West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
WHITACRE BIOGRAPHY

Aquilla and Ann Whitacre, parents of Albert, Amos, Maurice Whitacre, Mrs. Ross Leech, and Mrs. L. J. Leech, moved to Iowa in 1865, from Morrow, Ohio.

Aquilla Whitacre was married twice, eight children in the first family and five in the second. He came to Iowa in 1853 and bought 4,000 acres of land from the government at $ 1.25 per acre, ( seven sections ), eight miles west of West Liberty and the balance near Lone Tree. He moved to Iowa in 1865, buying another quarter near Downey, which became his homestead. A few years later, when the two daughters were married he located them just east of the homestead; Maurice was located south, making four quarters adjoining. Albert was located on land bought from the government, which was near what is known as Scott Church, on the present highway No. 6.

Aquilla Whitacre was 68 years old when moving to Iowa. He decided to move because his three youngest children were boys and he wanted them to be farmers in the new country and was opposed to the town of Morrow allowing breweries and saloons.

Only 80 acres of the Whitacre land was fenced and there were no fences west until near Iowa City. Indians usually came through this part of the country about once a year, camping near Downey, which was quite a trading center with a flax mill located there.

Hunting was plentiful, and prairie chickens, wild geese, ducks and cranes, sometimes almost covered the crop fields.

The Whitacre family attended Quaker meeting at the church located at North Prairie Cemetery. Later when this church was moved to West Liberty where the E. M. Bowman home now stands, a church was built a short distance east of the present Scott Church and on the Whitacre land. The bodies from the cemetery adjoining the church ground, were moved some years ago, to the North Prairie ground.

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