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Mary Greeley, 1847-1914, married Captain Wallace M. Greeley in New York in 1867. A former Union Army officer from the Civil War, Captain Greeley used savings from his military pay ($3,200) to purchase a farm near the new community of Ames. He then returned to New York to marry and return to Ames with his new bride. The Greeleys lived on the farm until 1876 when they bought the lots on the corner of Douglas and Twelfth Street across from the first hospital site. In 1882, they built a large house on the northeast corner of Fifth and Douglas (The house is presently the Adams Funeral Home-1993). The Greeleys donated the lots for the original Ames Public Library building on the southwest corner of Fifth and Douglas. Mary Greeley served on the first library board from its founding (1904?) until her death on December 30, 1914 at the age of 68. To honor his wife's memory Wallace Greeley built the town's first hospital (1915-1916) and named it Mary Greeley Hospital.