All About the City of Marengo

1. The Orson Rogers family owned it from 1847 to about 1869. Orson (b. 1814) was born in Middletown, Vermont, the son of Jedediah and Sally Jones Rogers. Orson married Mary Smith (1817-1883) in 1838. Orson was the brother of Anson Rogers. *See 19809 East Grant.

In the late 1830s Anson and Orson Rogers had traveled with their parents by horse and wagon from Vermont to the Marengo area. They found what they liked in a settlement called Coral. There was not a single home between their first encampment and a small new village to the southeast called Dundee. Orson's wife, Mary, frequently said that the women in the Rogers family were the first white women in the township. Plenty of Indian women, of course, were around and about. In the 1840s the low hills of Marengo were home to several Indian villages. Indians were often lured by the smell of weekly baking by the first white settler. Orson built, organized and taught at the first log school in the area at the fat sum of $1.25 per week. He started the first church classes at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Marengo. As a farmer he reputedly the first to purchase one of the new revolutionary McCormick Reapers in the early 1850s. Also a stonecutter he carved many of the earliest gravestones. Orson was one of the founders of the First National Bank (not to be confused with the present First National Bank of Marengo) and joined with Loren Woodard to develop a nursery business. (Northwest Herald, 1989, by Judy Diamond).

This is the smokehouse that was constructed on the farm in 1847, as the sign above the door states. This is how it looked in 1934. The smokehouse was restored and is still standing on the farm.

This is the schoolhouse that between Orson and Anson farms on East Grant Highway. torn down, probably sometime the 1960s. Orson Rogers built and taught in this schoolhouse first log school in the area. He $1.25 per week as a salary.

This is the bee house that originally on the farm. Gottfried raised bees using this bee house during the 1930s. This is how it looked 1934. The bee house has since moved to the Swiss Village, a in New Glarus, Wisconsin.

The second owner William Boies bought the farm and home around 1869 and owned it until the early 1900s. It was here that Boies well known dairy and creamery were located.

The third owner Jesse Jackson owned the home from around 1920 to 1961.

Willis and Wilma Brown owned the home and farm from 1961 to 1979 when he inherited the home from his grandparents.

Mr. and Mrs. Kling purchased the home in 1979 and are the present owners.