
1-2		   stone illegible
unknown
1-3		   stone illegible
unknown
1-4		   stone illegible
unknown
1-5		   stone illegible
unknown
1-10		   stone illegible
unknown
1-12		  1903stone illegible
WARTENBEE, Laura A.  09 Aug 1935
aged 72y 4m 5d		* W.P.A. Records
WHITTIER, Moses  1930's
Decatur County Home		place of burial unknown

Sources: Cemeteries of Decatur Co. IA; compiled by Lois Slade and transcribed for Decatur County IAGenWeb by Janice Lira.
 
Cemetery Directory   ***   Decatur County IAGenWeb