CHAPTER IX.
BRIGHTON TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).
In 1868 the Rock Island railroad pushed its line through the northern portion of Cass county, almost diagonally through the township of Brighton, and yet it was not until seven years afterward that a town was incorporated within the township. In the summer of 1875 Paul Wiese, A. Langfeldt, C. Hanneman, H. Buch and E. Geisler incorporated the Marne Town Company and bought of Thomas Meredith 160 acres of land on sections 21 and 28, north side of the railroad track, and platted the tract into lots. The plat was filed May 17, 1875, and an addition made by Mr. Meredith, on the south side of the railroad, May 24, 1876. For a number of years there was considerable rivalry between the two sections.
The first settler upon the town site was Hans Simonsen, who bought two lots in the spring of 1875 and at once erected on his property a small shanty. In this he boarded his carpenters until his hotel, the Marne House, was completed. He opened it to the public in 1878, run it for three years, then rented it, but finally became its landlord again. Mr. Simonsen seemed to be well adapted to the business, as he had had experience as a grocer and a buyer generally, besides being personally popular.
Edwin Wheeler, the pioneer merchant, opened a grocery July 1, 1875, and as he had previously had a long experience in Illinois and Iowa, both as a business man and a farmer, he made a success of his venture from the first. He was obliged to add to his stock and his building, and within the following ten years had expanded his grocery into a large general store whose business amounted to $20,000 a year.
About the same time that Mr. Wheeler opened his grocery in Marne, Julius Langfeldt displayed a general stock of goods to the people of the town. He closed out the business in the winter of 1876-7 and went farther west, the store being purchased by Rudolph Lorenzen, who continued the enterprise for many years and also engaged in the breeding of fine stock, including Durham cattle, Poland China hogs and Cotswold sheep.
After the Marne House, Mr. Langfeldt's store was the second building constructed in the town, and the third was the postoffice. The Government building was in later years used by Hans Simonsen as an agricultural implement store.
The first dwellings were erected by the Lansing brothers and other mechanics in the northwest part of the place, and shortly afterward residences were built by C. Hanneman, Paul Wiese and Adolph Langfeldt, proprietors of the town.
In October, 1875, Henry Buch and Fred Wersenger established a hardware store, dealing also in agricultural implements. Mr. Buch continued in the business after the dissolution of the partnership. West's drug store was the next business to enter the town, during the same month. In November came Adolph Koch, the blacksmith, the Prussian, the Civil War soldier, who clung to his trade at Marne for many years.
John Findlay, a Scotchman, had enjoyed some experience in the commission business in Chicago before he came to Marne, in July of 1876, and established himself as the pioneer grain buyer of the town. He was there nearly a year before any one else entered the field. He transacted business in a temporary building on the south side of the tracks for three years, but afterward erected buildings on both sides of the railroad, and constructed stockyards of his own, for the handling of live stock; also an elevator, where he ground feed for the use of his own stock, as well as that of others. He had a large farm, and became known throughout the country as a breeder of fine Black cattle. When he first located in Marne he also carried on a lumber business; in fact, Mr. Findlay was full of energy and enterprise, and was long a large factor in the business and industrial life of Marne.
Lansing Brothers, wagon makers, were among the first to do business in the town, their establishment being in connection with Adolph Koch's blacksmith shop.
Paul Wiese, one of the original proprietors of the town, was German born, emigrated to America in 1852, and was a farmer of Scott and Clinton counties until 1870, when he removed to Cass county and settled upon a farm of 160 acres on section 33, Brighton township. He was there engaged in general farming when he became interested in the town of Marne. Mr. Wiese served three years in the sixth Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War, and was prominent in organizing the Grand Army Post at Marne, in 1884.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen was the first fraternity to be represented in the town, Lodge No. 218 being organized August 26, 1880.
The Marne postoffice was established in 1876, and Julius Langfeldt was the postmaster for the first year. It was made a money-order office July 1, 1878, the first order being made out that day for Joseph Shaw to Henry Dart's Sons, Rock Island, Ill., amount $50. The first one paid was on July 22, 1878, to W. P. Allen, and came from N. R. Watkins, of Sedan, Kans.
In the spring of 1876 a subscription school was started in Marne, whose sessions were held in the upper floor of a building near where Olof Remien afterward kept his dry goods store. The school was continued, with a Miss Hall as teacher, until the public school building was erected. A German school was founded in the fall of 1879 by J. P. Roth in Simonsen's Hall, and afterward removed to his implement building. Mr. Roth continued to conduct the institution until his death, when the work was taken up by others, as there was a large German element in the town and the surrounding country.
The Protestant Episcopal Church of Marne was organized and its building erected in 1879, the first pastor being Rev. William Remsburg.
Marne is a town of about 500 inhabitants, situated almost in the center of Brighton township, on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, northwest of Atlantic. Its location on Camp creek is rather picturesque and it is a trading point of considerable importance. The town has a number of good stores, a bank, a hotel, grain elevators and excellent school and church facilities.
"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 131-134.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2017.
