Cochran Cemetery

COCHRAN CEMETERY is located in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 15 of White Breast Township. To reach Cochran Cemetery, go east through Lacona on the paved road that angles north for approximately one mile. Turn west on the gravel road, Continue west for 1/2 mile, then turn north on the dead-end gravel road. The cemetery is at the end on the dead-end.

William J. Cochran was born in Highland, Ohio, on August 22, 1829. He was a child of William and Elizabeth McConnell Cochran. In 1855 William and Elizabeth, along with son John M. and his wife Mary M. Johnson Cochran and son William J., journeyed to Iowa with a caravan of covered wagons and settled in White Breast Township. On June 7, 1860, William J. married Eliza E. Warnock, the daughter of David and Mary Ann Chaney Warnock.

On April 15, 1861, a 2-year-old girl, Mary E. Corwin, died near the Cochran home, northeast of Lacona. The child was buried by the house, but Eliza Cochran was so disturbed by the closeness of the grave, her husband donated land for a cemetery in the timber away from their residence.

In Deed Book 13, page 347, W.J. Cochran and Eliza J. Cochran sold two acres of land to the trustees for the price of $25.00. This was recorded August 11, 1875. W.J. Cochran died August 15, 1901 and is buried in the cemetery. All of the early burials are in the west end of the cemetery.

Following the Civil War, an epidemic of small pox swept through the Lacona area when a Civil War soldier brought home the tent in which he had recovered from small pox. Many victims of this epidemic are buried in Cochran Cemetery, as are victims of another small pox epidemic which occured in the 1890s.

Unmarked graves include: Jessie C. Bell, son of Thomas and Alice Bell, d May 27 1938 age 56y 25d; Laura Hickman, cousin of Jessie Bell and James M. Bell, husband of Nancy B. Bell.

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 Cochran Cemetery.