Ben and Lida (Brannon) Drexler

BRANNON, DREXLER, MCMAHON

Posted By: cheryl Locher moonen (email)
Date: 3/22/2020 at 20:43:22

Ben and Lida Drexler
Lida Brannon was born in Fredericksburg, Iowa on March 18, 1894, the second youngest of nine children. When she was one year old, fire destroyed her family home and she came to Farley to live with her maiden aunt, Rose McMahon. She made Farley her permanent home, was educated in the Farley public School and worked as a young person at the Farley Post Office.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1925, she married Ben Drexler in St. Joseph’s Church and the newlyweds opened Drexler’s Grocery Store on Main Street. Ben was born in Dyersville on August 8, 1897 and received his education at Dyersville ad Loras College where he graduated in 1918.

Drexler’s Grocery was Farley’s landmark for many years. First came the Depression years, followed by WWII and food rationing. But as many youngsters of that time will fondly remember/ The store was where a penny would buy that favorite piece of candy from a long line of display cases.

Ben and Lida had two sons, Wayne and John. After making Farley their proud lifetime home, they passed away in 1968 within 5 weeks of each other.

The History of Farley, Welu Publishing, Copyright, 1996