Palmyra Friends Church, was located in Palmyra Township, in the southeast quarter of section 14.
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A history of the Palmyra Friends Church is copied from the The History of Warren County, Iowa, containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, etc Union Historical Company, Des Moines, Iowa, 1879, p. 523
Palmyra Township – There are two branches of the Society of Friends in this township. The first and oldest, the Middle River meeting was organized in 1851, with Charles HINSHAW and wife, Benjamin SMITH and wife, John WHITE and wife, John T. MOORMAN and wife, Daniel FRAZIER and family, Joseph COOK and wife, John COOK and wife, John PIERSON and wife, E. NEWLIN and wife, Jacob MOON and wife, Susanna WRIGHT, Ruth STANTON, and Hannah HORSEMAN, as original members. The church was built in 1853, but abandoned some years ago, and the meetings are now held in the Union Schoolhouse. The number of members is nearly fifty, and the Society is in good condition.
The other is located in the south part of the township, and was organized in 1862, with Jacob MOON and family, William MORGAN and family, Hiram MORGAN and family, Mrs. BOND and family, and Mrs. ANDERSON and family. The frame church, costing $400.00, was built and dedicated in 1862, but it has become too small for the wants of the Society, and the intention is to build a new one soon. The membership is almost fifty.
A history of the Palmyra Friends Church comes from History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908by Rev. W.C. MARTIN, S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.337
The first Friends’ church in Palmyra Township was organized about the year 1849; one among the first religious organizations in the county. The constituent members were: Thomas REES and family, Robert REES and family, Solomon WRIGHT and family, A. JOHNSON and family, Charles HINSHAW and family. Rhodema NEWLIN and husband were pastors of this church in an early day. The first church building was erected in 1849. It was a log building, erected by the members of the church and the neighbors, and was used for both school and church purposes. Later a frame building was erected and paid for by subscription, and this building was also used for both school and church purposes. Later, another church building has been erected by a branch of the Friends’ church, known as the Progressives.
A brief history of the Palmyra Friends Church is copied from the Cemetery and Death Records of Warren County, Iowa, by the Warren County Genealogical Society, 1980, p.229
Members of the Society of Friends began meeting around Middle River as early as 1849. Some of these early pioneers were Thomas REES and family, Robert REES and family, Solomon WRIGHT and family, A. JOHNSON and family, Charles HINSHAW and family and Elias and Rodema NEWLIN. A log cabin building was erected by members of the neighborhood and it was used for the school and the church.
Robert LINKSLY and Benjamin SEEBOHM, two Society of Friends Ministers, were headed west in a two-horse carriage, going to a Salem Friends meeting in southeast Iowa. On February 1, 1851, they headed on west to Three Rivers, This was the western-most edge of the Society of Friends on the continent.
The Middle River Society of Friends was organized in 1851. Original members were Charles HINSHAW and wife, Benjamin SMITH and wife, John HITS and wife, Elias and Rodema NEWLIN, Jacob MOON and wife, Solomon and Susanna WRIGHT, Ruth STANTON and Hannah HORSEMAN. The land for the first meeting house came from the farm of Solomon WRIGHT. The Meeting house was built in 1853. A parsonage was built in 1906 and the organ was installed in 1907. A new church building was dedicated on October 15, 1911. Rhodema NEWLIN and husband were pastors at an early date.
Solomon and Susannah WRIGHT of Warren County, for the sum of $40.00, conveyed to Benjamin HINSHAW, Samuel OWENS and Elias NEWLIN, Trustees of the Friends Church and their successors, land thirty-six rods by twenty rods containing four acres more or less, for the purpose of a cemetery, beside the church (recorded in Deed Book P on page 278).