Gottlieb WEDEKING

2 ADDR

Fremont Township, Iowa

3 _NAME Pleasant Valley Cemetery

3 CITY Fremont Township

3 STAE Iowa

3 NOTE The Pleasant Valley cemetery lies in the southeast corner of Section 28

of Fremont Township. To get there from Clarksville, you travel three miles

north on Hwy. 188, three miles east on Hwy. 188, and one mile south on T70.

From Plainfield, you travel four miles west on Hwy. 188 and one mile south

on T70. The cemetery and the church parsonage are on the west side of the

road, whereas the church building proper is located on the east side of the road.

It was about 1870 when a group of German settlers met in Pleasant Valley,

Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa for the first time for public

worship. The meeting was held in the little country schoolhouse,

located on the southeast corner of Section 28. A young pastor,

Pastor Adieser, was the first pastor to serve the group. Rev.

J. Engelke succeeded him in 1873. The congregation was organized

during the beginning of Pastor Engelke's pastorate and on March

24, 1873, the congregation had its name recorded in the Record

of Butler County, Iowa taking the name "Evangelische Lutherische

Unierte Gemeinde von Pleasant Valley", Butler County, Iowa.

A four and a half acre plot of ground was purchased in March, 1873 from Mr. and Mrs. William

Buchholz and a parsonage was built. The west half of the plot of ground was destined to be used as a

cemetery yet the same year, with the burials of little Ida T. Pehnisch who died November 9, at the age of

seven, and two month old Joachim F. Sinram, who died on December 10.

The following year, on August 8, 1874, ligthning struck the parsonage and killed two of Rev.

Engelke's children, George T., age eight and a half, and his little sister Eva H., age five and a half, who

were the third and fourth burials in the Cemetery. These children don't have headstones, but are

buried in Lot 7 on the east side.

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