John P. Gallagher, 1915 bio

GALLAGHER

Posted By: Stephen D. Williams (email)
Date: 4/27/2005 at 11:58:48

History of Iowa County, Iowa...by James G. Dinwiddie. Volume 2. Chicago: S. J.
Clarke Pub. Co., 1915

John P. Gallagher, the junior member of the firm of Osborn & Gallagher,
publishers of the Williamsburg Journal Tribune, is a native of York township. He
was born on a prairie farm, his parents being John and Catherine Gallagher,
natives of Tyrone and Monaghan counties, Ireland. They located in York township
in 1859. There were nine children in the Gallagher family and the subject of
this sketch is a twin, his brother mate being G.P. Gallagher, who resides on a
farm within sight of the old homestead. The father of the twin boys died when
the sons were yet in their teens and they at once assumed the responsibilities
of the three hundred and twenty acre farm, canceling its debt and maintaining a
home for their mother and sisters.

In 1888 John P. was appointed to the railway mail service, his first
assignment being the run from Davenport to Calamar; in 1890 he was transferred
to the run from Marion, Iowa to Kansas City, Missouri, and he spent eleven years
in this, resigning in 1901, when he became part owner of the newspaper with
which he is still connected.

Mr. Gallagher never attended other than the district school and this only
in broken periods, but his studious disposition has required but little aid; he
has read good, wholesome literature, he had been a constant observer of the
leading plays and his deductions and conclusions always bear the stamp or zeal
of an originality redolent of genius. As a writer his work at once attracts
attention by the earnestness, force and fairness of his expressions. He belongs
to no political party in the sense that he must be ever ready to advocate its
proclaimed tenants; he regards the common or general good as of paramount
importance and is bitterly opposed to the theory that the common or general good
is best subserved or promoted by an unbending allegiance to any political party
and his fondest dream is that some day, some time "all men's good shall be each
man's rule," a policy not possible under the cramped narrowness of the political
organizations of today.

His editorial work covers a wide field and reflects marked literary ability
as well as defined taste. There is dignity in his expressions, and, at times,
his prose becomes poetry rich in fancy, lofty in aim and clear in thought. For
the glib phrase and slangy utterance he has nothing but a contempt that borders
on hatred and his editorials possess a permanent value.

He is a member of the Catholic church and is very well informed on her
tenets and teachings, and his charity is freely extended to those who refuse to
study the church except through her enemies; he regards this disposition as a
malady, a disease, and inclines to the view that its only cure is in permitting
the germs of the disorder to become consumed in the fire of its own prejudice,
when out of its ashes will spring a broader tolerance and a brotherly or
Christian spirit.

Mr. Gallagher is unmarried and resides with a sister. He seldom takes a
vacation, is a firm believer in work, and is proud of the fact that he never
strayed far from his native soil.

[Contributed by Cathy Joynt Labath]