Oliver L. Ingledue

Editor’s Note: This is the third article in what is hoped to be a series about Marshalltown street names. (The first was published in the April 5-6 edition). That is, who they were named for and in some instances, re-named. The content below was researched and written by Times-Republican reporter Sara Jordan-Heintz from her work for the August, 2017 Past Times publication. Readers with information about street names, or their re-naming or new streets are asked to contact T-R reporter Mike Donahey at medonahey@gmail.com.

Driving around Marshalltown, observers may notice that many street names are clearly surnames of some of the city’s most influential residents of yesteryear.

Oliver “O.L.” Ingledue

Ingledue, known as O.L. to his friends, was one of Marshalltown’s most prominent businessmen and civic leaders in the early years of the 20th Century. He owned and operated Ingledue & Young – the largest shoe store in the state, located at 16 and 18 E. Main Street. He also served as mayor of Marshalltown from 1905-11, remembered for his interest in sanitation and garbage disposal in the city. Ingledue was born on June 26, 1861, in Marshalltown. The store he owned and operated was founded by the Lawrence Brothers, circa 1860. Twenty years later, when Ingledue purchased it, the store became known as Bromley & Ingledue, with Charles Emmett Bromley managing the store while Ingledue went on the road, representing shoe houses. After buying out Bromley, he brought in D. P. Young as a business partner. The store had a floor space of 5,400 square feet, fully stocked with merchandise all the way up to its 16-foot ceilings. While the street in Marshalltown is most likely named after O.L., students of Marshalltown history would be remiss in leaving out his sister Nettie. Occupying floor space in her brother’s store, Nettie operated the Nettie Ingledue & Company dry goods store, selling hosiery, underwear, dress goods, domestics and blankets. She made all business decisions while her brother served merely as a financial partner. Nettie purchased the business from Mrs. N. G. Newcomer, having gained retail experience working for I.L. Cady. According to the book “Marshalltown Illustrated:” “[The store] is headquarters for up-to-date and fashionable haberdashery for women. All goods were purchased in the leading markets of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago … So, it was no brotherly sentiment when ‘O.L.’s’ personal friends heard him confide that he never would have embarked in the dry goods business if ‘Nettie’ had not been ‘man’ enough to run the store.” O.L. Ingledue remained in business until he sold the store in 1922. He was married to Bromley’s daughter Charlotte “Lottie” and is buried at Riverside Cemetery.

George A. Turner

Civil War hero, the Honorable George A Turner, was a ubiquitous figure in Marshall County during the late 1800s and early 1900s. As documented in the book “Portrait and Biographical Record: Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties Iowa,”: “He takes a deep interest in all the enterprises for the good of the county and is a liberal contributor to all affairs of moment.” Turner was born on March 28, 1843, near Canton, Ill. In the spring of 1862, he enlisted in the Company F, 67th Illinois Infantry, for three months. When his terms of enlistment expired, he re-enlisted in Company F, 132nd Regiment for 100 days, but served almost six months, when he was mustered out. He then enlisted in Company I, 51st Illinois Infantry, and served until the end of the Civil War. He then returned to Illinois and worked as a clerk in a dry goods store in Canton, living in that city until the spring of 1867, when he came to Marshall County. He purchased a tract of land in Liberty Township, and focused on agriculture, owning over 1,000 acres of land. A man concerned with political affairs, he was elected to the state senate in 1891, as a Republican. For nine years, he served on the Marshalltown Board of Supervisors helping to oversee the construction of the courthouse and county jail. He also served as director of the Marshalltown State Bank and on the Marshalltown School Board. He passed away on April 27, 1921, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.