For three years the small village was known as Tutaenui, named after the stream running through its centre. In 1869 local citizens changed the name to Marton to honour the
birthplace of Captain
James Cook in
Middlesbrough, marking his landing in New Zealand exactly 100 years earlier. It is not known if this change of name was influenced by the mistranslation of 'tutae' (meaning 'dung') and 'nui' (meaning 'large'). (Actual translation: 'tu' -stand, 'tae' -arrive, 'nui' big; i.e., a 'big gathering'). From the start Marton was an ideal supply centre for district farmers, who first began arriving in the early 1850s. From butter and wool they moved on to growing wheat in 1863, and big crops led to three flourmills being launched in the area in 1864. After the town itself opened up in 1866, general stores, two hotels and several blacksmiths soon started. Marton became a home base for the horse industry, with saddlers, wheelwrights, livery stables and coachbuilders competing for business, while Clydesdale and Suffolk Punch sires toured the district to build up the population of plough horses needed as new farms sprang into being. The opening of the railway line joining Wanganui to Palmerston North in 1878, now part of the
North Island Main Trunk railway (towards Palmerston North and Auckland) and the
Marton - New Plymouth Line (towards Wanganui), turned
Marton Railway Station into a thriving railway junction, and it held that position for the next 100 years. The move of the railway station in 1898 was followed by a large development of 'Marton Extension', to the south east, from 1907. Timber from Rangitikei forests served the town's two timbermills, the first from 1889 onwards. Industry developed quietly at first in Marton, starting with flourmilling, brickmaking and wool presses. By the late 1950s there was an incredible array of industries and factories in action. They turned out products as diverse as men's shirts, tractor safety cabs, soft drinks, vegetable salads, readymix concrete, field tiles, dog biscuits, knitwear, dried peas, electronic petrol pumps, vegetable digging machinery. 9 km from Marton was the large
Lake Alice Hospital for psychiatric patients, which opened in 1950 and closed in 1999. It included a maximum security unit, and housed hundreds of patients during its 49 years of operation.
Newspapers Marton’s first newspaper, the Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, was started in 1875, with
Alexander McMinn as editor. From 1891 to 1896 there was also the Mercury, published by
Francis Arkwright. From 1903 to 1905 the Rangitikei Advocate was associated with the Farmers’ Advocate, a weekly published in Marton that was the official voice of the newly formed
New Zealand Farmers’ Union. The Rangitikei Advocate closed on 1 February 1941. The weekly Rangitikei News ran from 1948 to 1955. It was replaced by the
Rangitikei Mail.
Feilding-Rangitīkei Herald now serves the area. == Geography ==