Lamoni

History

The Lamoni area was first settled in 1834 to 1840 by people who thought they were settling in slave-owning Missouri. It was only after the Sullivan Line separating Missouri and Iowa was formally surveyed when Iowa became a state in 1846 that they realized they were in non-slave-owning Iowa. In 1851, freedom-seeking refugees from the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 sought to settle the area and form the community of New Buda (named for a neighborhood of Budapest). Their efforts did not result in a significant settlement. The city was named after Lamoni, a king mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Lamoni was sited just north of the Missouri border on good farmland in the northeast quadrant of Fayette Township, Decatur County, Iowa, because it is about 100 miles north of Temple Lot, an important location in church teachings. The Mormons had been evicted from Temple Lot and Missouri in the 1838 Mormon War. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, led by Brigham Young, had passed through the land in 1846, staying at nearby Garden Grove, Iowa, while en route from Nauvoo, Illinois (where they had settled after being forced to leave Missouri), to the Salt Lake Valley. and a private residence before becoming a museum. Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, members of the church affiliated with the church-owned General Supply Company, which owned Lamoni mills, hardware and grocery stores, started a grocery store chain called the Supply Store in 1930, which in turn became Hy-Vee (from their two names). Lamoni remained the company's headquarters until 1945, when it moved to Chariton, Iowa.

Geography

Lamoni is located in southwest Decatur County on US Route 69. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Lamoni has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa).

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Lamoni Elementary School
  Elementary · Lamoni · 212 students · 14.1:1 ratio
• Lamoni High School
  High · Lamoni · 98 students · 14:1 ratio
• Lamoni Middle School
  Middle · Lamoni · 70 students · 23.3:1 ratio