Arthur James MARTIN

MARTIN, PUTZIER, DONEGAN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:46

Arthur James Martin
4 August 1892 --- 16 September 1991

Arthur James Martin was born August 4, 1892, the son of James Henry and Anna Laura Martin at Glidden. He graduated from Glidden High School in 1910, attended Business College in Des Moines and the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City, Mo. He was an accomplished Coronet player and was a member of the Eagle Grove band for many years. He won many laurels throughout the United States in Coronet National Competition.

He married Gertrude Putzier June 16, 1915. They had one son, James Arthur, and one daughter, Doris Arlene, who preceded him in death. He was married to Merle Donegan who also preceded him in death.

He and his father operated a wholesale grocery business out of Des Moines and several Martin and Son Grocery Stores, one of which was in Eagle Grove, for many years. His father served Eagle Grove as Councilman-at-Large several terms and served as Mayor of Eagle Grove for three terms.

As a member of the Rotary Club his leading force and endless hours of volunteer work accomplished the location of the Rotary Ann Nursing Home, Retirement Home Apartments, in Eagle Grove. He was a 70 plus-year member of the Masonic Lodge, Bower Lodge 464. For the past eight years he was the oldest living Past Master of the Masonic Lodge in the State of Iowa.

He was a 70-year member of the Order of Eastern Star, of Eagle Grove. He was a lifetime member of the Methodist Church and a member of the Eagle Grove Methodist Church the past 74 years.

He sold his Eagle Grove Martin and Son grocery store at the age of 65 and went to work for the Chapman Oil Company as their bookkeeper. He retired from Chapman's at the age of 86. He and his wife, Merle, became residents of the Rotary Ann Retirement Home. He was declared legally blind in December of 1981 and was moved to the Rotary Ann Nursing Home where he resided until his death.

Arthur James Martin, 99, died September 16, 1991 after a long confinement at the Rotary Ann Nursing Home in Eagle Grove.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. September 19 at the Kastler-Babcock Funeral Home in Eagle Grove. The Rev. Scott C. Hall and Masonic Bower Lodge No. 464 officiated. Burial was in the Martin family plot in Rose Hill Cemetery, Eagle Grove.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
September 25, 1991

source -- Paul Wilde