116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Marengo’s fountain
It’s been repaired, re-imagined several times since 1896
“Marengo has a new and beautiful fountain in its public park,” The Gazette reported Sept. 2, 1896.
The town square was a popular gathering spot on Saturday afternoons in the late 1800s. Farmers from all over Iowa County and beyond tied their teams to hitching posts around the square to spend time in town.
To enhance the park, 34 local citizens agreed to fund a fountain in the park. The donors were identified as members of “notable families who put up the money to build a fountain over an artesian well in the town’s city park,” according to a 1979 Gazette story.
Most of the donors were members of the Marengo Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization. Each man’s name was inscribed on stones around the fountain’s two rims, along with the motto, “God Is Love.”
Repairs
Marengo residents couldn’t remember when the old fountain stopped working. But the Marengo Optimist Club decided in 1979 to rebuild it. Four drinking fountains, the seashell decorations and one ring were removed, and a tulip-shaped fountain was installed along with underwater lights.
During the renovation, the stones bearing the original donor names were thrown into bushes and tall grass nearby.
“We didn’t know what to do with them,” Optimist Club President Brad Hobbs said. “There was some sentiment that we ought to save them because of the men whose names were on them, but nobody could come up with a good way to use them.”
The stones eventually disappeared, but no one knows what happened to them.
In 1997, the fountain had been inoperable for several years when members of Youth with a Mission group set out to restore the fountain again.
The renovation reduced the basin depth to less than a foot and removed a wrought iron fence.
Again, the fountain deteriorated, and the Marengo City Council in 2020 had to decide to whether to eliminate it or replace it. Residents overwhelmingly wanted a fountain in the square, so a new, three-tiered fountain was put in place, with community members donating time, labor and money. It was dedicated July 3, 2022.
When spring arrived this year, the city turned on the fountain and discovered it wasn’t working properly. It is awaiting repairs.
Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com
Fountain donors
These were the donors who contributed to the building of a fountain in the city park in Marengo in 1896:
C. Anderson
J.H. Branch, president of First National Bank and Iowa County Loan & Savings Bank; he also organized the Marengo Telephone Co. and the Marengo Electric Light & Power Co.
A.C. Brodie
H.A. Brown, hardware store owner)
Frank Cook, cashier at Marengo Savings Bank, then First National Bank, becoming president of the latter when J.H. Branch died
G.E. Cook, grocer and proprietor of Park House, the first hotel in Marengo, demolished in 1917
J.N. Daines, the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War placed a market on Daines grave in the IOOF Cemetery in 1934
Claus Doose, owner of the Doose Hotel. A native of Germany, Doose had no family in America. Suffering from depression, he committed suicide April 13, 1907, by jumping out of a second- story window of his hotel.
A.L. Downard, jeweler who served as Marengo postmaster.
J.H. Feenan, an attorney).
H.E. Goldthwaite, a dry goods dealer who served four years as Iowa County auditor, four as county recorder
A.M. Henderson, mayor of Marengo, eventually removed from office for public intoxication
Henry Jones, schoolteacher and owner of 360-acre South Amana farm in 1880s
The Rev. J.E. Judd, pioneer Episcopal clergyman engaged in missionary work in the state
N.F. Kime, farmworker, one of few donors not buried at the IOOF Cemetery; he was buried in Ladora
J.H. Lindsay, grocer
S.B. McBride, decorator and paper hanger).
Alex McGregor, operated Holden Hotel until trading it for 240 acres of Missouri farmland
Rufus and Fred McKnight, brothers and lumberyard owners who were buried in the privately owned Marengo Mausoleum. When funds ran out for its upkeep in 1952, family members were asked to remove their loved ones. Rufus was buried in the IOOF Cemetery, and Fred was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Muscatine.
A.J. Morrison, mayor of Marengo for several terms, served many years as grand treasurer of the Iowa lodge of the IOOF; he served 10 months in the penitentiary in 1902 for embezzlement.
E.T. Paine, Paine Barber Shop owner for many years, then bought the steam laundry.
Jas. Partridge, associated with a Chicago packinghouse
W.A. Reed, dentist
D.M. Rowland, sold headstones and was Marengo postmaster in 1906
J.N.W. Rumple, lawyer, state senator, member of University of Iowa Board of Regents, curator of State Historical Society, mayor of Marengo, elected to U.S. House in 1901
Ira Ryerson, blacksmith before managing the Clifton House, the Holden House and the Ketchum House at different times
J.S. Shaw, proprietor of Clifton House for 10 years
C.L. Shipton, owner of Marengo Democrat newspaper
F.E. Spering, owner/editor for 25 years of progressive Republican newspaper
Thomas Stapleton, lawyer for almost half a century before dying while touring Rome in 1924
A.E. Stocker, partnered with Frank Hite in the Marengo Provision Co.
M.W. Stover, county recorder, school board member, worked in real estate, helped found Marengo bank
S.R. Swain, dentist who owned Marengo Mausoleum
C.E. Vance, pharmacist who became a lawyer, county attorney for two terms, local attorney for Rock Island Railway
Daily Newsletters