Soon after the town was located, Luman M. Strong and James W. Bassitt located northwest of the town; Rufus H. Lucore, west; John C. Berry and Hosea W. Gray, north; James W. Willis, northeast: George W. Gray, south; John Margrave, northwest; and Aaron Moriarity, James and Henderson Smith on the land now owned by Emmett Kemp; James Blackman, adjoining on the northeast; Samuel Ross, his mother and several brothers, adjoining the Willis place, later known as the E. A. Vaughn farm.
VIEW OF MARION, 1868
Henry Thompson erected a mill three miles south on Indian creek. The timber southwest and west was taken up in small parcels; and Ephraim P. Lewis, one of the second board of county commissioners, and A. B. Mason settled between Marion and Cedar Rapids and were the first settlers in that direction. All of these came to Iowa in 1839; and in the fall of that year the Brodies and Leveriches settled two miles northwest of town. A little later Norris Cone settled southeast towards Mount Vernon, and Norman, George, and John Elihu Ives, four miles east; and a large part of the Ives land is now owned by two sons of Elihu Ives, viz: John and Julius Ives. W. L. Winter and wife settled on Dry creek, northwest of Marion, in 1842; and the wife, Clarissa D. Winter, eighty-eight years of age in March, 1910, with her mind unimpaired, and intellect grown seemingly brighter with the years, is living with her daughter, Mrs. R. Lee Taylor, in Marion.
The first house built in Marion, although then without the town plat, was that of Luman M. Strong, erected in 1839. It was also the first tavern. It stood on the Center Point road, now known as Central avenue, and occupied the site where Alvin M. Goldsberry built his home, which is now owned by J. B. Michel. The second house was built the same year by Henry Thompson and David A. Woodbridge, also outside the town plat, and on the site now occupied by the residence known for years as the H. P. Elliott home, on Twelfth street, just north of the Odd Fellows building. These men also built the first store, a log shanty, near where Charles A. Patten's residence now stands on north Eleventh street; and were licensed by the commissioners as follows: "Ordered, that Woodbridge and Thompson be allowed a license to vend and retail foreign merchandise at their store in Marion, for one year from the 9th day of October, 1839." In 1840 Addison Daniels came to Marion on horseback from Iowa City, seeking a business location, although there was not a house nor tree within the city limits, just a sea of tall, waving, wild grass with cow-paths running here and there. But he contracted with Hosea W. Gray for the erection of a store building 20×22 feet in size, and went to Muscatine by horse and thence to St. Louis by boat, where he purchased a stock of goods and returned to Marion. It took him about six months to make the trip, and when he returned he found his store room ready, and three residences in the town proper, viz: that of George Greene, afterwards judge of the supreme court of Iowa, capitalist, and later a prominent citizen of Cedar Rapids, on Main street west of Market street on the lot later occupied by the residence of Joseph Mentzer in the rear of C. F. Reichert's grocery store; that of Joseph W. Bigger, later a prominent farmer southeast of Marion, where Dr. Bardwell lived so many years, and now occupied by Eliza Bardwell: and that of L. D. Phillips, built by Joseph W. Bigger, assisted by James E. Bromwell, as a hotel and known for many years as the American House, later as the Newhall, on the site now occupied by Ed. Sigfred's clothing store.
The first store of Marion, in the city proper, was that of Addison Daniels, who continued in business for nearly half a century with marked success. It stood on the site now occupied by the Home Bakery of Mrs. Smith, on Tenth street. Mr. Daniels was Marion's first postmaster, a man of public spirit, sterling integrity, and unimpeachable character. He died June 18, 1883.
In the spring of 1840, O. S. Hall, a pioneer of marked christian character, built a one and a half story frame building just north of the first store of Mr. Daniels, where he opened a hotel known as the Iowa House. He also served one term as county recorder in 1843. He died in 1846, but the hotel was continued by his widow and son, O. S. Hall, Jr., still living in Marion, until 1871, but in later years in the large brick building in the same block at the corner of Tenth street and Eighth avenue. In the same spring the first jail of the county was built, a log structure, on lot two, block thirty-six, and where the Catholic church now stands, at a cost of $635.00. It was built by William Abbe and Asher Edgerton. William Abbe had removed to Marion from his claim near Mount Vernon on Abbe creek, which was named for him, and where the commissioners met to locate the county seat, and which was also one of the first polling places of the county. The first court house was built on the northeast corner of the block occupied by the present county buildings. Here the first school was held in Marion. The building was bought in 1845 for use as a Methodist church. It was later occupied for many years by Leonard Stowe for a bakery and grocery, and has recently been remodeled for residence flats. However, the county records show that the Methodists had made provision for a church building several years before, but probably by reason of the scarcity of money in those days, had been unable to build such an edifice as was required by a resolution of the county commissioners at their April term, 1842, which read as follows: "Ordered by the Board that the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church of the Town of Marion be allowed and they are hereby authorized to purchase of the county agent lots number three and four in block number thirty-seven on condition that they pay said agent the sum of ten dollars and erect on said lots a good and substantial church building worth at least $1,500 within two years; and the said agent is hereby empowered to execute the above sale." This description of the lots was doubtless wrong, for these were the lots where A. J. McKean built his home, where he lived until his decease. The lots intended, and where the first Methodist church was built, were lots one and two in block twenty-seven. The present court house was built in 1841 by George W. Gray, contractor.
In the spring of 1840 Hiram Beales built and operated a saw mill, if not the first, one of the first in the county, on Indian creek west of the town and on the west side of Indian creek, opposite the site of the present Howler Mill. In 1841 Richard Thomas became a partner in this mill and mill stones were introduced for grinding grain. The first upper mill stone used in this mill has an interesting history. Ambrose Harland, once sheriff of Linn county, and who first lived at the place known later as the "Old Stone Barn," on the old road between Marion and Cedar Rapids, was a stone mason and built the first brick residence in Marion in 1842 for William H. Woodbridge. This house stood in the street, where now the Methodist parsonage stands, and was for years known as the Berry house. In 1884 Samuel Daniels, who settled in Marion after the war and was Linn county's third auditor, bought this Berry house, and by reason of it occupying a part of the street and thus disfiguring the block of which Mr. Daniels owned the greater part, tore it down. As one of the corner stones of this house, Mr. Daniels found this first upper mill stone of the Beales and Thomas mill, which had in 1842 been replaced by a larger one, and has preserved it as a relic of early days.
Richard Thomas, commonly known as "Uncle Dick," came to Marion in 1840, and was a remarkable character. His farm embraced what is now known as "Orchard Heights," one of the most beautiful additions of Marion. He was of southern birth, quaint, plain-spoken, energetic, and died in 1893 at the age of 111 years. His widow and daughter, Mary English, also a widow, occupy a beautiful home in "Orchard Heights" near the original building site of the old farm.