Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company

The railroad owned this land from 1860 - 1881, and the railroad was owned by John Insley Blair. John Blair was considered 'Namer of Towns' - he was a railroad builder in the state of Iowa and he was said to have laid out more than 80 townsites in the state. These site needed names, of course, and Blair named many towns after his family and associates. It appears than more than 20 Iowa towns owe their names to Blair, including Marcus, named after his son, Aurelia, named after his daughter, and Ames, named after a colleague. In his lifetime, he was president of 16 different rail companies, and one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death in 1899, his estate was valued at about seventy-five million dollars, certainly one of the half dozen great fortunes of that day. A devout Presbyterian, Blair was frugal, hard working, fiscally responsible, and emphasized ownership of land. At one point, he owned two million acres of land, and was the largest landholder in the country. He was honored locally, for his occasional support of civic needs. His donations went to building about a hundred churches, and to Princeton University, Park, Coe, and Grinnell Colleges.