Hershel Jacoby, or how Marzine came into this earth.

Hershel Jacoby was born in Abiline, KS on a scalding hot day in 1906. As a child he would watch the trains pull in and out of town, while sitting on the front steps of the courthouse. By the age of 12, he knew every engine and cargo capacity of every train that rode the rails within a 30 mile radius of Abiline.

Union Pacific hired him, after finding him stowed away behind the rear coal car. He was in the process of fixing the rear axle, by affixing a wad of chewed up black jack gum to serve as a temporary fix while the train passed a hairpin turn. He was rewarded a medal of honor by the mayor of Abiline. Hershel was, by all accounts, a candy freak. He eventually returned to riding the rails after a series of ill-advised financial decisions. A handshake by Hershel was never complete without his trademark chortle, where he'd open his loud black mouth, stained by the ever-present black jack gum.

In 1928 Calvin Coolidge visited Abiline, KS where he met Hershel, by then already a hero of the rails. He was one of the first rail heroes who logged in 4,000 hours per year on the road.

With all of the pay and legend, he squandered all of his money is a never-was candy company. The 1920's was a boom for candy invention, Reesus Peanut Butter Cups and the Butterfinger candy bar were invented in 1923.

Herhsel was a partner in a failed candy company, Marzine's, named after his only daughter. Marzine's mother died of TB in the 1930's, leaving Marzine to inherit a candy company steeped in debt. Many of their candy brand names were, Marzine's, a smarmy combination of grape tablets filled with chocolate.

By 1937, the Roundtree company managed to successfully market Smarties, blatantly ripping off the Marzine company's Marzine's combination of fruit and chocolate.

Nevertheless, Marzine's went bankrupt, sending Hershel into a tailspin of debt, resulting in his return to the rails, after a brief retirement. Hershel's body was never found in the Columbia River, where it was assumed he plummeted to, as his boot was last seen on the other side of a quarter mile extension bridge, on the other side of the Columbia River Gorge.*

Hershel became a legend in Abiline, and he never left the small town, despite meeting the President of the United States (while on a failed tour of reelection.)Some said that the meeting acted as a bad omen that Hershel would never shake off.

Marzine, his only daughter, was born in 1927, one year before the president's arrival. Marzine took up music took up music at a young age, and like her father, another trend would usurp her own work. The rise of rock and roll in the 1950's robbed Marzine of her chance of success, and in so doing put the legend of Hershel to a screeching halt.

* This boot now lies in a museum in Eastern Oregon, Purported location of where Hershel fell, as noted by the outbreak by children named Hershel.