Des Moines Historical Society

Who are the men behind the names? Andy Fales on WHO-TV 13

They are the names we see and use everyday. Many of them were given in memory of special people, but ironically, many of those people have been forgotten.

So maybe every so often, we should stop and ask, "WHO?"

Merle Hay is a name we use every day, but the name belongs to the man believed to be the first American casualty of World War One.

"Most young people that come through the museum, when I ask who Merle Hay was, they say 'I think he was the guy that built the mall," said Michael Vogt, curator of the Iowa Gold Star Museum at Camp Dodge.

In fact, the Glidden native was hero, part of the famed "Big Red One" and he died fighting, with a gun in his hand.

"His throat was cut and he had a bullet wound to the head," Vogt adds.

His memorial boulder was placed in 1923 but was recently moved to the cemetery bearing his name, across Merle Hay Road.

A block off Merle Hay, there's Earl May. Plenty of rhyme, but no connection. Earl May was a seed salesman from Shenandoah and founded his mail-order catalog in 1919. He saw the future of broadcast advertising and founded KMA Radio in 1925. It's still on the air.

Fortunately, there's no Earl May on Merle Hay.

Jordan Creek is, named after a creek. The "Jordan" is from James Jordan. He founded Valley Junction, was a staunch abolitionist and his house was a key stop on the underground railroad.

While in West Des Moines, who was EP True?

He was a longtime city manager, here, and he played a major role in the development of the West Des Moines we know today. Too bad ALL of the streets in West Des Moines weren't given distinctive names instead of confusing numbers!

We know the jingle, "G&L Clothing! Your size, your style, we've got it all!"

But who's "G" and who's "L"?

"Mr. G was Lou Garsh and Mr. L was Meyer Levine," says current owner, Frank Marcovis. "And they were business partners. Then Mr. Garsh left the business but Mr. Levine never changed the name, so it's still G&L."

The business was sold by Levine in the 1950s and then again to the Marcovis family in the 1980s. It's been moved to its current Ingersoll location in the meantime.

Ingersoll was another Des Moines businessman, and it intersects with Fleur Drive. Fleur is French for flower and the street is planted in blooms most of the year, but it's actually named for Captain Edward O. Fleur, a wildly-popular World War One officer from Des Moines.

"He was just a big hero," said Pat Meiners, president of the Des Moines Historical Society. "He was a very loved man in town. In 1910 they wrote an article about him in the Northwestern [sorry, I goofed, it was MIDwestern Mag. May of 1909] magazine. He had no children but everybody considered him a father figure."

Fleur was killed in a German gas attack in World War 1.

Gray's Lake is nearby. Gaylord Gray mined sand and gravel out of the area to make concrete-the last of which was used to make the runways at Des Moines International Airport, just down Fleur Drive.

There's Redhead Park at East 18th and Dean. Named for Wesley Redhead, who DID have a big mansion on the site, but did NOT have red hair.

Sherman is a big one. He's got a hill, and he's got a Place, and in fact back in the 1850s, Hoyt Sherman was involved in just about everything.

"He was involved in the first college, the first public school, the first water works, the first public railway and a bunch of other stuff," said Molly Pins, one of the directors at Hoyt Sherman Place.

He was also a lawyer and helped found the Equitable Life Assurance Company, he and F.M. Hubbell. Equitable put Des Moines on the map as an insurance center, and is now part of ING.

Sherman's older brother, William Tecumsah Sherman, was to be joined on his infamous Atlanta Campaign at the close of the Civil War by General Marcellus M. Crocker. But Crocker was battling tuberculosis.

"While he was in battle, he was in a tent next to General Grant and General Grant heard him coughing and told him to go home," said Meiners.

He died shortly thereafter, cutting an outstanding military career short.

Crocker is buried at Woodland Cemetery, with Sherman, and Fleur, and Hubbell, and Wesley Redhead, among many others.

So whether it's an inquisitive kid or a nosy out-of-towner, you've got some answers the next time they ask "WHO?" Speaking of "Who", who is WHO?

"Well, I've heard a lot of different stories," said WHO program director, Van Harden, "the main one I hear is that back in the old days of radio, there weren't that many stations across the dial and people would turn across the dial, they would hit this station and they'd say 'Who are we listening to?'"  

November 18, 2010