Tag: Callender

Callender is a city in Webster County, Iowa, United States. The population was 424 at the 2000 census.
Between 1866 and 1870 the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company constructed tracks between Des Moines and Fort Dodge. The line went from Keokuk, Iowa—an Iowa town at confluence of Des Moines and Mississippi rivers—through Des Moines, to Fort Dodge. To support the Railroad, several small towns were created by the railroad along the line to support track maintenance and to grow business. At seven to ten mile intervals there were 38 stops between the Keokuk and Fort Dodge. Kesho—town that would become Callender—was stop thirty-six.
According to the County Assessor’s records, the town of Kesho began South of the road (Thomas Street) on the East Side of the railroad tracks. There, Gurmond and Thora Bean had established a store in 1867-1868. The store was operational when the Des Moines Valley Railroad made it to Kesho in December 1969; however, a November 24, 1870 newspaper article from the…