Editor’s Note: This is the second article in what is hoped to be a series about Marshalltown street names. (The first was published in the April 5-6 edition). That is, who they were named for and in some instances, re-named. The content below was researched and written by Times-Republican reporter Sara Jordan-Heintz from her work for the August, 2017 Past Times publication. Readers with information about street names, or their re-naming or new streets are asked to contact T-R reporter Mike Donahey at medonahey@gmail.com.

Driving around Marshalltown, observers may notice that many street names are clearly surnames of some of the city’s most influential residents of yesteryear.

Byron Webster

Webster

Byron Webster was a highly-regarded newspaper publisher and politician. One of his claims to fame was being one of the first publishers to suggest Grover Cleveland for the presidency of the United States. He was born March 20, 1847, in LaPorte, Indiana. As a young child, he moved to Marshalltown with his father Reuben, with his stepmother Catherine and sister later arriving to town by rail. Reuben would become well-known in Marshalltown, as part of his land later was sold to establish Riverside Cemetery. Webster gained job experience clerking in the dry goods store of E.E. Leach and Co. and was college educated in Ohio. After frail health barred him from entering the U.S. Navy, he turned his attention to studying law. He took employment at the law office of Henderson & Binford, then enrolled in law school at the University of Michigan. On Oct. 5, 1869, he wed Hattie Percival, later having two children. In the spring of 1876, Webster was appointed city clerk in Marshalltown, overseeing water rents of the newly built water works plant. He also served as secretary of the school board, and as a special correspondent for the Chicago Times. E.N. Chapin, the editor of the Marshall County Times, hired Webster as city editor. In September of 1879, Webster bought the Marshall Statesman. According to his obituary published in the Evening Times-Republican, “He soon made himself known thruout [sic] the state as one of the ablest writers on democratic doctrine.” When Grover Cleveland was elected as governor of New York in 1884, Webster was the first editor “in the West” to endorse the governor for president, and he secured a Cleveland delegation to the Chicago convention. Cleveland became the first democratic president elected after the Civil War, taking office in 1885. Cleveland in turn appointed Webster collector of internal revenues for the third district of Iowa, a position he held until 1889. Webster managed the successful gubernatorial campaign of Horace Boies, who was elected governor of Iowa in 1889. One of Webster’s crowning achievements was helping to elect “Ben” T. Frederick of Marshalltown to the fifth district in 1882 and again in 1884. In Webster’s later years, he headed an insurance firm alongside his son Percy. He served for two terms on the Marshalltown City Council, from 1902-06. As the Evening T-R reflected. “His judgement was generally sound on all matters, and his wide experience in business, politics and the law, made him a valuable man to look after city affairs.” Webster died on Jan. 31, 1907, at his home at 411 E. Linn St. of organic heart trouble and uremic poisoning. His final resting place is Riverside Cemetery.

David Thatcher Denmead

Denmead

According to the tome, “Past and Present of Marshall County, Iowa,”: “No one did more for the material and general development of Marshalltown and vicinity than he, for he had their interests ever at heart and unswerving faith in their future greatness … He was one of the three wealthiest men in Marshalltown, having long been regarded as one of the leading citizens of Marshall County in its commercial affairs and he was the first to be consulted when any large venture, either public or private, was contemplated.” Denmead was born on December 4, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland, and educated at the Ohio Military Academy near Cincinnati. He arrived in Marshalltown in April 1876, securing employment with Woodworth & Son lumber and coal dealers, later becoming a partner. He invested in the first wholesale grocery company: Lacey, Letts & Gray. On April 30, 1879, he wed Gertrude Alice Williams, whose father James had been the first mayor of Marshalltown. Denmead purchased stock in the City National Bank, then run by his father-in-law. In 1894, he assumed the presidency of the bank, and later that of First National Bank when the two banks merged in 1908. Denmead was a prominent land investor, particularly in northern Iowa and South Dakota. Locally, he served as a director of the Western Grocery Company and the A.E. Shorthill Co., and as a stockholder at the Tremont Company and the Pilgrim Hotel Company. He co-owned the Woodbury Building and a storefront on South Third Avenue. He was a generous donor to the YMCA and local churches. He passed away suddenly on June 11, 1911, in Cincinnati, while attending the funeral of a relative. He is buried in the Denmead mausoleum at Riverside Cemetery.