 Lamoni is the home of Graceland University, affiliated with the Community of Christ, and the city was the church's headquarters from 1880 to 1920 when it moved to Independence, Missouri.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.