Hallam, David

HALLAM

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 11:38:52

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.906

DAVID HALLAM
David Hallam was born in Clinton County, Ohio, June 23, 1810. The family is of English origin and is mentioned in Domesday Book; which shows that estates in lands belonged to them in the reign of William the Con­queror, in the eleventh century, when that book was completed. In latter years John Hallam, who was dean of Bristol, and afterward canon of Wind­sor, was a celebrated classic scholar. His son, Henry Hallam, was a distin­guished historian and was the author of "Hallam's Middle Ages," and "The History of the Literature of Europe," and other historical works, and his grandson, Arthur Henry Hallam, the friend of the poet Tennyson, was the subject of "In Memoriam" by the poet. Their home was in Lincolnshire.
The subject of this sketch is directly descended from Thomas Hallam, who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, about the year 1700, and settled with his two sons, Thomas and John, and their families on the eastern shores of Maryland. In England they were Jacobites, and what were termed non-jurors, and left England to avoid religious persecution.
David Hallam was the son of Thomas Hallam, who was born in Maryland in 1740 and who died in Clinton County, Ohio, in 1832. He was twice mar­ried. His first wife was Margaret Sillik, who died young in years in the state of Ohio. By this marriage there were born one daughter, Minerva, who was married first to John C. Ellis, and later to James M. Hamilton, and one son, Thomas W., who with his father emigrated to Iowa and was for many years engaged in business in Indianola and later died in Chicago. David Hallam was married the second time to Jane Roberts in Sabina, Ohio, and by this marriage there were born six children, Rose, Imogene, May, Artimsa, Grafton and Claude.
Mr. Hallam emigrated from Ohio to Warren County, Iowa, in 1857, and located in Indianola. He was a man of large means for those early days and invested extensively in lands. He was engaged for many years in stock farming, and in buying and shipping cattle to the eastern markets in the days before the advent of railroads in the state of Iowa, the cattle from this part of the state being driven on foot to Keokuk, and later to Eddyville, when the first railroad in Iowa had reached that point on the Des Moines valley.
Mr. Hallam was a Republican in politics, and was always a man of pro­nounced views. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and was an active worker in its lodge. He was a man of fine business ability and of sterling integrity. He organized the First National Bank of Indianola in 1865 and was its first president, and for years he continued actively con­nected with that institution. Prior to the organization of this bank he and his son, Thomas W., had been engaged in the general banking business in Indianola under the firm name of Hallam & Son. He was one of the founders of Simpson College of Indianola.
David Hallam was a man of generous impulses; his hand and purse were ever open to all worthy enterprises, and the old pioneers yet living in Warren County speak feelingly of his generosity and great kindness of heart. He died in Indianola, July 18, 1881, and was buried by the Masonic order of which he had been a lifelong member, in the beautiful cemetery at Indianola. His wife, Jane Hallam, survived his death many years but is recently deceased and now sleeps by his side. The life of David Hallam is a chapter in the history of the early years of Iowa; it is meet that some record of his eventful career be preserved.