1874-1958 J. Galen Tilden

BROWN, HAKE, TILDEN

Posted By: Sheila Simpson (email)
Date: 1/2/2004 at 16:16:08

Wednesday, May 14, 1958 J. Galen Tilden of Pioneer Ames Family, Died
J. Galen Tilden, 84, member of a pioneer Ames family, died this morning in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Lydia Tilden Hake. Funeral services will be Friday, May 16 at 10AM from Adams Funeral Home with the Reverend W. Murray Allan officiating. Burial will be in the Ames Municipal Cemetery.

Mr. Tilden was born in Ames, Story County, Iowa to George Tilden, a pioneer merchant, and Lydia C. Tilden. He was educated in the Ames schools and entered Iowa State College, where he studied two years. When his father died in 1892, he left school and entered the Tilden store with his brother, L. C. Tilden. In 1894 they organized the Tilden Brothers Company and in 1904 the Tilden Manufacturing Company was started.

The manufacturing company was separated from the store in 1914 and Mr. Tilden continued as its president. In 1926 he was among the group, which bought the Greeley Estate interest in the Union National Bank and reorganized the institution. Mr. Tilden was named president of the bank at that time. He was also a stockholder in the Ames Jewelry manufacturing Company, the Service Printing Company that publishes the “Ames Milepost” and the Service Plumbing Company. All were managed in connection with the manufacturing company.

Mr. Tilden was also president of the Ames Chamber of Commerce and of the Story County Alumni Association of Iowa Sate College. He was elected mayor of Ames in 1909 and again in 1910. He served as councilman at large from 1922 to 1924. He was also a real estate broker in Ames for many years. He was one of the early organizers of the First Congregational Church in Ames.

His daughter and a sister, Mrs. Harry Brown of Ames, survive him. Preceding him in death were his wife, Ina, two brothers, L. C. Tilden of Ames and George H. Tilden of Seattle, King County, Washington, one sister, Miss Winifred Tilden of Ames.