The Open House is a come-and-go event to thank the community, its residents, businesses, and agencies for their support and generosity throughout the past year. Our accomplishments are truly a team effort and we are grateful for the connections and friendships we have made as a result.

Your presence will make the season all the merrier!

But Kiwanis has continued to support projects in the community and in 1999 we contributed funds to replace the old scoreboard at the field. We are also working to contribute funds toward the Franklin Field Gateway Project.

Kiwanis is celebrating 90 years in Marshalltown. Next year Franklin Field will be observing that same anniversary.

To be continued…

Join with us April 12 to celebrate the creation of the Marshalltown Bobcat Kiwanis Aktion Club.

It's time to celebrate!

Kiwanis Club is Organized Here

With fifty-two charter members, the Kiwanis Club was organized and officers were elected at a meeting at the auditorium of the YMCA Thursday night [September 29, 1921]. Delegations from Kiwanis Clubs of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids attended. Dinner was served at 6:30 by the Ladies’ Auxillary.

The following officers were elected: Dr. G.E. Hermence, president; F. E. Northup, vice president; C.C. Trine, treasurer; H.W. Heywood, secretary; and Stanley B. Sieg, district trustee. The directors chosen were Dr. Glenn Miller, Dr. D.A. Collison, R.W. Scott, C.D. Mulcahy, R.C. Valentine, Milo F. Hunter and M.S. McFarland.

It was decided that the club would meet at the YMCA auditorium at noon every Wednesday.

Dr. H.R. Best, Des Moines, gave a short talk on the purpose of the organization and Arthur Poe, Cedar Rapids, spoke of the work of the Cedar Rapids club. Joe Long, Des Moines, governor elect of the Nebraska-Iowa district, had charge of the organization and spoke of the work to be accomplished.

Visitors from out of the city were Charles Hummel, C.M. Anderson, S.W. Dorsey, John Anderson, Clifford Roy, Dr. H.R. Best, Linn Nevens, Joe Long and W. Zaisler, Des Moines, and Arthur Poe, Kenneth Lindsay and James Killian, Cedar Rapids. The high school orchestra played and M.J. Soukup and Charles Hummel were selected song leaders.

The charter of the club is now closed and will be presented to the club soon. Two members are allowed to a classification.

The charter members are O.L. Ingledue, shoes; J.W. Wiley, canner; Forrest C. Reed, accident insurance; Hugh C. Beard, farm implements; Glenn W. Miller, dentist; J.D. Plumb, live stock; Charles C. Trine, banker; D.A. Collison, dentist; O.H. Allbee, lawyer; Henry S. Mayer, druggist; Henry Wachter, confectioner; G.E. Hermence, surgeon; H.G. Brintnall, dry goods; Ralph C. Brock, groceries; M.S. McFarland, postmaster; T.E. Adams, abstracter; H.P. Black, wholesale fruit; R.W. Scott, real estate; Milo F. Hunter, clothier; W.G. Crowder, minister; Lloyd Edson, auto accessories; C.D. Mulcahy, druggist; R.C. Valentine, oils; Horace Patton, broker; C.H. Threlkeld, educator; A.R. Lynn, internal medicine; R.C. Jones, wholesale fruit; Howard A. Miller, printer; L. Horn, dry goods; Albert Odett, real estate; John Stouffer, civil engineer; P.W. Mikesell, hotel manager; H.W. Heywood, surgical dressings; Jesse E. Day, athletic director; Carl Larson, shoes; John Jacobson, building contractor; Ray L. Winders, auto tires; F.E. Northup, lawyer; E.E. Emple, drainage contractor; J.V. Arney, farmer; A.H.E. Matthews, Iowa adjustment Company; W.G. Horne, hardware; W.R. Stewart, farmer; Eugene Higgin, department store; Stanley B. Sieg, brick and tile; W.M. Hodges, jeweler; Mathias Soukup, baker; E.N. Peak, electrical contractor; W.O. Rutherford, Chicago-Great Western; John M. Francis, minister; T.C. Blue, insurance; and W.F. Hamilton, obstetrics.

In The Sound of Music Maria segues into “Do, Re, Mi” by saying “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” There is a renewed interest in Franklin Field due to the proposed demolition of the unused two ticket booths on the site as well as the large Iowa Veterans Home construction effort playing out at the other end of the 13^th Street neighborhood business district.

To use an athletic phrase, I’ve jumped the starting gun a bit to explain the creation of the field and failed to provide the background of Kiwanis in Marshalltown. Let’s start at the very beginning, 90 years ago…

Our Club’s History (reprinted from Recollections: 85 Years of Service)

“Every person has an inherent desire to be of service: To aid their fellow man, their children, their community, their nations, and, if possible, the entire world. In many this desire is concealed and unused, mainly because the person might not have available the method of putting his or her ideas to work in a worthwhile manner. On this principle the first Kiwanis club in America was formed in Detroit on January 21, 1915. Kiwanis, as an organization of business and professional leaders, provides its members this basis and opportunity since its entire structure is maintained for this single purpose: Service.

“As spelled out in the permanent list of Objects of Kiwanis International, the organization advises its members and provides a complete program of activity designed to Give, Encourage, Promote, Develop, Provide, and Cooperate within the community, the nation, and the world.

“About six years after the first Kiwanis club was organized, a group of Marshalltown businessmen including O.H. Allbee, Dr. George Hermence, Dr. Glenn Miller, A.B. Combs, James H. Wiley, and Lloyd Edson, while playing golf at the country club, talked of the feasibility of starting a Kiwanis club in Marshalltown and promoted the organization of the first Kiwanis Club of Marshalltown.

“Joe E. Long, then secretary of the Iowa Taxpayers Association and an active member of the Des Moines (Downtown) Kiwanis Club, was Governor of the Nebraska-Iowa District at the time. It was through his efforts and the support of the Des Moines club that the Kiwanis Club of Marshalltown, Iowa, was organized the evening of September 29, 1921, at the YMCA. There were 52 members in the club with Dr. Hermence as president. The self-sponsored Marshalltown club was presented with its charter on November 23, 1921.”

to Build Franklin Field

Times-Republican, Tuesday, June 30, 1953

Marshalltown, Iowa, U.S.A.

In earlier years the high school athletic field teams of Marshalltown had no modernly equipped athletic fields such as are available in the city today. Football games under lights at night were to come in the far distant future.

When athletics first became prominent in the city schools, football games were played in the daytime on a field between Main and Church Streets from 10^th to 12^th Streets. When this section became a residential area, the games were transferred to the county fairgrounds.

Not until 1922 did Franklin Field come into existence; lights were not installed until 1931. The present concrete stadium was built five years later.

It was the Marshalltown Kiwanis Club that sponsored the plans for the athletic field on school property at Main and 13^th Streets. John Stouffer and A.B. Combs, co-chairman of the Kiwanis project, had their plans accepted by the board of education on Feb. 17, 1922.

The $10,000 project was planned to include a quarter mile cinder track, a football fields, baseball diamond, basketball court, two tennis courts and wooden bleachers to seat 2,000.

Enthusiasm was high for the project, and other organizations contribute funds toward the field. About $3,000 had been subscribed by May 3 without solicitation.

Another $2,357.96 was raised by eager high school students with a tag day. They “took over the town” according to the May 22 issue of the T.-R. “M” men and Hi-Y members staged a parade. G-Y girls offered shampoos; Girl Reserves sold flowers and manual training students brought in the most money by shining shoes.

Considerable objection was raised by nearby property owners that the eight foot board fence proposed to encircle the field would decrease property values. A meeting for complaints was held March 2 with the sponsoring organizations.

Dr. F.S. Hynds was appointed chairman of the committee to settle the dispute. A compromise was worked out to erect an ornamental fence, to be covered with canvas when games were played. On July 19 the school board agreed to provide $3,000 as its share of the cost.

Grading of the field was begun June 1, and the Oct. 10 Times-Republican reported “Franklin Field is ready for dedication. The sod has been laid, the bleachers are up, and the goal posts in place.”

Oct. 19, 1922 was the first football game played on Franklin Field; Grinnell was beaten 32 to 0. Jesse Day was Marshalltown coach then and it was Maurice Whitaker who made the first touchdown on the new field that is still the home of M.H.S. athletes.

The cinder track was completed April 20, 1923, and the first track meet on the new field was held May 4. It was broadcast by KFJB as one of its pioneer remote broadcasts. Tennis courts were built as planned, but were not hard surfaced.

Floodlights had become popular across the country for football and baseball games, and by 1931 agitation was started for lights at Franklin Field. The school board agreed to the improvement and the lights were installed in the fall.

The T.-R. of Oct. 24, 1931, reported, “with floodlights illuminating Franklin Field, making night games possible, attendance at gridiron battles has shown marked increase.”

Due to increased attendance at the night games agitations was soon started for more adequate bleachers and a permanent stadium. C.C. Jennings, then president of the school board, succeeded in getting support for a WPA grant to build a concrete stadium to seat 1,200. Work was started Jan. 9, 1936, and was completed for the football season that fall.

The WPA grant did not include dressing rooms for the athletes. When th new addition was built to Franklin Field in 1950, this situation was remedied. Shower, locker and dressing rooms were installed in the ground floor of the new addition, just a few steps from the athletic field.

The cinder track was reconditioned in the Spring of 1952. The stadium seats were repaired during the summer of 1953. Also eight new field lights were installed, increasing the lighting upon the field by one-third.

This prompts the societal question–what do your everyday actions create? What does it mean over the long term? It’s not unlike the idea posed in the Capra Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Angel Second Class Clarence observed to George “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

How do our actions touch the lives of others? Could any of us be accused of actually creating a hole in the way we lead our lives?