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LOUIS HARBACH
 IT seems almost a supererogation to mention one so well known to nearly every man, woman and child in Des Moines, in these reminiscences, as Louis Harbach, for there are very few houses or buildings in the town that have not something connected with him.
He came here in June, 1857, when only nineteen years old, with an empty purse, but abundant pluck and energy, and at once got a job at his trade as harness-maker, with W. S. Terry, I think. He worked two years at his trade. His elder brother, Christopher, had a small furniture shop on Second Street, between Court Avenue and Walnut. Louis went to Cincinnati, and learned the cabinet maker's trade, came back and joined his brother. Their shop——it had not attained the dignity of a store——was a long, narrow, loose-constructed, one-story wooden building, with unplastered walls. But two or three men were employed. There was no machinery; every article made was worked out by hand from lumber as it came from the mill. While not as elegant and recherche as can be seen in his Walnut Street house to-day, it was made to stay made. I have one of his old-time bedsteads, made of black walnut, then as plentiful as pine now is, which is as firm in its joints as when put together. But prices were pretty stiff in those days. An article which then cost twenty-five dollars can be bought of him to-day for four dollars and a half.
He at once put new life and enterprise into the concern. By indomitable energy, excellent business capacity, and strict integrity, the business increased, necessitating more space, and a four-story brick building was erected on Third Street, the first of its kind in the town, and now occupied as a Court House. It was used for retail trade, and in 1860, he brought the first lot of factory made furniture. It was shipped by steamboats from Cincinnati, and landed at 'Coon River Point.
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Soon after, a large three-story brick, the first in the city for factory use, was erected on Locust Street, near the bridge, wherein all work was done by hand, until 1882, when steam power and machinery was put in. This was soon followed by a five-story brick, with stone front and basement, on Third Street, the first of its kind. It was for the wholesale trade. It is now used for the mantel and undertaking departments.
In 1866, the retail business of the city had moved westward, and trade increased beyond the capacity of the Third Street house, and another move was necessitated. A fine structure, 44x132 feet, of brick, with stone front, was erected on Walnut Street, again the first of its kind. In the meantime, the wholesale trade had outgrown its quarters, and an immense three-story warehouse and upholstery factory at Sixth Avenue and Market Street was erected.
Harbach's faith in the future growth of the city thus prompted the building of the first three, four, five, and six story business buildings therein, and set the pace for others to follow.
During all these years, he has been an extensive employer of skilled labor in the various departments of his business, often reaching a hundred and fifty men, and thus helped to build homes and add to the wealth of the community.
For several days, he was a director and stockholder of the Des Moines Savings Bank.
When the movement for securing a new Postoffice was inaugurated, he was selected by the business men of the city to negotiate the purchase of property necessary for the site, a duty requiring considerable skill and good judgment, involving a deal with a dozen different lot owners, and a public alley. He executed the task to the satisfaction of all concerned——with the possible exception of the East Siders——purchased the site for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash, and deeded it to Uncle Sam as a donation from the business men of the city.
During the year past, he has retired from active business, and the name which for more than forty years has been a household word in Des Moines, will pass into history, and that which has been so important a factor in the upbuilding of the town,w ill be put in the hands of four sons, to the manner born, who will
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abandon the Walnut Street house, the retail trade, the Locust Street factory, and concentrate the business in an immense factory and warehouse at No. 100 South Fifth, a change in business affairs which grows in diversification the more it is contemplated.
Politically, Harbach is a Democrat. He has never sought nor held a public office; yet has exercised the duty of every citizen, to give his influence in favor of good government. The Church, the School, and all things that conserve to the best interest of society, have received his liberal support. Positive in temperament, reticent in speech, conservative in thought and affairs, he has aided very largely in the growth and prosperity of the community.
March Fifth, 1905.
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WILLIAM H. MEACHAM
THE title to land and the military control of affairs of Polk County expired on the booming of the cannon at The Fort at midnight, October Twelfth, 1845.
Through the personal effort of William H. Meacham, a meeting was held two days after, on the Fourteenth, at the cabin of John Scott, when the first step was taken to establish local civil government for the count and town. About twenty persons were present, nearly all residents of The Fort——plain, common people, who believed that good government was founded in justice and equity. There was no local form of government in existence——military control had ceased. Meacham was elected Chairman. The object of the meeting was the organization of an Association to protect themselves against claim jumpers and speculators. A committee was appointed to prepare by-laws for the Association. It was a gathering of stalwart, earnest men, who had laid the foundations of homes, and did not want to be despoiled of them by speculators and land sharks constantly roaming the country, ready to seize upon every opportunity to take advantage of the ignorance or inadvertence of the settler to sequestrate whatever they could get hold of.
The following is a verbatim report of the committee, as it appears on the original record:
"The Committee Taking in Consideration the Rapped Emagration to this cuntry think It Proper to Form the Following Buy Laws, to Viz:
"SECTION ONE.——Resolved, That al Persons over the age of Sixteen Years Doeing for them Selves hav the right to make a claim them Selves or threw thare Agents.
"SEC. TWO.——Resolved, that all Persons ma claim Three HHd and Twenty Acres in Too Separate Parcels and no moar.
"SEC. THREE.——Resolved, that all Persons making a Claim Shall Mark It out By Blazing or Staking in sutch a mannar that the Lines ma bee Esaly Traist.
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"SEC. FOUR.——Resolved, that all Persons making Claims on the Des Moines and Rac Coon Rivers, The Rivers Shall constitute one Line of said Claim.
"SEC. FIVE.——Resolved, that the First Person Marking out A claim after the Legal Time be the Lawful Oner.
"SEC. SIX.——Resolved, that all Persons Marking thare Claims out as Designated in Section Third and Building a House within Sixtey days, at least Fourteen Feett Squair, Four round High, Shall hold Six Months from the time of Marking Said Claim.
"SEC. SEVEN.——Resolved, that all Unresidents after every Six months shal putt on Twenty Five Dollars worth of Work or caus to be don on said Claim or forfit his Claim.
SEC. EIGHT.——Resolved, that any Person having difficultys in relation to thare claims, It shall be thare duty for each person to choos an arbatrator and tha too when choosen choos the third Prsen to settle Sutch Diffaculties.
SEC. NINE.——Resolved, that thare be a committee of Eleven to call out the People to Settle Claim Diffaculties when tha cant be otherwise Settled.
SEC. TEN.——Resolved, that after these Resolutions be adopted and sined tha bee in full force.
The resolutions were adopted, twenty names were affixed thereto, and Meacham was elected Chairman of the Association.
Three years later, in April, 1858, at a meeting of the settlers in Polk County, Meacham was again elected Chairman, and a Claim Club organized, similar to the former Association, with an additional provision for a Vigilance Committee to enforce the regulations.
Meacham was for several years a Captain on sea-going vessels, and had many of the characteristics of that class of men. He was an ardent Methodist, and was familiarly called "Father Meacham" by the brethren. He lived in a log cabin on the East Side, near the river ford, which was near the present end of Locust Street bridge. While he did not keep a tavern, he never refused the hospitality of his home to strangers, an accommodation of great benefit to persons coming in the night, too late to attempt to ford the river, as the course was crooked, the exit from the east being near Walnut
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Street. He also had a farm on the East Side, adjoining that of "Aleck" Scott on the north, the Government Road dividing them.
In 1845, Meacham and nine others met in one of the log cabins and organized what is now the First Methodist Church. Services were held in the cabins of the society members. What they lacked in numbers, they made up in zeal and enthusiasm. Reverend Ezra Rathbun, a very talented man, who worked on week days, at whatever he could get to do, did the preaching for them.
At the termination of the treaty with the Indians, the Government withheld a tract four miles square around The Fort, and in January, 1846, Congress ceded to Polk County one hundred and sixty acres of the four miles square for a County Seat, and act which has not a duplicate in the records of Congress.
Perry L. Crossman, Clerk of the District Court, was ordered to divide the county into voting precincts, and make the necessary arrangements for an election, April Sixth, 1846, to elect county officers, for organizing the county, to hold office until the regular election in August. At the April election, Meacham was elected as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, and by that board, its Chairman. He was also one of the Judges of Election for Des Moines Precinct.
During the year 1846 occurred the notable contest for location of the County Seat, in which Brooklyn, Lafayette, Polk City, and other ambitious settlements were contestants, which has already been set forth in these reminiscences.
In June, 1846, Meacham and Saylor, as County Commissioners, met to adopt measures to survey the one hundred and sixty acres, and for the sale of town lots. It was ordered that A. D. Jones, County Surveyor proceed at once to survey and lay out the town, and that sale of the town lots at auction be held July Fifteenth, the lots to be sold for payment at six, twelve and eighteen months.
Jones at once made the survey. As he had no chain, he used a rope, which must have got wet and shrunk, for when he had finished the plat, he found that there was considerable shortage. On the Eighth of July, he certified to the Commissioners that he had made the survey, and filed a plat of the town. It is known in all legal
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conveyances as the "Original Town." It was bonded on the south by Elm, east by Des Moines River, north by Locust Street, and west by Eighth Street.
At the public sale of lots, on the Fifteenth of July, the first payments received were sufficient to furnish quite a fund for public use. But one lot was sold for spot cash, twenty-seven dollars and a half, it being one of the lots now occupied by Green's foundry, on Second Street. The lots at the northeast corner of Third Street and Court Avenue, where the Sherman Block is, sold for thirty-five dollars; northeast corner of Third and Walnut streets, eighteen dollars; southeast corner of Fifth Street and Court Avenue, opposite the Postoffice, fifty-two dollars, purchased for investment, there being no business demand west of Third Street; southwest corner of Second Street and Court Avenue, thirty dollars; northeast corner Second and Market streets, one hundred and six dollars.
The entire Block Thirty-seven, at the Point, near 'Coon bridge, was once sold for eight hundred and sixty-three dollars, and lot Six, next to the southeast corner of the block, soon after sold for one hundred and seventy-five dollars. The same year, the corner of Eighth and Locusts streets sold for twenty-five dollars, these being the extreme points of buying.
The corner occupied by The Register and Leader was sold for thirty-seven dollars, the lot adjoining east for thirty-five dollars, and in 1866, it was sold for eight thousand four hundred and fifty dollars.
In 1847, the lots where the new Postoffice is to stand were sold for sixty-five dollars. They were sold last year, as the Postoffice site, for fifty thousand dollars, spot cash.
In July, 1850, lot Five, in block Fourteen, sold for thirty dollars. It and lot Five adjoining were valued for assessment at one hundred and twenty-two dollars. On these lots is the Youngerman Block, corner of Fifth and Mulberry Streets. I have been told Youngerman paid for them twenty thousand dollars. I was offered them in 1866 for two thousand dollars.
" At the election in October, 1847, the boundaries as described on the plat were adopted, and in April of that year, the newly-elected County Commissioners authorized Mr. McKay, the County Agent,
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to sell all the "houses, rails, and all other property belonging to the county, at auction," and the sale was made, but it was soon discovered that the County Commissioners had been selling lots and property to which they had no title. Robert A. Kinzie held a claim granted by Captain Allen, Commander of The Fort, commencing at the mouth of the 'Coon River, thence up Des Moines River half a mile to an oak tree, thence west half a mile to an oak tree, thence south to an elm tree, thence southwest to 'Coon River, containing about one-half section of land, with all the building and improvement thereon.
Doctor P. B. Fagen also held a claim for a quarter section, which also lay within the platted town. It was, therefore, necessary for the county to secure title to these claims, which was done by Kinzie giving a quit-claim deed in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars, and Fagen likewise for three hundred dollars, which evidences the sense of exact justice which prompted the founders of the town, for they could have made much more money by holding a few years.
At the second term of the District Court, in September, 1846, Meacham was one of the Grand Jury. There was a large docket of cases before it, but no indictments were found, and the defendants were all dismissed.
In 1847, I think, Meacham was elected Justice of the Peace. The magistrates in those days were not presumed to be versed in ethics of law, and, moreover, the income was not very attractive. They were usually selected for their good judgment and common-sense, and the office was accepted as a matter of public spirit, and some honor, than otherwise. The records of their proceedings were often humorous. An instance is a case to establish the ownership of a certain steer. The Esquire's record says:
"I turned to the plaintiff's wife and asked if the steer in question had any white on its tail, and she answered, 'No,' whereupon the steer in question was produced, and, being examined, it was found there were white hairs in the end of its tail. Judgment was therefore rendered for defendant and two dollars and twenty-five cents costs, and the steer delivered to defendant."
Meacham held the office for several years, became a terror to horse thieves and claim jumpers, and was noted for his zeal and
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courage in running them down and driving them out of the country. He finally became a monomaniac on the subject. In the excitement of some occasions, his old "sea-dog" habits got the better of him, and he would swear vigorously, which he subsequently would reproachfully confess. There were a lot of general marauders in Camp Township, known as the Ridgeway Gang, suspected of horse stealing, and even worse crimes. One of them, named Kesner, had a bad reputation and was hand with a gun. Meacham went after him once. Fully arming himself for an emergency, he went to the fellow's house, quickly opened the door, and went in. Kesner saw him, knew what was coming, and reached for his gun, when Meacham leveled his gun on him, commanded him to throw up his hands, or he would be a dead man quick, emphasizing it with a volley of swear words, and Kesner surrendered without resistance.
On another occasion, a most brutal murder had been committed near the Poweshiek County line. The whole country was aroused. The Ridgeway Gang was suspected of being parties to it. Meacham, with an armed possé, arrested Ridgeway and a son-in-law and brought them to the Sheriff's office, but, there not being sufficient evidence to hold them, they were released. Ridgeway then had Meacham arrested for false imprisonment, but public sentiment was so strong against the gang that he was released. Rigeway's testimony in the case, however, was so crooked that he was arrested for perjury and brought before Will Porter, then a Justice of the Peace, and bound over to the Grand Jury. It was decided to accept no one on the appearance bond but some of the suspected Gang, and when the time came for further hearing, the whole Gang and their families had left the country. In the meantime, however, one of the Gang had been captured by a Vigilance Committee and left hanging to a tree in Poweshiek County.
In 1847, lumber was scarce. There was no saw mill nearer than Parmalee's mill, ten miles down the river. Meacham put in operation a circular saw, near the east side of the river, between Locust and Walnut streets, with which he turned out about two thousand feet of lumber a day, in fair weather, for it stood in open air, and was propelled by six horses. The logs ere cut from the dense
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timber just north of Locust Street. It was the first mill started in the town, and was a valuable enterprise.
"Father Meacham" was a good man, active and helpful in promoting the welfare of the community. He had a good wife, and this is how he got her. He was driving along the road one day, down near Iowaville, and met a very comely appearing woman walking on the roadside. He halted and accosted her:
"Are you a married woman?"
"No, sir," was the reply.
"Then you are the woman I have been looking for. Will you marry me?"
After a moment's consideration, she said, "Yes."
It must have been so, for he often related it, and she never denied it.
In 1859, I think, his physical system broke down and he went to his rest.
March Twelfth, 1905.
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JAMES CALLANAN
 ONE of the most notable personages identified with the history of Des Moines for fifty years was James Callanan. Personally, he was known only by a few; yet he was an important factor in the body politic. His life was a dual one. In one, to the masses, he was a business man and financier, whose sole purpose was to acquire wealth; yet it was to secure means to gratify his other self, in the dispensation of practical philanthropy; to reach out for the want, privation, and misery which environ the poor and oppressed; the the abuse of dumb animals, imposed by the heartlessness of others. It was this side of his life that was little known, and yet it subordinated his other side. He did not carry his heart upon his sleeve. His right hand little knew what his left hand did. Ostentation had no place in a fiber of his being. He shrunk with extreme timidity from public notice. To the inquisitions of newspaper reporters he was, always in a kindly manner, a sealed book. He lived very largely within himself. He had no confidants.
In business transactions, he was methodical, exacting and specific. Every agreement must be fulfilled to the very letter, often with great sacrifice and difficulty to those with whom he was dealing. For that reason, he was very generally considered a sort of Shylock——too exacting of the "pound of flesh." But it was not uncommon for him, when he found the case was worthy of his beneficence, to cancel the obligation, and destroy the contract, with the admonition to the recipient to say nothing about it. In that way, thousands of dollars were given to worthy persons struggling against the misfortunes of life.
Under the first Constitution of the state, the issue of banknotes, or "the creating of paper to circulate as money," was prohibited. That left the door wide open for banks in other states, and Iowa became the dumping-place for their notes. In 1855-6, the rush for
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land purchases developed a large number of banks, whose business was largely, if not wholly, that of buying land, or furnishing settlers with money to purchase land. Speculation was rampant, and much of the money in circulation was of doubtful character and genealogy.
In 1854, one Andrew J. Stevens was elected State Auditor. He served one year and resigned, when he went into the real estate business. Being a man of considerable publicity, he at once became prominent in land speculation, to facilitate which he needed a bank. He induced Callanan and S. R. Ingham, residents of New York, to join him, and the banking firm of A. J. Stevens & Company was started. Down in an obscure place in Tennessee, he bought the charter of the Agricultural Bank of Tennessee, loaded himself with its beautifully engraved notes, and immediately began to unload them on the community. It was "easy come, easy go." Having the prestige of being a local institution, he was enabled to loan it in large blocks, to land-buyers and speculators, taking their individual promissory notes therefor, with an agreement that he would redeem his banknotes when presented at his bank. It was one of the wildest "wild-cat," kiting systems. In 1857, it went down in the financial crash, and thousands of his banknotes are still waiting their redemption.
Callanan and Ingham repudiated Stevens and his business methods, ousted him from the company, and turned their attention to real estate and legitimate banking, Ingham becoming the resident member of the firm. In 1863, the partnership was dissolved, and Callanan found it necessary to come out to Des Moines and give personal supervision to his investments made when n frequent visits here, in 1856-7.
During the hard times of 1856-7, and the War period, Eastern speculators and others, who had purchased land and town lots, found it often impossible to sell enough of their holdings to pay their taxes, which were allowed to lapse, became delinquent, and the land was sold for taxes. Callanan invested extensively at these sales, with immense profit to himself, as there were very few redemptions of this property.
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It was during the formative period of the town. Being a large property holder, he took great interest in public affairs. Of excellent business capacity, conservative and cautious, his counsel and aid was often sought——seldom, if ever, proffered——and so he was an important factor in the betterment of civic, business and social matters.
In 1865, he, with Frank Allen, Frank Palmer and E. J. Ingersoll, organized the Hawkeye Insurance Company. He was a heavy stockholder, and one of the directors.
For several years it was simply a partnership. He had no faith in the "manifest destiny" sentiment which pertained among the people——that "all roads led to the Capital of the state; that all things must, perforce, come to it." He believed that communities, like individuals, to win success, must go after it. He disagreed with the policy which had spurned the proffer of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway to come to the city on very reasonable terms, and practically forced it to seek a route to Missouri River elsewhere.
For twenty years the people had anxiously waited the coming of railroads. The old Missouri and Mississippi Road had crept slowly westward to Marengo, where it stopped, and went into the Bankruptcy Court. The Des Moines Valley Road got as far as Pella and halted from sheer impecuniosity. With expectations blasted, hope crushed by repeated disappointments, Callanan, "Jeff" Polk, Ex-Governor Merrill, and a few others began an agitation to create public sentiment in favor of narrow-gauge roads radiating in various directions, and in February, 1866, a mass meeting of citizens was held in the Court House, at which the consensus of expressed opinion was that such roads would be not only helpful to the town, but beneficial to the territory traversed by them. In accordance therewith, the Iowa and Minnesota Railway Company was organized, to build a narrow-gauge road from Des Moines to the north and south line of the state. Work was begun on a portion of the line north of Polk City and in Warren County. With limited finances, the company struggled along for two years, when creditors began to harass it with court judgments to such extent is was obliged to suspend. The road was bisected, the north
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half was transferred to the Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad Company, which practically meant Polk & Hubbell. The south half was transferred to the Des Mines, Indianola and Missouri Railway Company.
In 1870, the company controlling the north half adopted measures to secure tax aid from townships along the proposed line to Ames. Subsidies to the amount of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars were thus secured and tendered to the Chicago and Northwestern to build the road. For two years the Northwestern dallied with the proposition. "Manifest destiny" of the Capital had no allurements of it. It had reached Missouri River. Polk & Hubbell got tired of the dallying, and the local company resolved to build the road. Callanan was induced to take hold of the project. A reorganization was made, and new officers elected. During that year, the road was built to Ames. It was during the "Granger" or "Patrons of Husbandry" excitement, and to curry a little favor with the dominant fad, the first locomotive on the road was named "The Granger."
Soon after construction was begun, citizens of townships which had voted aid began to harass the company with court injunctions and the right-of-way was nearly plastered with them, thus involving the company in vexatious litigation and expenditures of money which seriously embarrassed its financial affairs.
The wrangles, turmoil and tribulation of the project satisfied Callanan with railroad building, and he withdrew from the business. That, I think, was the only public industrial enterprise he ever took any part in, and it was his intense interest in the improvement of the city that prompted him in that instance. In 1879, the road was transferred to the Chicago and Northwestern, and was changed to the standard gauge.
Callanan's excellent judgment, conservative temperament, and long experience was often sought by leading financial institutions of the city. He was for many years Treasurer of the Hawkeye Insurance Company, and at his decease President of the Capital City Bank, Vice-President of the Citizens National Bank, and Director of the Valley National Bank.
In 1872, Callanan, with several other citizens, organized the Iowa Loan and Trust Company, with a capital of one hundred
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thousand dollars, and erected the fine building it now occupies, on the spot where stood the original meeting-house of the First Methodist Church, and was once the starting point from which the Indians ran their races, to a point where the Water Works now are. The business of the company was to loan money on real estate security, and promote building enterprises. Callanan was a heavy stockholder and one of the Trustees. In that building, of the scores of finely equipped office suites, he selected one isolated room in the southwest corner, on the third floor, where, in accordance with his plain, simple taste, he handled business transactions amounting to millions, amid furniture and fixtures which will probably not add more than fifteen dollars to the value of his estate.
In 1878, it became quite apparent that something must be done to get the city out of the mud which at certain seasons of the year rendered the streets nearly impassable. Some of them had been graded; none paved. They were simple dirt roads. It was not uncommon to see wagons hub deep in mud or the wheels carrying fifty to a hundred pounds of sticky clay, or to see teams stuck fast. The humanitarian spirit of Callanan, his sympathy for dumb animals struggling up steep grades, often under the lash of brutal drivers, prompted him to suggest and advocate a system of paving and sewering. S. A. Robertson, being then in the City Council, took the subject up, and succeeded, after most persistent efforts, in securing the adoption of the system which we have to-day.
In 1879, the subject of facilities for the higher education of girls than was afforded by the public schools, attracted public attention. For boys, colleges and seminaries were numerous, but for girls, they were few and far away. A company was formed of a few public-spirited citizens, who pledged liberal support to a school adapted to that end. That was Callanan's opportunity to work out one of his manifold public benefactions. Although he had no children to inspire him, he became enthusiastic on the subject, and assumed the burden of the whole project. He purchased the elegant residence of J. B. Stewart, on Pleasant Street, remodeled it, added more to it, fitted and equipped it in luxurious manner to accommodate two hundred and fifty pupils, at a cost of eighty thousand dollars. He had then laid the foundation for another benefaction.
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In his boyhood days, he attended a seminary in Cazenovia, New York. Among the teachers was Reverend C. R. Pomeroy and his wife, whom he regarded as his ideals for management of his new enterprise. He brought them here, and installed them as the head of Callanan College, a name awarded to it by universal assent. The school flourished with success for several years, but such was the rapid advancement of educational facilities in the public schools and the establishment of other colleges, it finally closed. Subsequently, he leased one of the buildings, to be used as the Musical Department of Drake University. The other, in 1896, he gave the use of to an association of charitable women, for a Home for Aged Christian Women, and it was so occupied for several years, when another location was selected, and the scope of the institution was enlarged to embrace the aged and infirm of both sexes, which is now the Home for the Aged, located on University Avenue.
In 1881, Callanan, with James C. Savery, formed the American Emigrant Company. They purchased so-called swamp lands——land which had been thrown out by the Government Surveyors when surveying the public lands as of doubtful utility for farm purposes, and considered valueless. These lands were purchased all over the state and sold to emigrants and actual settlers at low prices, thus, while bringing wealth to the company, it added largely to the population and industrial wealth of the state, for the lands proved to be valuable for farm purposes. Polk County's second Court House was partially build and her Poor Farm was purchased with proceeds from the sale of swamp lands, which now command a high price as well-cultivated farms.
In 1900, the Methodist people of the state began a movement for the establishment of a hospital. The Methodist Hospital Association was formed, and Callanan was appealed to for aid in the enterprise. He heartily approved the movement and offered the two college buildings and ground on Pleasant Street, which had cost him eighty thousand dollars, at a valuation of sixty thousand dollars, for thirty thousand dollars. The proffer was accepted, and the property was deeded to the Association. The remodeling of the building was at once commenced. Callanan had great confidence in the lay members of the Hospital Association, as he had
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also deep interest in the institution, and two years ago gave the Association thirty thousand dollars cash, conditioned that he be paid semi-annually six hundred dollars during his lifetime. The annuities were paid promptly——three of them——when he passed away. He was solicited to permit the hospital to bear his name, but he refused.
One of the directors of the Association, who was an intimate friend of his, and who probably knew the humanitarian side of his life as well as any other person, said to me:
"I held him in higher regard than any layman I ever knew, as being, in a high and good sense, the greatest and best man Iowa has produced. While there have been in public life men who have succeeded in public careers, men of greater minds, none had the great brain and kindly heart which he possessed, and so I regarded him as the peer of them all."
The hospital is now practically completed, a magnificent fire-proof structure, equipped with the best and most approved appliances, and has a capacity to care for three thousand persons annually, regardless of nationality, religion of color——a notable public improvement, and a credit to the public-spirited members of the who planned and secured it.
While Callanan was public-spirited and always interested in civic affairs, it is to the humanitarian side of his life the city is most indebted. I have stated that he invested extensively in tax titles by purchasing land sold for delinquent taxes. In numerous instances, where he found on examination——it was never in his heart to do wrong to any person——that the delinquency was caused by some misfortune, that the owner of the property was honest, temperate and industrious, possibly a widow struggling against poverty with a family of small children, to give them his deed to the property and throw in the taxes, with the request to say nothing about it.
I recall an instance of a promising young man, whose physical system had become seriously impaired. He applied to Callanan for assistance to procure medical aid. He was loaned money, for which he gave his promissory note. He was sent to a hospital in Chicago, his expenses paid, and on his return his note was surrendered to him.
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The poor people, regardless of race or color, and dumb animals, and the amelioration of their condition, were constant objects of his though and studied effort. When the storms of Winter came, "What will become of them?" worried him, and in many untold ways he brought relief to poverty-stricken houses, and rescue to dumb animals. Said L. M. Mann to me a few days ago: "I went one morning to his office, and he seemed greatly depressed, and not in good spirits. He said to me: 'I was greatly troubled all last night, could not sleep, for all through the day yesterday, through the Humane Society, there was poured into my ears tales of suffering and want of poor people, dumb animals poorly fed, unshod horses falling when forced to draw heavy loads over the slippery streets, or being cruelly beaten by their drivers.' "
So it was, naturally, that when the Des Moines Humane Society was organized, he was made its President, and so continued to his death. It was the special object of his support and care. No limit was put on its benefactions, except that of reason and good judgment. Whatever was required or necessary must be provided, and that means thereto were furnished while he lived, and in his last will and testament he gave the Society twenty thousand dollars, conditioned that Mrs. Elizabeth D. Jones be retained as Secretary during her life, and that she be paid an annual salary of eight hundred dollars out of the bequest. A further sum of fifty thousand dollars was given for general charitable purposes. He was prouder of being President of the Humane Society than of the places held in banks or financial institutions, or of all his stocks and bonds, for through it he could help the helpless.
He was not a churchman, but to churches of all denominations he was a liberal giver.
He was a friend of the colored race, and embraced every opportunity to improve its condition, through churches and schools. From 1866 to 1870, H. S. De Forrest, D.D., was pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, in Des Moines. During his pastorate, he and Callanan became firm friends. After the close of his pastorate, De Forrest went to Talladega, Alabama, where in 1879, he
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was elected President of a flourishing industrial school for the negro race. Callanan and Ex-Governor Samuel Merrill purchased a fine, large mansion and presented it to the College for a home for De Forrest, who occupied it until 1896, when he was accidentally killed. Callanan's great interest in the college prompted his munificent bequest of one hundred thousand dollars in his will.
To Des Moines Benedict Home for Unfortunate Girls he gave ten thousand dollars; to the Salvation Army, twenty thousand dollars; to Des Moines College, five thousand dollars; to the Iowa Humane Society, fifty thousand dollars.
March Nineteenth, 1905.
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