Hewitt Cemetery

HEWITT CEMETERY is in the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 34 of White Oak Township. Drive west out of Indianola on Highway 92 for about two and one-half miles, turn left on the paved road and proceed south for seven miles. Hewitt Cemetery is in the neighborhood of Hoosier Row.

Moses H. Hewitt was born in Shelby County, Indiana on June 12, 1823. and came to Warren County, Iowa in October 1855. He located in Section 34of White Oak Township. Soon after his arrival, the small child of a family family traveling in a covered wagon, died near the Hewitt's home. Mr. Hewitt granted permission to bury the child on his land and donated two acres of ground for a cemetery. A large lock in the southwest corner of Hewitt Cemetery marks this early grave. Moses' own son, William O., died in 1857 and was buried in the cemetery. Many of Warren County's pioneers are also buried in this beautiful, quiet spot on top of the hill.

The story of the tragedy that struck one family in the area was similar for pioneer families throughout the county. The Eberman family left Pennsylvania and came to Iowa in 1858. They settled in White Oak Township. In the fall of 1863, tragedy struck when seven-year-old Mary got sick. She died on September 22. The other children got sick and one courageous neighbor, Mrs. William Hutt, came to help the grief-stricken parents care for their dying children. There was no stopping the epidemic that raged through the Eberman family, and within three weeks Jane, Kate, Orin, George and William had been taken by diphtheria. The father cut native timber to make six coffins. No funerals were held because the neighbors were afraid of the dreaded disease. No one else in the neighborhood was taken by diphtheria in the fall of 1863, but the tragedy was common in epidemics that swept throughout the county in 1851, 1857 and 1863.

On October 2, 1895, the heirs of Moses Hewitt gave to the trustees of White Oak Township, a quick claim to the southwest two acres of the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 34, for cemetery purposes. The trustees have had charge of it since that time.

Cemetery and Death Records of Warren County, Iowa, Warren County Genealogical Society, Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, Missouri: 1980.

View records submitted to the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project for Hewitt Cemetery.