The town of Marley is located on a short rise adjacent to Marley Creek, which originally was named North Folk Creek, and flows to Hickory Creek in nearby New Lenox Township.

Before settlement in the early
19th century, much of the site was covered with forest. According to land records, nearly 82 acres of this land initially was bought by Peter Bolles in 1835, and a portion of these acres then were bought by Myron Nathan Marshall in 1850.

In 1870, Marshall sold large tracts of land in New Lenox, Homer and Frankfort Townships to Archibald Allerton for the purpose of raising livestock.

The southern boundary of this land was Maple Street and the main entrance to his property was where the town of Marley is located today.

Within a few years, Allerton’s land was subdivided into smaller acre farms and some land was bought by the Chicago Strawn Railway Company for a railway right-of-way, and 160 acres went to George L. Haley.

In 1880, Haley helped to lay out and surveyed a triangular 16-acre tract of land that would soon be known as Marley.

The growth of the town can be traced to the construction of a railroad right-of-way in 1881, which became an extension of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway from Forrest to Chicago.

A depot was built on the east side of the tracks near Maple Street, and soon other businesses arrived including a granary, stockyard, blacksmith shop and general store.

Within a few years, people began to arrive and soon the town of Marley began to prosper. The steel bridge over Marley Creek, shown in the Then photograph, dates from the late 19th century. The bridge is located just west of the Wabash Railroad tracks on Maple Street. In 1955, parts of the steel bridge collapsed and soon was repaired and eventually replaced in 1958.

The Now photograph shows a similar view of the bridge over Marley Creek today.