The tragic death of a small boy led to the naming of this town "New Albin".

lt was July 4, 1872 and a group of frolicking boys were celebrating the holiday by jumping over a large bonfire on the street here.

Suddenly, Albin Rhomburg, 11, his pockets filled with gunpowder, stumbled, and fell into the flames. He was pulled out of the fire and placed in a tub of molasses to "salve" his burns. Albin died the following day.

The townspeople voted to name the town "Rhomburg" after the lad's father, J. Albin Rhomberg, but it was his wish that it be, named "Albin" after his son.

lt was discovered, however, that there was another town by that name, so they called it "New Albin." But that is only one brief chapter in our story.

The town might well have remained the most southeastern community in Minnesota instead of becoming the most north­eastern one in Iowa.

Before it was founded there had been a small settlement of houses and a stone warehouse up-river a mile or so tightly cramped between the river and foot of a high bluff.

This first settlement was called "New Landing" and later "Jefferson" and was located in Minnesota. There was not enough building space there so its inhabitants pulled up stakes and moved to a larger townsite which was to become "New Albin" across the state line in Iowa.

The land upon which the village was to be located was first purchased by John Ross from the government in 1854 and it remained until as late as 1868 no more than a wheat field.

J.A. Rhomburg, S.H. Kine and J.H. Graves contracted with Ross for enough land for a town­site in 1871.

Rhomburg was one of the financiers of the Clinton, Dubuque and Minnesota Railway which was extended along the Mississippi River to the Iowa and Minnesota border and began regular train service to the village Oct. 1, 1872.  R.F. Gilas was agent of the depot built here in 1872.

The first businessmen in the town were Edward Jones, lumberman; Ole Rice, taylor; Dr. J. Hoyer, druggist; Peck, harnessmaker; Samuel Stevenson, drayman; Engelhorn, wagoner; Doolittle, furniture dealer; Joseph Haberkorn Sr., butcher; J. B. Murray, grocer; and Fred Spelling, jeweler.

The first school was built in 1847 with H. G. Smart the first teacher.

The first newspaper was published by an Ejhrler in 1873.

The post office established in 1889 with Jacob Fitschen postmaster.

A telephone system was built in 1893 and William Bock was its first operator.

The new settlement grew rapidly and in 1895 had 489 inhabitants.

It was the same year of 1895 that the town was incorporated with first officials William Coleman Jr., mayor; H. Martin, R. Thomson Sr., G.A. Erickson, M. Moore, F. Meyer and L. Salhi, trustees; and Louis Fritz; recorder.

New Albin Savings Bank was organized and built in 1898 with L. H. Gaarder its cashier.

The town hall was also erected in 1898.

A Royal Neighbor camp was chartered in 1902.

An interesting sidelight in the history of the town centers about an event which occurred some 22 years before any land was even picked for a townsite.

The history of "Captain Lee's Iron Monument," as it is called, began in 1849 when a Mississippi River steamboat landed at Victory across the river and unloaded an iron obelisk, five feet, eight inches long, 12 inches square at the base, and tapering to seven inches at the top.

This Pyramid of cast iron weighed 600 pounds and bore the inscription "Minnesota" on one side and "Iowa" on a second side. On a third side was inscribed "1849." The fourth side bore the inscription "Latitude 43 degrees, 30."

In the winter of 1849-50 a small band of men led by Capt. Thomas J. Lee of the U.S. Topographic Engineer Corps. hitched a team of oxen to a sled and hauled the iron marker across the frozen river and erected it at a spot where the north edge of the town was later to be.

lt stood there mostly unnoticed some 80 years until local persons decided to preserve the marker. They built a concrete base with bronze marker to tell .the history of the old landmark.

Because the old historic marker was in a rather lonely and abandoned spot, and near a road not frequented by motorists, tentative plans were made by the Minnesota Highway Department in 1931 to move the monument once more.

The plan was to move it 10 rods to the west closer to Minnesota State Highway 26, which becomes Iowa Highway 182 at the border, so it would be seen by travelers on the highway. The federal government, however, forbade moving the marker because the town was surveyed from where it was located.

Consequently the old monument remains to this day in its original spot.

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-source: September 1963 LaCrosse Tribune Newspaper Clipping
-transcription contributed by Errin Wilker

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