Motor Cemetery

MOTOR CEMETERY is located in the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 11 of Belmont Township. It is three-eighths of a mile south of the old town of Motor.

By 1868, five or six families of the Society of Friends had settled near Motor and they began to hold meetings in their homes. Most had originally come from Ohio and Indiana, and had previously lived in Warren County at Hickory Grove settlement. After they sold Hickory Grove to the German Quakers, they moved to the area of Motor. By 1869 there were forth members of the Quaker faith living there.

They were planning to build a meeting house when Allen Trueblood, a small child named for the Rev. Allen Jay of Indiana, Died. His family wanted to bury the child near where the church would be. A meeting was called to decide on the location. Calvin C. and Cynthia Blair offered to give five acres of land on the east side of Section 11 if the group would put up a building of which they approved. The five acres was agreed upon and the cemetery was laid out in one corner of the ground. A grove was also planted on the acreage.

In Deed Book 14 page 43, on June 20 1874, C.C. Blair deeded the plot of Motor Cemetery to the Trustees of the Society of Friends.

John Allen Truwblood was buried in August of 1869. He was the son of Oliver and Mary Trueblood and had died July 1, 1869.

Mrs. Ruth Dunkin, wife of J. Dunkin, hid died previously on November 20, 1868. She was moved to Motor Cemetery when it was established.

After the meeting house was built, Ackworth Quarterly Meeting established a Monthly Meeting at Motor and named it Waveland. Waveland was established in 1877 with a membership of 140.

In the early 1900s, funds were raised to tile the cemetery. In 1917 a trust fund was set up for the care of the cemetery. The trustees were S.W. Smith, R.T. Ellis and F.B. Michener. J.M. Gibson was appointed guardian of the trust. The trust fund was increased by asking for donations of $20 from relatives or friends of each person buried in the cemetery. In 1966 Jay Mosher was appointed guardian of the trust. There are more than 160 marked graves in Motor Cemetery.

An ornamental fence has been placed along the east side of Motor Cemetery.

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 Motor Cemetery.