Joel M. Fenn came to Clarke County in 1867. He was issued the first teaching certificate in the county where he taught school during the winter months. One school had as many as forty-one students ranging in age from five years to twenty three years in all eight grades. His salary was $25 a month. He farmed around Osceola until he bought a farm northeast of Murray, now known as the Watts farm, and moved there with his family in 1885. He was a township trustee and a member of the Masonic Lodge. In 1906 he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and served there four years. He sold this farm in 1902 and bought a farm on

the northwest edge of Murray, the place where Everett Fenn now lives. He died in May 1914 at the age of seventy.

There were five children, Orlo and Ernest (twins), John, Laura, and Ralph. As young men Ernest and John Fenn moved to Oregon where they made their homes. Ralph and Laura Fenn stayed with their mother until she died October 1932. In the spring of 1933 they moved to Salem, Iowa, and farmed there until 1960, when they returned to Murray and have lived here since.

The above picture was taken in 1904 at the Mack Studio in Murray.