Connect with classmates, neighbors and friends from the greatest small town in Southern Iowa! Posted and edited by St. Marys native Jo (Croat) Beck Marys, Iowa.
This page is a way for people to connect - or reconnect! The common bond is that all people liking it or becoming a friend of it is that they all have some connection with St. In my case, I grew up there and left at age 16. Others moved there as children, as teens, as adults or even as retirees. Some people played sports here, attended school here, or have friends who live here. Everyone agrees that St. Marys is a very special place!
06/11/2024
This is a salute and shout out to an American farmer, Trey Smith Farms in Trenton, Florida, who grew this fabulous watermelon! Trey is a 5th Generation Farmer in North Central Florida, a
Grower/Packer/Shipper of Watermelons and other produce. Wow!
I purchased this at Walmart in Kirkwood, Missouri. The color was dark green, the fruit was red, juicy and delicious! Thanks Trey!
07/13/2022
Croat Camp out at the lake was last weekend. A good time was had by all!
Facebook friend Heath Banks has a question for the St. Marys community:
Jo, I am wondering if you have a picture anywhere of the north side of the old St. Mary's school building? I have a friend that is trying to repurpose the old fire escape stairs and he wanted to see how they looked on the building.
Heath, I remember the steps well but don't have a photo. The outside door was on the northeast corner of the building on the second floor, which was the 2nd and 3rd grade classroom. The stairs ran westward down to the ground. I only remember going down them one time.
06/08/2022
Brommel Family Reunion 2022
Family of Ed and Marie, hosts for 2022 reunion.
THANKS for pitching in and helping, everyone!!!
As Grandma Lizzie might have said,
"Many hands make light work!"
06/02/2022
St. Marys lost an old friend this week. My cousin, Dale Gavin, worked hard to make St. Marys a great place to live. He will be missed!
05/29/2022
https://www.amazon.com/History-Warren-County-Iowa/dp/0881070882
The History of Warren County, Iowa The History of Warren County, Iowa
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.