Marceline Historical Society

Marceline
Historical
Society

History of Marceline

Note: The following article containing a history of the first 50 years of Marceline was reproduced from the 1938 Golden Jubilee edition of the Marceline News. Floyd C. Shoemaker, secretary of the State Historical Society of Missouri, has written the following interesting and complete history of Marceline. Mr. Shoemaker is a Linn County product, having been born and reared at Bucklin. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Shoemaker at Bucklin and he is well known in Marceline. Mr. Shoemaker is recognized generally as the best authority in the state on Missouri history.

Closely identified with the story of the great expansive movement of the Santa Fe railroad in the 1880’s and 1890’s, is the history of Marceline, located in the southeast corner of Linn County, Missouri. Comparatively little has been written, however, about the history of this Missouri railroad city, the “History of Linn County of 1912” containing probably the most complete account.

In 1886 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway the ancestor of the great “Santa Fe system,” was making plans to build a line direct from Kansas City to Chicago, and then on west. Past experiences had shown the railway men that it was necessary to have division or terminal points at certain specified intervals, but in this proposed Kansas City-Chicago route the land stretched one hundred miles northeast from Kansas City in open prairie, settled only by scattered farmers and their families. So the officials and engineers of the railroad went to work, buying up land, and before the end of the year, surveys were begun. A corporation known as the Santa Fe Land, Town, and Improvement Company was formed, to own and take charge of the sale of the land for a proposed city to be used as a division point. Two Kansas men, Joseph Hemmings, and D. W. Finney, an ex-lieutenant governor of that state, were put in charge of the business of the company. In 1887 construction work was begun on the railroad and the next year, on January 28, 1888, the first town lot was sold in the newly-platted division point of the railway, which was to be known as Marceline.

The town was incorporated on March 6, 1888, almost fifty years after Linn County itself was organized in 1837. Temporary officers were appointed to serve until the first election. These officers were A. D. Reynolds, mayor; J. H. Perrin, W. S. Thomas, George Levan, and J. E. Dorsey, aldermen, and Joseph Turner, as marshal. At the first regular election held in Marceline, J. W. McFall, a lawyer, was elected mayor; J. A. Runyon, marshal; Jeff Hurt, police judge; C. D. Watkins, city attorney, Joseph Hemmings, clerk, and Dr. Garner Ladow, W. S. Thomas, Dr. J. H. Perrin, and J. E. Waller, aldermen.

Marceline received its name at the request of one of the directors of the new railroad, whose wife bore the somewhat Spanish name of “Marcelina”. So with a change of the last vowel, this became the name of the new railroad city.

The growth of Marceline was reminiscent of western boom towns, and indeed its early appearance was that of a western settlement. There was an air of bustling and hurrying about the whole area, new buildings sprang up almost overnight it seemed, and the ambitious and adventuresome mixture of people that usually make up the population of new boom towns soon moved in. Excerpts from the Brookfield Gazette of this time tell us something of the growth of the town. On December 15, 1887, a notice from Marceline says that “the engineers who have been laying off town lots left on Tuesday, having staked out several hundred acres – enough to supply the demand until milder weather… Lots will not be offered for sale for a week or two yet, but parties are taking possession of them, intending to pay whatever price is put on them.” The notice also describes the depot and round house being constructed at that time by the railroad company, and notes that “parties representing about every kind of business are here, or are coming as soon as they can buy lots. We look for a grand rush with the opening of spring.” Some weeks later, on January 19, 1888, the paper reports that ‘the sale of lots will begin in a few days. Gov. Finney arrived on Tuesday and will open an office and commence business early next week.” This same paper mentions that prices have been put on the lots ranging from $40 to $400. By this time, too, five stores were completed, and a good many smaller buildings were in the process of construction. Two weeks later, on February 2, another item tells of the establishment of the Santa Fe station-agent, train-dispatcher and telegraph operator in the new offices, and the beginning of operations at the depot. Prices on lots had gone up, too… “choice lots selling from $50 to $150 advance on first prices.” The post office was in operation in the office of the “Town Company” by this time, and persons were directed to send their mail to “Marceline, Linn county, Mo.” Buildings were, the paper reported, “going up in all directions.”

The new city grew so rapidly that six months after the first lot was sold it boasted a population of 2,500. It soon outgrew the original plat, indeed, and the Marceline Town and Land Company‘s addition was laid out. Since that time there have been several other additions platted. Marceline’s present population, as shown by the United States Census of 1930, is 3,555, making it the second largest town in Linn County, surpassed only by Brookfield. This number, however, shows a small decrease from the 1920 figure of 3,760, but the percentage of decrease is virtually the same as the decrease for the same period in the population of the entire county.

With the development of the railroad a need for fuel along the line became apparent- After some prospecting, Captain C. U. Wheelock located a vein of coal. Because of a peculiar miner’s superstition that luck would come if the first spadeful of earth was thrown by a lady, Mrs. Lillian Green, wife of one of the promoters, turned the first shovel of dirt and in her honor the shaft was named Lillian Shaft No. 1. When further developments showed prospects of important coal beds, the Kansas & Texas Coal Company took over the mines, and after that time they operated under several different interests, among them the Marceline Coal & Mining company, which operated the shafts for some time after 1907. The property around Marceline still yields a quantity of coal. The report of the Department of Mines and Mining in Missouri for 1937 lists one mine, the Chariton Coal Company, at Marceline, and ranks Linn county as 13th in coal producing counties of the State, although ranking 8th in value of coal production.

It was not until 1903 that the Missouri division of the Santa Fe was created by a splitting of what was known as the Chicago Division, and the office of the superintendent of the Missouri division, general foreman of bridges and building, the division engineering department and their forces were located in Marceline. This naturally made Marceline a more important railroad center, and many improvements were made in the facilities of the Santa Fe. The roadbed was enlarged and a division office and freight house were built. As Marceline is a freight division point of the railroad and freight crews are changed here, many of the employees of the company make their home in Marceline and the railroad payroll is one of the chief sources of the income of the citizens. The railroad, which originally, of course, owned all the land on which Marceline was platted, has given many acres to various public projects. Its employees organized the Country Club, which started in 1912, has grown extensively. There is now a club building, a lake, and well kept grounds. The Santa Fe also maintains a reading room in Marceline for its employees.

With the passing of the boom days and the additional developments and stabilization of its railroad offices, the businesses of the town took on a more permanent and conservative air. The lumber yards are among the first industries mentioned in early accounts of the city, the Brookfield Gazette on February 2, 1888, reporting that “our two lumber yards are doing a thriving business and the third one will be open in a few days.” The Bank of Marceline was also opened in 1888, and together with the Santa Fe Exchange Bank, another pioneer financial institution, cared for the city’s finances in the 1890’s during a period of intense speculation and exorbitant values on real estate.

The first theatre, a brick and stone building, was erected in the winter of 1888-89. Up until 1891 no saloons could legally be established in the town, but speakeasies and gambling houses, so characteristic of boom towns, began to spring up, and for a time there seemed to be a lawlessness about the town that was typically “western”.

Although the early business establishments clustered around Santa Fe Avenue, the development of the railroad served to draw business farther south of that street, and now the southwestern part of the city seemed to be its most thriving business district.

The first newspaper of the city, the Marceline Journal, began publication around June, 1888, and it was closely followed by the appearance of the Marceline Mirror, which put out its first issue in August of that year. The Journal was a Republican paper, and The Mirror followed a Democratic policy. These two weekly publications were united around 1912 to form the Journal-Mirror. In 1913 the Marceline Herald, also a weekly, was begun, and the union of this paper with the Journal-Mirror in 1929 formed the Marceline News, the present paper of the city, which put out its first issue on June 7, 1929.

Many denominations of religious groups moved into the city soon after its settlement, and in 1888 there were branches of the Baptist, Christian, Cumberland Presbyterian, Catholic, and the North and South Methodist churches established. The Protestant denominations met in a building known as Crumley’s hall, while the Catholics held services in Senncrich’s hall, on another street. St. Bonaventure’s church of the Catholic congregation was one of the earliest religious homes erected, with Rev. Thomas J. Burke as the first pastor. The First Methodist Episcopal church also erected its structure in 1888, and in the course of years other denominations erected new and modern structures. The two branches of the Methodist church were united in Marceline in 1908, and a new building was erected.

The first term of school is said to have been held in Marceline in the fall and winter of 1888-89, with five teachers employed. The high school was established in 1895, with the first class, consisting of three pupils, graduating in 1896. The Missouri School Directory of 1937-38 lists Marceline’s high school as a first class school, with an assessed valuation for school purposes of $1,278,225. The enrollment is listed at 280, with 11 teachers employed. The enrollment of the elementary school is quoted at 495, with 16 teachers, and the elementary school for colored children with 24 enrolled and 1 teacher. A new high school building was erected in 1929. St. Bonaventure’s parochial school was founded in 1911.

During the early days of the city, it was troubled by a great many fires, some thought to be of incendiary origin, and for quite a time was completely without fire fighting apparatus or an adequate water supply. Almost every newspaper issued from the town even as late as 1899 reported a serious fire somewhere in the district. When Walter Cash was elected mayor of the city in 1898, one of the first acts of his administration was to secure a vote of the city favoring the purchase of a fire engine, which, although it was crude and not very fast, nevertheless offered some protection to Marceline residents. It was during Mr. Cash’s administration as mayor, too, that Ripley Square, a beautiful little park, was developed.

Agriculture is an important industry around Marceline, and although it is not the county seat the town Itself serves as an excellent market for a trade area consisting of parts of three counties Linn, Chariton, and Macon. Corn and oats are probably the leading field crops of the district. Dairy products, poultry, and livestock are profitable industries, and the creamery and butter industry in Marceline is one of the more successful businesses in the town.

Bonds for a water works and reservoir were voted by Marceline in 1908, and the system was completed the following year. Paving projects and a sewer system have also been developed. Pumping stations for two large oil companies were located in Marceline, and these have also proved major assets of the city.

A modern hospital was constructed in 1922.

This year, 1938, is a milestone in the history of Marceline. From this half-century mark of its existence, the citizens of Marceline have an opportunity to look both backward and into the future. In the past there is the almost “magic growth” that accompanied the town’s early years. And looking forward, the natural resources, prosperous surrounding farmlands, excellent transportation facilities , and energetic citizens of Marceline, seem to mark it for even more progress and even higher standards in the future.

The highlights of Marceline’s History beginning with the year 1938 through 1963 were written by the following: Gary Freeman, Penney East in, Jim Moore, Ann Payden, Alison Porter, Diane LaBow, and Hannah Fisher, under the supervision of Mrs. Coral Payden.

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January 9, 1963