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- SAMUEL CLARK VAN GALDER (deceased) is well and favorably
- remembered by all who are familiar with the history of Rock
County and La Prairie township. He came here at a very early
day, helped to reclaim the wilderness, and did much to aid in
the general development of Rock County. He was a kindly and open-hearted
man, upright in his disposition, and honorable in his every action.
- Mr. VAN GALDER was born in Ohio March 22, 1835, a son of
- Jacob and Rhoda (WILSON) VAN GALDER. They had eleven children,
only one of whom is now living, Oscar, of Janesville. The father
ran an ashery in Ohio, and was also a dry-goods merchant in Akron.
In early life he learned the cooper's trade. In 1848 he came
to Wisconsin, buying a half-section of land in La Prairie township,
Rock County, which came into the hands of his children after
his death, a few years later. Samuel C. VAN GALDER
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- received eighty acres in Section 32 of that town, and added
to this farm time to time until he owned 400 acres at the time
of his death. He had worked assiduously on his land, and it was
a highly cultivated and productive farm long before his demise.
On Aug. 1, 1858, he married Miss Eliza HEALD, a daughter of Lewis
and Harriet (OLNEY) HEALD, and six sons and two daughters were
born to this union; Alice E., Clark F., Louis A., Charles R.,
Lester G. and Grace E. (twins), and Ernest H., and Irving S.
(twins). Alice E. has been twice widowed; by her first husband,
Frank GRAVES, she had one son, Glen, and by her second, John
HOWARD, she had three sons, Harley, Clark and John. Clark F.
died aged twenty years and eleven months. Louis A. married Nellie
BOSTWICK, and they have two living children, Edwin and Floyd;
they live in O'Brien County, Iowa. Charles R. is a farmer on
part of the old homestead farm; he married Miss Viola CROTZENBURG,
and is the father of two children, Merl and Dorothy. Lester G.
died in March, 1890, aged twenty-six years and eleven months;
he married Miss Bessie LITTLE. Grace E. died when two years old.
Ernest H. was six years and eleven months old when he died. Irving
S. and his mother live together on the old home place; he is
still unmarried, and carries on the farm.
- Samuel C. VAN GALDER was reared in Ohio, and went with the
family to Michigan, coming
- with his parents to Wisconsin in 1848 and locating in La
Prairie township, where he lived until his death, in October,
1894, at the age of fifty-nine years. He was a man of more than
ordinary strength of character, and had been called upon to fill
several local positions by his fellow townsmen. He was supervisor
for a number of years, and also a member of the school board.
He was a Republican, and always took an active and intelligent
interest in public affairs.
- Mrs. VAN GALDER's parents, Lewis and Harriet (OLNEY) HEALD,
were both natives of the
- State of New York. They had four sons and four daughters,
and five of their children are still living; Mrs. Eliza VAN GALDER;
Margaret, wife of William LEWIS, of Rockford, Ill.; David, of
Beloit; George, of Shopiere, Rock County; and Joseph L. Mr. HEALD
was a farmer, and he came to Rock County, Wis. with his wife
and three children in 1845. He located in La Prairie township,
on eighty acres of government land, and devoted his remaining
years to its cultivation and improvement, dying in La Prairie
township in 1888, at the age of seventy-seven. His widow still
survives, aged eighty-two years, her birth having occurred Oct.
9, 1818. Mr. HEALD was justice of the peace for many years, and
was also on the board of supervisors. His father, Thomas HEALD
, was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mrs. HEALD's father, Thomas
OLNEY, was born in New York, and was an early settler in western
Pennsylvania, having his home in Fairview township, Erie County.
Mrs. HEALD is still strong and healthy, with a bright intellect
and fine memory for one of her years. She has seen the development
of Rock County from a wilderness, and in conversation recalls
many valuable and interesting memories of that early day.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 192-193; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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