DES MOINES
Illustrated Souvenir Album (1895)
ISAAC L. HILLIS-Mayor of Des Moines. JAMES H. FORD-Chief of Police.
Mr. J. H. FORD, chief of the police department, was born in Cambridge, Ohio, in 1849. His parents came to Iowa in '54, and located at Burlington. Mr. Ford has resided in Des Moines for ten years and had been engaged in the mercantile business until a little more than a year ago, when he accepted the chiefship of police at the hands of mayor Hillis. Of his official life nothing need be said, as with that every Des Moiner is familiar. The same staunch integrity that made him successful in private life, was carried into his public labors and to this, coupled with level-headedness and the proper instinct, may be accredited the freedom from vice and lawlessness now enjoyed by the largest city in the state.
MAYOR HILLIS was born in Madison, Indiana, January 23, 1853. His father's name was William C. Hillis. In 1863 he removed to northeast Missouri, where Mayor Hillis received his education, entering La Grange College at seventeen years of age and graduating at the age of twenty-one as the valedictorian of his class. He then spent one year as instructor in the college, one year as principal of a school in Keokuk and two years as principal of the East Des Moines High School after which time he resigned and went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he received his education in law. In 1880 he was married to Miss Cora Bussey, of New Orleans, and came north to live but had to return south on account of the latter's ill health, where they remained for two years when they again came north and settled in Des Moines, where Mayor Hillis engaged in the abstract business in the Pioneer Abstract office, of which he is the owner. For the past five years he has given more time to law business and real estate. In politics Mr. Hillis has always been a staunch Republican and an active worker, having served as president of the Garfield Republican Club and permanent chairman of the Polk county convention in 1892, and did some efficient campaign work in behalf of Jackson in the Jackson-Boies campaign, in which he showed unusual oratorical powers. In 1894 he was elected as mayor of Des Moines and has been a wise, honest and fearles mayor, ever vigilant and zealous in the interest of the people.
MAYOR HILLIS was born in Madison, Indiana, January 23, 1853. His father's name was William C. Hillis. In 1863 he removed to northeast Missouri, where Mayor Hillis received his education, entering La Grange College at seventeen years of age and graduating at the age of twenty-one as the valedictorian of his class. He then spent one year as instructor in the college, one year as principal of a school in Keokuk and two years as principal of the East Des Moines High School after which time he resigned and went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he received his education in law. In 1880 he was married to Miss Cora Bussey, of New Orleans, and came north to live but had to return south on account of the latter's ill health, where they remained for two years when they again came north and settled in Des Moines, where Mayor Hillis engaged in the abstract business in the Pioneer Abstract office, of which he is the owner. For the past five years he has given more time to law business and real estate. In politics Mr. Hillis has always been a staunch Republican and an active worker, having served as president of the Garfield Republican Club and permanent chairman of the Polk county convention in 1892, and did some efficient campaign work in behalf of Jackson in the Jackson-Boies campaign, in which he showed unusual oratorical powers. In 1894 he was elected as mayor of Des Moines and has been a wise, honest and fearles mayor, ever vigilant and zealous in the interest of the people.
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