135 years ago

march 25, 1887

A local company has been organized in Marion to put in and operate a system of telephones throughout the city, and have already ordered all the necessary appliances, poles, wires, office paraphernalia, etc.

The central office will be located in the Elgin Hotel, where elegant quarters will be fitted up, and where an attendant will be kept day and night to answer calls.

The first 50 phones have nearly all been taken, and the enterprise, like everything else Marion undertakes, is an assured success.

The two Chinese, whose presence in Marion for the purpose of starting a laundry we noted last week, have secured rooms in the Gordon Building on W. Main St., and commenced business. Every city has a Chinese laundry and Marion, of course, had to have one.

Mr. A.J. Doran of the Ottawa Iron Foundry has been in Marion the past week consulting with our people about putting in a foundry here.

With the extensive railroad facilities soon to be had by Marion, this place will be a fine location for such an enterprise, and the man who gets the field will be lucky.

Will Perkins started for Chicago last Saturday night to be present at the trial of the steam launch he and Taylor Riddle are buying to run on the Cottonwood and Luta.

Warning

The person or persons who left or dragged the dead horse out east of town are known, and had better burn or bury it and save trouble.

W.G.Bates
Trustee of Centre Township