Mount Pisgah, Iowa

The place names on James Stapleton Lewis' family lines are an American history text on a pedigree chart. The families followed pioneer migration patterns and trails. Today I want to write about Mount Pisgah, Iowa.

Marker at the Mount Pisgah site showing the Mormon Pioneer migration through Iowa

From the time I was small, the place name held a fascination for me that I can't explain. It isn't one of those places that immediately comes to mind when you think of the Mormon Pioneer Trail the way Council Bluffs or Winter Quarters or Martin's Cove does. Yet it is a place I always wanted to see.

When my husband and I planned a road trip to Pittsburgh in 2007 to visit our son, daughter-in-law and grandson, we decided to make it a Mormon Pioneer Trail trip as well. Since both of us have pioneer ancestry, I researched to find what ancestors had been at the various sites and when they were there. I created a section in an accordion file for each location we planned to visit and included a family group sheet of each family that had been at that location. I also filed information from the Internet about each site, including addresses, driving  directions, and hours of visitor center operations. When we made each stop we could talk about what ancestors had been there, what their experiences must have been, and look for their names on any markers or visitor center displays. It made our experience on the trip even more personal and interesting.

When I told my husband (I have to admit I didn't allow for any negotiations on this one) that we were going to include Mount Pisgah as one of our stops, he was less than enthusiastic. It was out of our way because it is off the Interstate. But he surrendered when I told him I'd wanted to visit Mount Pisgah ever since my grandmother told me about James Stapleton Lewis living there.

Using our Rand McNally Road Atlas, I navigated our route as we meandered and zigzagged through farmland and small Iowa towns south of Interstate 80 to Union County. We arrived in the late afternoon to find a most beautiful and peaceful spot. The feeling that permeates so many of these pioneer sites is hallowed - there's no other way to describe it. No one else was near as we wandered quietly around the area.

Looking toward the Grand River from the Mount Pisgah settlement site

Mount Pisgah isn't so much a mountain as a hilly, elevated area above the Grand River Valley. The view from the settlement area looks to the valley with a view worthy of any movie scenery. We could easily see why Parley P. Pratt was taken by the loveliness of the area and chose it as another stopping point for the Mormons who were trudging their way west following their expulsion from Nauvoo. Mount Pisgah was the first permanent white settlement in Union County. About two thousand homes were built there and thousands more traveled through the place. 

Our family tradition told me by my grandmother is that James was asked by Brigham Young to stay at Mount Pisgah and plant crops to help feed and supply the pioneer companies traveling through on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. I don't know if the tradition is fully accurate, but I have found that one of the purposes of the Mount Pisgah community was to do just that. There was rich farmland that the Saints quickly cleared and cultivated. The crops grown there provided for many who were on the trail. Mount Pisgah was a site where men were recruited for the Mormon Battalion. James and Anna were there with their young family for several years.

Alva Tippits Lewis' birthplace in 1846 is sometimes listed as Mount Pisgah, but is usually given as Marion, Iowa. Today Marion is on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids in Linn County. Marion is northeast of Mount Pisgah. This birth undoubtedly shows the westward progress of the JSL family from Nauvoo. Wilford Woodruff was born in 1848 in Mount Pisgah. A monument at the cemetery reminded us that James and Anna buried a child here. William Fallis Lewis was born and died the same day in 1851 though he isn't listed on the monument.

Mount Pisgah cemetery monument

Looking downhill in the cemetery area

William Fallis was among many who are buried in the Mount Pisgah cemetery though most graves aren't marked and the monument list is only a partial list of the dead. More than one hundred fifty died in the first six months of the settlement.






A replica of a log cabin has been constructed at Mount Pisgah to show the type of shelter families like James and Anna's would have had. It is small and dark. My six-foot husband had to duck to get in the doorway. The roof is sod with grass growing on it. The cabin was so small; I think many household tasks would have taken place outdoors. That would be fine on a pleasant day such as the July evening we were there. But in the middle of a cold, wet winter day it must have been a difficult life. I picture Anna trying to wash clothes for her family of boys for example.

Mount Pisgah pioneer cabin replica

I have lately wondered about the childhoods of Joel and John Alma, James and Anna's two oldest sons. Both were born in Missouri and as young children went through the forced exodus from Missouri. Two little brothers died at age two, one in Missouri and one in Indiana. Then they settled in Nauvoo where another brother, Isaac, was born. When Joel was 12 and John Alma was 10 they again were forced from their home and began their journey through Iowa. As hard as life as a pioneer farming family in Mount Pisgah must have been, I'd like to think that maybe the six years the family spent there were a stable and happy respite from mobs and fear.

In 1852, the Saints still living in Mount Pisgah were counseled to finish their journey to the Salt Lake Valley.  James, Anna, Joel, John Alma, Isaac, Alva, and Wilford once again traveled to a new place where they had to begin to build a new life. But that's a story for another blog.