John Callahan

There is both lesson and inspiration offered in a consideration of this well known and highlp honored citizen of Lyons, for he has overcome many obstacles in his career and won success where hearts less courageous would have quailed and gone down to defeat. He has worked out his own fortunes and gained a position of solidity and no little precedence in the business world, while his integrity of character has brought him into the favorable regard.and unqualified confidence of all with whom he has come in contact.

John Callahan, who is a native of Daviess county, Indiana, born November 14, 1848, is a scion of the sturdy citizenship of the Emerald Isle, where his paternal grandparents lived and died and where his father was born, His maternal grandfather Henry was born in Germany and settled in Greene county, Indiana, about seventy years ago, and lived on a faml until his death in 1854. Both he and his wife were German Lutherans. She lived until 1864, she being blind for several years prior to her death. They had five children, all now deceased.

John Callahan, the subject of this sketch, attended school until he was thirteen years old, when he began caring for himself, working at whatever he could find to do. He worked out as a farm hand until he was thirty-four years old, but by habits of economy he saved enough money during those years to begin business on his own accord, which he did by opening a grocery store and restaurant in Newberry, Indiana, which he conducted for sixteen months and was obliged to give it up on account of a physical ailment which made it difficult for him to stand on his feet. He then went to Indianapolis and took treatment at the Surgical Institute, where he was greatly benefited so much that he returned to clerking, which he followed for eighteen months. Then he moved to Effingham, Illinois, and engaged in the peddling business on a wagon, later returning to Lyons and engaging in the general merchandise business on his own account for three years, which he made a success. After conducting the Lyons Hotel for a year he and Frank Reed established a saw-mill and brick yard. He later bought a hardware and implement store in that town, which he conducted for about sixteen months, later trading his store for a farm, which he superintended for five years in a most successful manner, when he sold it, but he continued farming until 1903. His wife and two stepdaughters own two farms, which Mr. Callahan superintends, at the same time handling a general line of insurance.

The subject was three times married, first in 1872 to Talitha C. Hawkins, a native of Greene county, Indiana. one child was born to this union. which died in infancy. His first wife survived only one year after her marriage. In 1880 Mr. Callahan was married a second time. Mrs. Mary Benham (nee Clogston) being the name of this woman, who had one child by her first husband. One child was born of this second union, which died in infancy. The subject’s second wife died in 1881. He was again married in 1886, his third wife being Mrs. Talitha J. Bogard (nee Skomp), a native of Greene county. She had four children, two daughters still living. Three children were born to the subject by his third wife, namely: Wessie L., who makes his home with his father; Charles, who died in childhood; Annie, who lives at home and attends school. The two daughters of Mrs. Callahan are married, one of them, Mrs. Sadie Criss, living in Lyons; the other daughter is married. to Lon O’Haver, and lives in Indianapolis.

The subject and wife are both members of the Methodist church. Mr. Callahan is a Democrat and a public spirited man, although he does not find time to take an active part in politics. He numbers his acquaintances and friends by the score, but his energies are an unknown quantity, mathematically speaking.

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"Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days", B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1908, Vol. 3 pg. 1128-31

Last updated 9.11.2009