Lamont Museum

05/17/2026

Thank you Jimmer Pech for donating this beautiful pump organ, his father Donald Pech’s Certificate of promotion to high school, a 1904 booklet from the Campton School, the dedication program for Backbone State Park, and a picture of the beautiful Popham residence that stood at Campton.

The pump organ has a mystery as to who it belonged to, where it came from, and its story. The house was built in 1888. Jimmer’s family Martin and Erma Davidson purchased it in 1934 and has been owned by the family since. The organ was on the second floor of the house for many years. No one today knows anything else about this beautiful piece except it is believed it was there when Martin and Erma moved in. Several years ago, Jimmer took it home, cleaned it up and enjoyed it for years. This past November he returned it back to Lamont to its original home of many years and donated it to our museum.

Thank you Jimmer for this beautiful organ and for all the incredible historical papers you donated. It is all greatly appreciated.
Stop into the museum this summer and check out this beautiful organ.

Thank you Jimmer!

05/17/2026

It is time to open for another season!

The main building, Mount Vernon School, the old Lamont Theater building, and the Campton School will all be open on the following dates:
May 23, 9am to 2pm
May 25, 9am to 1pm
June 6, 9am to 2pm
July 4, 9am to 1pm
August 1, 9am to 2pm
September 5, 9am to 2pm

The museum can be opened at other times by appointment. Contact Mike at 563-608-6633

Hope to see you this summer!

Thank you!

04/19/2026

Hello everyone! It is about time to open the museums for the summer! We received several new awesome items this winter make sure you stop and check them out! It will be open on May 2nd I will post the rest of the summer dates and hours in a few days.

We have a special day planned in Lamont on Saturday May 2nd. Please see the incredible poster below that Joanne Lamphier donated her time making for us. Thank you Joanne!

Please make plans to come to Lamont May 2nd!

Thank you!

04/10/2026

03/08/2026

The American Legion Loren Foster Post 346

Our Lamont Legion received their charter in 1919. It is named The American Legion Loren Foster Post 346 in honor of Loren Foster a Lamont native who died November 2, 1918. Loren Foster was born on January 16, 1896. His mother passed away when he was very young, he spent his childhood living in Lamont with his Grandmother Elvira Bigelow. He entered the service on April 10, 1918. On June 14, 1918, he boarded the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic headed to France. During the war years the Olympic was taken out of service for general passenger travel and used solely to transport soldiers headed for the war. He was killed in action in France on November 2, 1918, he was only 22 years old. He is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne France, the resting place of more than 14,000 United States troops.

At the regular Legion meeting on April 29, 1921, a motion was made to see if there was any interest with the eligible women of the community to form an Auxiliary Unit. There was strong support and The Loren Foster Unit 346 American Legion Auxiliary official received their charter in the summer of 1921 and continue to serve today with the Legion making our community a better place.
It is not possible to list all the things the Legion and Auxiliary have done and continue to do for Lamont. They have done so much to make our community a better place and none of us would have the lives we have today if not for the incredible brave men and women who have served and are currently serving. Each one is a true hero.

For many years during Lent our Legion and Auxiliary serve one of the best fish fries of any place around. People travel from all over to Lamont for these fish fries. The service is great, it’s a friendly and welcoming environment, you get to see people you might have seen in years, it is the best fish around, and it supports our Legion who does so much to support all of us. There are two fish fries left for this season, March 13 and Good Friday April 3 please try to attend one or both and support these brave men and women who have made our lives so much better.

Thank you, Loren Foster Post 346 and Auxiliary, for your service and dedication to our country and community!

02/22/2026

Dr. Lawrence Alfred Ford and his wife Francille Marjorie (Bloedorn) Ford

Many outstanding, unique, fascinating people have shaped Lamont’s history and left a lasting impact, one of these is Dr. L.A. Ford and his wife Fran. Most people knew him as “Doc” and many knew Fran as “Nana” I was one of the luck people who knew Fran as “Nana” I have fond memories of Doc, but he died in 1988 when I was 16 so most of my memories are of Fran. Fran, like Doc was very kind and giving, never judged, offered great advice, was fun loving, and very caring. She gave me great advice and tried to keep me on the right path. I was very fortunate to be close to Fran, I even got to drive her in her Cadillac to Cedar Rapids to her daughter, Mary Beth’s, for holidays and visits. Mary Beth and her family are incredible people, and we had so much fun!

Dr. L. A. Ford was born in 1916 in Kewanee Illinois. He married Francille Bloedorn in August of 1939. After their wedding they headed across Iowa to find a small rural town to start his practice in. Fran told me they stopped in Lamont because they had no money to go any further. They began looking around town and meeting people and felt very comfortable in Lamont. Someone connected them with Lindsey Barr. Lindsey is another fascinating, unique person from Lamont’s history. He was extremely intelligent and wealthy and owned a lot of property in the area, an incredible businessman. He had purchased the Farmers Savings Bank building (our museum) after it was forced to close due to the Great Depression. Lindsey used his influence to move the Post Office into the first floor of the building; the second floor was empty. Lindsey and Doc worked out a deal for the second floor to become their home and office. A wall was built across the large room on the front to serve as the waiting room and exam room, the back part became their apartment. Lindsey gave them a couple of weeks’ rent to do the work that was needed. Business started out strong but as with all new businesses it takes time to build capital. Fran told me they were worried because the first rent was due, they had it but that was all they had it would take every penny they had to pay it. Lindsey came to collect the rent and insisted on all of it. They had nothing after paying the rent, no money for food or anything. She was sitting in the living room thinking about what they were going to do when there was a knock on the apartment door. She opened the door and there was a beautiful woman in an expensive fur coat with a very kind and warm face and asked if she was Fran Ford. This woman was Addie Barr, Lindsey’s wife. Addie handed Fran an envelope full of cash, it was their rent money back. Addie told Fran Lamont needed a young Doctor a lot more than Lindsey and she needed the rent money. She instructed Fran not to tell Lindsey and for many months after this Lindsey would come get the rent and Addie would bring it back a few hours later. Fran told me she didn’t think Lindsey ever knew. Because of Addie, Doc’s hard work and dedication to his patients, and the support they received from the community Doc’s practice grew into a profitable business. Around 1948 Don Fry built Doc a new office next to his barber shop. In 1952 Doc and Fran built a beautiful new house that served as their home for the rest of their lives.

Doc and Fran dedicated their lives to helping our community and did so in many ways, they gave to multiple charities and organizations, volunteered, helped anyone in need, they were very loyal and dedicated to the community. Doc loved to help people and he loved cars. He even started a car club, the One 87 Angles to help mentor the young boys and men of the area and help them work on their cars and be responsible. The positive impact Doc and Fran left on Lamont will never be forgotten.

We can’t really talk about Doc and Fran without mentioning Marge. Many people remember Marge she was docs receptionist and right-hand person in the office for 37 faithful years. She always had a smile on her face and a kind word for everyone!

Pictured below is Doc and Fran outside the old bank building, Doc and daughter Mary Beth, Doc with one of his cars, the history of Doc’s One 87 Angles, building the new office, building the new house, and Marge.

Stop in the museum this summer and see our Doc Ford display.

02/15/2026

If you thought you heard some piano music this morning in Lamont, you were right! Gregg Lee and Maddox Vaske were testing their piano playing skills as Steve Fleming drove them to the museum.

The Fleming family recently bought the historic Conant house and have been doing an absolute incredible job restoring it to its former glory! The house will be home to Steve and Marsha’s granddaughter Lexie Boge when it is finished. Left in the house was a beautiful antique piano which the Fleming family donated to our museum. Today thanks to Steve and Marsha Fleming, Lexie Boge, Maddox Vaske, Tony Fleming, and Gregg Lee, the piano made its way to the museum!

Pictured below is Gregg and Maddox taking a brief break from showing off their piano playing skills, the piano set up in the museum with a George and Martha Washington lamp donated by the Art and Darlene Morris family, and other items from the museum’s collection displayed on top of the piano, and pictures of the amazing transformation of the historic Conant house that the Fleming family have been working so hard at.

Thank you, Fleming family, for restoring one of our historic homes, improving our town, your generous donation of the piano to our museum and providing labor to get it to the museum!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!

02/04/2026

The Lamont Public Library

A library can be traced back to the late 1800’s in Lamont. It was open to the public; however, it was a private library owned, operated, and financed by local individuals, some of Lamont’s early wealthy families. The great depression hit Lamont hard as it did every community across the United States. If the wealth survived, they didn’t have the money to operate a library, which caused it to cease operations.

For many years the Lamont community dreamed of opening a public library but there was no funding. That dream became a reality in 1966 largely thanks to a $4,000.00 gift from the Dale Cole estate designated to establish and maintain a public library. The city council appointed a Library Board to begin planning. On December 12 the city council voted to levy a tax to support the library and entered into a contract with the Eastern Iowa Library Cooperative. The Lamont Community Club planned several fundraisers to assist the library fund. Many individuals also donated money in memory of loved ones as well as making donations. On April 14, 1967, The Lamont Public Library opened in the south side of the barber building, which today is the home of Steve Berger. Myrtle Elliott was hired to serve as the first librarian, a position she loved and faithfully served in for 18 years. On September 1st, 1980, the new Lamont Community Building was completed which would house the library, city hall, and a community room. In April of 2000 the new Lamont Community building opened and became home to city hall, the community room, and the fire station. This left the old building to be fully occupied by the library. It allowed the building to be remodeled and gave space for the library to expand into what it is today. Our library continues to be an important vital part of our community today just as it has for nearly 60 years.

We are very excited to announce our new library director, Sarah Fletcher. Sarah has hit the ground running and done an incredible job in her short time of serving in this position. Sarah has many ideas to improve our library. Sarah and our dedicated library board are very excited and committed to making our library one of the best.

The library will have an open house on Saturday February 7th from 9:30 to 11:00 please stop in, meet Sarah, check out our beautiful library, and enjoy some delicious refreshments made by our library board members.

Below are pictures of our library, our new director Sarah, our library board, the adult coloring club, and the incredible work of the coloring club. Learn more about the adult coloring club and everything else the library has to offer and meet Sarah at the open house!

01/07/2026

The Lamont City Park

Our city park has a very interesting history! It began as a worthless piece of property and was transformed into the beautiful city park, we know today. In the beginning it was very wet, prone to flooding, no trees, and had several stagnant ponds and bogs. It was a cow pasture known as Waite’s pasture, owned by the Waite family. At this time Lamont was known as Ward’s Corners, a small village scattered over a large area with no real organization. In 1883 all this began to change as the rumors of the railroad became a reality. The town was surveyed and began to look like an organized town, and the name was changed to Lamont. The Waite pasture was now a massive eyesore in what was a fast-growing beautiful town. For many years discussions were held with the Waite family over purchasing the property, but no agreement was reached until 1909. A deal was reached and the city purchased the property receiving the deed on September 14, 1909. The idea was to turn this eyesore into the town’s second park, to be named Central Park. The first transformation of the property began in the spring of 1910. Construction was beginning on the new Farmers Savings Bank building (our museum) the bank building was designed to have a full basement with a 9-foot ceiling. The bank donated all the dirt from digging the basement to the city for the new park. Several volunteers stepped up to haul the dirt to the park. The momentum for the new park was short lived there was a lack of funding, few volunteers and once the dirt was all hauled from the construction of the new bank progress stopped. The property sat and eventually became a dumping ground creating an even bigger eyesore. The new dirt was not leveled, and citizens began dumping trash across the property. A few years passed and Mary Kyle stepped up to the plate. Mary dedicated huge amounts of time working with local businesses, citizens and the city to get money and volunteers to transform this property into a park. Thanks to Mary’s dedication Ed Durham and Harley Burgins provided labor and scrappers, Mary’s husband Lowry Kyle who owned the Livery provided teams of horses, several volunteers from the community stepped up and began clearing the trash and grading the park on April 1, 1912. By May 1 the trash was removed, the grading completed, and the first trees planted, one dozen donated by Seymour and Frank Whitney. On Saturday May 18, 1912, the Lamont Gem Theater offered a fundraiser for the new park, 5 showings of the Titanic disaster. All proceeds a total of $50.00 were donated to the new park, now taking on the name Mary’s Park. More fundraisers took place throughout the year, allowing for more improvements. William Adams donated his time to build the first sidewalks, more dirt was hauled in, and more landscaping completed.

At the city council meeting on November 11, 1915, the Lamont city council approved erecting a Soldiers monument to honor all who fought in the civil war. The monument was purchased from W. McIntosh Monuments from Manchester. The total height of the monument was 20 feet with the soldier figure on top 7 foot tall. The monument consisted of 7 different pieces of granite weighing 20 tons. The base of the monument was a solid piece of granite weighing 8 tons. The monument was surrounded by a cement foundation measuring 55x30 with flower beds and cement walkways. Geo. Kreussel and Company of Lamont secured the bid of constructing the base for $745.00. Construction was complete and the statue was set in late November. The monument was originally built on the south side of the creek with the idea that everyone entering town would see it, it was to be the focal point of the town. By July of 1916 the location of the statue had proven to be a poor one. The base of the statue stuck out into the street and created a hazard for the fast-growing town and the new automobile. At the city council meeting on July 6, 1916 the decision was made to move the soldier monument to the other side of the creek into the park where it proudly stands tall today. In October of 1916 H C Ehrke and W D McIntosh received the bid to move the monument across the creek. The monument was placed on rollers and moved across a pier of timbers built across the creek. Mr. Ehrke furnished a $1,000.00 bond to guarantee against damages. The new base was built by William Adams and Geo. Kreussel and mirrored the original base. In later years the base was removed due to deterioration.

Over the years the name changed to City Park, many of the trees have been replaced, a picnic shelter built, new playground equipment, and handicap access constructed but the statue still stands proud and the park remains an important part of Lamont.

11/16/2025

The Methodist church

The Methodist church began as a class in 1856. The first classes and worship were held in the early settlers’ homes until a log schoolhouse was built which served as a meeting space, a school, and shared space for the Methodist and both Baptist churches. The Baptist churches soon built their own churches, with the Freewill Baptist building at Campton and the Baptist building in Wards Corner (Lamont) in 1867 on the site where Carol Popham’s home is today. The Methodist shared this building with the Baptist until the construction of their own church in 1880. In 1899 the original building was cut in two, spread apart, raised up, bell tower moved, a basement added, and the building doubled in size. As someone who loves architecture and construction, I find this to be an incredible feat! Keep in mind this was all done with no power tools or equipment, and the building still stands strong and proud today! All this work was done with manual labor and horses! The Women’s society pushed hard for the basement to enable them to have a space to serve meals and other fundraisers and meetings, this space is still used today. This project was completed and dedicated in 1900. This is the reason for the beautiful 1900 stained glass window above the main front door seen today. It was moved to its current location when the newest addition was finished in 1990. In 1943-1944 another major remodel occurred of the sanctuary which included many of the furnishings still seen today, the alter, baptismal font, and communion rails, all made from native butternut located northeast of Lamont. In 1947 R. E. Draper donated a beautiful Hammond organ that many remember Gabrielle Stewart playing and others for many years. Today the organ is in the Lamont museum. Another renovation project took place in 1981, this included new oak woodwork, wall coverings, carpet and the original pew seats and backs padded. In 1990 the last large renovation took place which included an enclosed handicap access ramp, new restrooms, and remodeling done in the basement.

The current parsonage was built in 1926. It has been added on to and remodeled several times over the years. The original parsonage stood across the road where the apartments are located today. One of the pictures below shows the original parsonage.
The Methodist church as served our community for 169 years! Sadly, the Methodist church is struggling, like so many other churches today. The church is in need of volunteers and financial help. Going into the holidays I thought this would be a perfect time to spotlight the church and all the countless ways it benefits our community. Here are just a few of the ways the church helps our community, mobile food pantry, Grace food pantry, working hands group, grief support group, outreach to nursing homes, Grace emergency fund, Sunday school, Bible school, Camperships, Ecumenical women’s group, UMYF youth group, weekly handicap accessible inhouse and online worship, These are other things the church supports AMOS community action group, heifer project, Starmont backpack program, Common grounds coffee house, Missionary’s, Lamont Days, Lamont Fire department and EMS, and much much more too numerous to mention! The list is endless of ways the church helps our community. If the church struggles financially or is short of volunteers, it cannot continue to contribute to all these things plus more.

Please consider helping the Methodist church, any help will be greatly appreciated, donation to the food pantry, volunteering to help, attending service, and any amount of financial help would be greatly appreciated. Every donation, no matter how small, helps. Let’s all do our best to ensure the church will survive and continue to help our community for many more years to come!

The pictures below show how the church has changed throughout the years. In the picture of the original church, zoom in look at the guy sitting in the bell tower. I bet that was a great view!