05/29/2022
This is an addendum to the photo I posted yesterday - showing the town of Martensdale, Iowa as a new town.
Charles Beam, a local historian, wrote several long articles about the town for the 1983 History of Warren County, Iowa (pages 213-223). Beam, a lifelong resident of the town, was the first child born there in 1914.
I snapped a pic of this hefty tome to show you the cover. It is 2 1/2 inches thick and weighs 7 lbs!
Beam's article states that the town began because of the vision of a local farmer, Walter H. Beam. He noticed that there were a lot of trains going through this area, and that the town was on a hill, protecting it from flooding. Three railroads serving the area were the Rock Island, Burlington and Great Western. At this time Iowa was crisscrossed with hundreds of small railroad lines. I have a map somewhere of this and will post it later.
Beam went to banker William Buxton in Indianola and also contacted L.E. Hiatt, a local livestock buyer. Hiatt’s stockyards would provide shipping options for local stockmen, and the train offered ways to get milk, eggs and other produce to Des Moines, Kansas City, Omaha and beyond.
Buxton advised them to secure land for the new town. So they contacted local landowners, John and William Martens, who each sold 20 acres to form part of the town plat. They began advertising lots in the new town.
In 1913 Beam began buying wheat to be shipped by rail and a pair of scales and an office building went up. Beam and Frank “Ike” Lichteig both “batched” in the office building while waiting for their houses to be built. The grocer was W. E. Shoemaker and John Stanley was the local banker.
Lichteig built a repair shop. “Probably no building in town has had such a variety of businesses as Ike’s original garage,” said Beam. It was a grocery store, locker, café, feed store and post office at various times.
Administrator’s note:
I’ve given just a bit of what’s in the Warren County history book about Martensdale. I highly recommend going to the Indianola Library to look for yourself if you’re interested in more. Lots of pictures and posters, not only of Martensdale, but info on related towns like Churchville, Prole, Conger and Wick. I’ll add info about the Wick picnic in future posts.
