OLOF REMIEN was born in northern Germany on May 22, 1852. He learned to be a mason in Hamburg and in 1868 emigrated to America, settling at Davenport, Iowa. He soon moved to Chicago, where he worked as a mason until 1874. He then moved to Avoca, Iowa, and then to Walnut, before arriving at Marne in December 1875. He worked as a stonemason here for seven years, laying the foundations of the earliest buildings. In the winters of 1881 and 1882, he operated a coalyard, but whether he ran his own coalyard or worked for John Findlay is not known. He opened a clothing and dry goods store in Marne in November, 1883. Olof Remien rebuilt his store on the southeast corner of Second and Washington Streets after a fire in 1898. Lester O. Wheatley bought a share in the business in 1912 and Olof Remien sold his share to L. O. Wheatley in 1920. The Remien homein Marne stands on the southwest corner of Third and Washington Streets. Olof Remien married Anna Greve in Walnut on June 26, 1875, and the couple had eleven children - Emma, Bertha, Carl, Alvina, Clara, Henry, William, Alfred, Herbert, Olof, and Leona.

Transcribed from "The First Century, A History of Marne, Iowa 1875 - 1975", published in 1975, Marne, Iowa: The Marne Centennial Historical Committee, pg. 37. Transcribed (2015) by Cheryl Siebrass and contributed September, 2019.

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