Editing Earling, Iowa (section)

==History==
Earling had its start 1881-1882 by the building of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway through that territory.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rk40AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA260 | title=Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, Volume 1 | publisher=B.F. Bowen | author=White, Edward Speer | year=1915 | pages=260}}</ref>

The town was platted in 1882 by the Milwaukee Land Company and was first known as Marthan. However, there was already a town called Marathon in Iowa, so the name of the town was soon changed to Earling, in honor of Albert J. Earling who in 1882 was division superintendent of the [[Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway]]. (Earling became president of said Railroad on September 23, 1899.)

Earling is well known in [[paranormal]] circles for being the site of the [[Anna Ecklund|1928 exorcism of Anna Ecklund]]. Over 23 days in 1928, a [[Roman Catholic]] [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] named [[Theophilus Riesinger]] worked to exorcise demons from Emma Schmidt at the local [[Franciscan]] [[convent]].  One of the priests involved wrote an account several years later in which he made a variety of supernatural claims, including that Ecklund flew threw the air during the exorcism and clung to the wall over a door, that locals noticed strange noises and odors, and that the 23 day exorcism resulted in the expulsion of several demons from Ecklund.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115729/http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=221231|archive-date=13 Nov 2008| url= http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=221231 | title= Priest described 1928 possession of Iowa girl: The 23-day exorcism of a 14-year-old took place in a convent in Earling | accessdate = 2008-11-01 | author = Nevans-Pederson, Mary| date= 2008-10-31 | work= [[Dubuque, Iowa|Dubuque]] Telegraph Herald| publisher= Woodward Communications, Inc}}</ref>