Hugh LESAN'S grandparents, George W. and Melissa LESAN, together with George's brother, David and wife, and their sister Hariett and husband Carlos LEE, and the younger brother of George W. and Carlos LEE came by covered wagons to Ringgold County from Illinois in the spring of 1855, and were the first settlers in Poe Township.

They bought their land from the N S Land office in Chariton.

George LESAN was married to his first cousin, Melissa LESAN and his brother, David, was married to Melissa's sister Sybil. They put in their crops and built their log houses and settled down to make their homes in a new land.

George W. was a basket maker and David could make brooms, which was a great help in a new land.

The LESANS were an energetic and progressive people and believed strongly in religion and education. At first they held their Sunday School in their homes but after they built the school house they used it on Sundays for the religious services. The Lesanville Church was built in 1891. It was affliliated with the Kellerton Methodist Church and they held their services on Sunday afternoons.

By 1931, because of lack of interest among the new residents of the community, the church was sold to Art DeVRIES of Kellerton and was torn down and the lumber moved away.

They soon found they needed a cemetery, so George LESAN donated [1872] a plot of ground for burials. [The first interment was the child of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. LESAN.]

By the early 1860s, most of their brothers and sisters and their father's came to Iowa. There were so many LESANS living there that they named their community Lesanville.

Other settlers were moving into the neighborhood and they needed a larger cemetery. It was called "Sweet Home" Cemetery and all of the bodies but two were moved from the old one to the new cemetery. Those left belonged to families who had moved out of the state. There are some of five generations of LESANS buried in this cemetery.

The railroad went through the neighborhood in 1879.

In the 1880s, George LESAN built a building by the railroad just south of where the railroad crossed the road which is Highway 2. Then he wrote to the U.S. Post Master General in Washington, D.C., and asked for a post office to be put in his building to serve the community. This was granted and the Post Master General appointed Hugh LESAN'S grandmother, Melissa LESAN as post mistress. The mail was left here by the train until the rural routes were established sometime around 1900.

George and Melissa raised four children: Laura, Owen, Burritt and Cassius. Cassius will be remembered as Dr. C. T. LESAN who was a medical doctor in Mount Ayr.

Hugh's father was Burritt LESAN. He married Mary (Mollie) McCLAREN and they were the parents of seven children: Clyde, May, Madge, Jennie, Glenn, Hugh and Dee.

This family was raised in Lesanville with the exception of five years they lived in Creston where Glenn and Hugh were born. They returned to the farm in 1897 and lived there until their children were married when they retired to Mount Ayr.

The land bought from the government by George W. LESAN in 1855 has been in the possession of some of his descendants with the exception of sixteen years.

Two years after Kellerton was founded, the first school house was built and two teachers were hired. One of them was Geo. M. LESAN who was married to Elsie GREEN of the Kellerton vicinity.

Other LESANS who lived in Kellerton were the Seth LESANS, Owen LESANS, Arthur LESANS, and Jennie HALE who was a cousin of Geo. W. LESAN.

The LESAN Family

SOURCE: Kellerton, Iowa: A History to 1981. Pp. 131-32. 1981.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2011

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