Mount Tabor Cemetery

MT. TABOR CEMETERY is in the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 19 of Squaw Township. The cemetery is three miles east and one-half mile north of New Virginia on the rock road.

The Mt. Tabor Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in March, 1855, with 28 members. It is the oldest Methodist Church in the county. The first church building was erected in 1874, and cost $1900.

Franklin Keller was born in Barbour County, West Virginia on March 21, 1831. His parents, John and Lucinda Keller were natives of old Virginia. Franklin married Ellen Jane McIntosh on January 16, 1851. They had twelve children. The Kellers settled in Squaw Township in Section 19. Franklin Keller helped organize the township and was clerk at the first election. He was a charter member of the Mount Tabor Society in 1855. Meetings were held in homes until the spring of 1857 when the new school house was built on the southeast corner of Franklin's farm. The people worshipped there until 1874 when the first church building was built. The Mount Tabor Society was the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Franklin Keller worked in a brick yard on Squaw Creek. His twenty-year-old brother, Jackson, came out from West Virginia to visit and help in the brick yard. One very hot August day, Jackson jumped into the Creek to swim. He chilled and became unconscious. A fever set in and Jackson died a few days later. Franklin donated land for a cemetery to bury his brother, and Mt. Tabor Cemetery was started. Jackson is buried in row 4 and Franklin and his wife are in row 5. Most of the people buried there are related to Franklin Keller.

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 Mount Tabor Cemetery.