Then followed in quick succession, viz., more or less quick, a blacksmith shop, a saloon, a dance hall, a boarding house, and a school
First School in Kimballton
The saloonkeeper was rather an original--Jorgensen was his name--and he and his two small sons tended the joint which also served them as a home. Said Jorgensen complained one day that the bread dough would not rise and he couldn't understand the reason why until he discoved [sic discovered] the cat nestling comfortably on top of it. (As aforesaid, we do not guarantee the accuracy of this narrative.)
ENTERS MARTIN N. ESBECK
Next came a hardware store built by Martin N. Esbeck, who before settling in Kimballton, had been a gold miner out west. Everybody liked to hear his "wild west" stories and he was popular from the first. As the pioneers came to know him, they found him to be a man of unfaltering kindness; a man that was always willing to help his neighbor, often to his own disadvantage; and a man that was always ready to boost for his little home town.
Esbeck held several township and county offices, and being a staunch Republican, he was one of the mainstays of that political party in this section. Those were the days of real party enthusiasm, when Drake's little fife and drum corps put pep into the campaigns and partyists weeks before election. The writer hasn't had a real political thrill since the election of McKinley, when the last torchlight parade was seen careening up the street, headed for a Republican rally at the old dance hall.
For many years Esbeck worked tirelessly and ceaselessly to bring a railroad to Kimballton. New Year's Day, 1908, when the first train steamed into the town was a proud day for Mr. Esbeck and his co-workers. Later Esbeck went into the auto business. For many years his little two-cylinder car was the only representative of the horde of motor vehicles which were later to almost annihilate the prosperity of the neighborhood.
M. N. Esbeck
Martin N. Esbeck may not be exactly wallowing in the kind of gold he started out to mine as a young man, but he has proved to his friends and his town that there is one mine where much gold is to be found and that is in his own heart.
MILL IS BUILT
Shortly after Esbeck's store was opened a flour mill was built by Jorgen Miller. The mill was fashioned after the old Danish mills; with its huge wheel it was for [cont'd on pg. 10]
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2021. View original page image at top; click to enlarge.
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