John Martin Halloran

Pages 568 & 569 - John Martin Halloran is president and manager of Halloran National Detective Agency, the central offices of which are at 506-7 Grand Rapids Savings Bank building in the fair "Valley City" of Michigan. The well ordered agency, with its efficient personnel and able management under the progressive policies of its president, gives a service of inestimable value in its wide field of operations, and it has wielded great influence in the suppression of crime in Michigan, as well as in bringing many notorious malefactors to justice. Mr. Halloran, who has gained high reputation in his chosen field of service, was born in Leighton township, Allegan county, Michigan, May 18, 1875 and is a son of Cornelius and Katherine (MacGrerey) Halloran, both of whom were born in Ireland, as members of sterling old families of the fair Emerald Isle. Cornelius Halloran came to the United States in 1860, and within a comparatively short time thereafter he came to Michigan and engaged in farm enterprise in Allegan county, his alliance with this line of basic industry having there continued until his death, and his widow being still a resident on the old homestead farm. John M. Halloran received limited educational advantages, but soon gained close fellowship with honest toil, he having been be eleven years old when he began to contribute his share to the work of the home farm. At the age of fifteen years he engaged in the strenuous work incidental to lumbering operations in the northern part of the state, and at the age of seventeen years he went west, where he roamed from state to state and was variously employed, largely in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Montana. In the early nineties he was employed two years by the Grand Rapids Street Railway Company, but he soon transferred his service to the police department of the city, in which he manifested such signal ability that he was soon assigned to the detective corps of the service. In this connection he made one of the most excellent and notable records in the annals of municipal detective service in Michigan. In response to the exigent demand for such service, and largely at the instance of representative business men of Grand Rapids, Mr. Halloran here established in 1915 the Halloran National Detective Agency, and under his forceful direction the same has become recognized as the largest and most successful private detective agency in Michigan, this reputation being based on service results. The Halloran agency now maintains branches in many other important cities in the United States, as well as in Canada, Cuba, England, and France. The agency functions with certitude and efficiency in all departments, and ranks as one of the best of the leading institutions of the kind in America. Mr. Halloran himself has made a wonderful record as a detective and his personal reputation has been one of the best business assets of the agency of which he is the executive head. Worthy of preservation in this connection are the resolutions that were passed by the city council of Grand Rapids while Mr. Halloran was still in service in the municipal detective department: "Whereas, John Halloran, detective, who is in the employ of the city of Grand Rapids and has been for many years, at the risk of his life on many occasions, finally brought about the capture of the murderers of three citizens and business men of this city; and whereas, said detective devoted his energy and time and risked his life with out additional compensation or hope of further reward than a duty to be performed, Resolved, That the citizens of Grand Rapids, through the common council, do hereby extend to John Halloran their deepest appreciation and many thanks for the splendid and courageous work which he has so nobly performed." These resolutions were adopted by a rising vote of the city council and were signed by Mayor George E. Ellis. Mr. Halloran is a valued member of the Grand Rapids Association of Commerce and the Grand Rapids Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His detective agency gave specially valuable service to the government and to the state of Michigan during the World war period. In 1906, Mr. Halloran married Miss Grace O’Hara, daughter of James and Mary O’Hara, of Grand Rapids, and she passed to the live eternal Jul 1, 1908, the two surviving children being Lionel and Grace. On the 28^th of November, 1910, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Halloran to Miss Josephine Miller daughter of Alexander and Mary Miller, of Grand Rapids, and the one child of this union is a son, Kenneth.