The Library at the Hotel Pattee

This note was such a lovely surprise.

The hotel’s library

Historic Hotel Pattee has been renovated, with each of 40 rooms decorated to reflect something of local or Iowa history. The building itself has a fascinating history.

The hotel also has a bowling center, a full service dining room and lounge, and its own dedicated library. That’s where Mark Hilliard found a copy of Leora’s Letters. 

Perry is also on the Raccoon River Valley Bike Trail.

Mark Hilliard actually listened to the Audible version of Leora’s Letters on his way to Florida (and learned that I’m just a few days older than his mother). After he returned to Iowa, he made another trip to Perry, this time to find the Wilson stones in Violet Hill Cemetery.

Mark also visited the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn, where all five Wilson brothers are remembered. Minburn, just ten miles from Perry, or just seven if you take the Raccoon River Valley Bike Trail.

The Wilsons were tenant farmers not three miles southwest of the Freedom Rock until late 1944. After all five sons had left to serve in WWII, Clabe and Leora Wilson bought an acreage near Perry.

You can see Mark’s truck in both photos.

Surely Mark’s notes and photos were an answer to a long-ago prayer that Clabe and Leora Wilson’s family sacrifices and stories would not be forgotten. Thank you Mark Hilliard.

He plans to donate his copies of the “Leora books” to his local library. What a nifty idea!

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My favorite chauffeur and I stayed at the handsome Arts and Crafts Style Hotel Pattee for our 50th wedding anniversary and, two years ago this month, for our 55th. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, we also took flowers to remember the Wilson family at Violet Hill Cemetery. Perry is only an hour’s drive for us now, but life with fibromyalgia has curtailed several treasured customs.