Van Demark, Haryvey C.

VAN DEMARK, COURTRIGHT, WOODBURN, YOHE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/31/2003 at 02:07:34

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.
HARVEY C. VAN DEMARK

Harvey C. Van Demark, of Clinton, Iowa, was born in Waverly, Tioga county, New York, January 5, 1862, and is a son of Henry W. and Amanda (Courtright) Van Demark, the former of Holland Dutch ancestry, the latter of Scotch extraction. The mother died at Storm Lake, Iowa, but the father is still living, and now makes his home with a daughter in Omaha, Nebraska. From New York he removed to Wisconsin, and later came to Iowa. He opened up farms at Grinnell and Holstein, this state, and successfully followed agricultural pursuits throughout his active business life, but is now living retired. He became pretty well-to-do and acquired some property. In early life he was a lumberman and raftsman on the Susquehanna river. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the Ninth New York Volunteer Infantry, and after serving two years was honorably discharged on account of disability, having been seriously wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. In his family were five children, of whom one died in infancy and a daughter after reaching maturity. Those still living are Harvey C., our subject; Etta, wife of E.J. Woodburn, of Omaha, Nebraska; and Herbert, a horseman of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

During his boyhood Harvey C. Van Demark pursued his studies in the common schools near Grinnell, Iowa, and remained on the home farm, assisting his father in its operation until he went to Odebolt, Iowa, in 1880, and entered the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway as brakeman. Two years later he went on the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and located at Missouri Valley. Six months after he was promoted to conductor, being the youngest conductor on the road. In September, 1883, he went to Belle Plaine, Iowa, and held the position of brakeman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway until 1890, when he was made conductor on the branch to Muchicannock and to Boone. After the division was changed he removed to Clinton, and has since run between that place and Boone on time freights.

Mr. Van Demark was married at Belle Plaine, in 1888, to Miss Lyde Yohe, a native of Miami county, Ohio. She came to Iowa in 1867 with her parents, who died in Marengo, this state. By trade her father was a shoemaker. They had six children who are still living, but Mrs. Van Demark is the only one residing in Clinton. Unto our subject and his wife was born one son, Earl, who died at the age of ten years. Bennie LeRoy Yohe, aged nine years, has made his home with them since his mother’s death, when he was only eighteen months old. He possesses exceptional talent as a musician; in fact, is a prodigy in that line. Mr. Van Demark owned a nice home in Belle Plaine, but sold it on his removal to Clinton in 1899. He joined the Order of Railway Conductors at that place, and is now a member of the Clinton division, No. 33, while his wife belongs to the ladies’ auxiliary society of that order. He is also a member of Lincoln Lodge, I. O. O. F., and she is a member of the Daughters of Rebekah. Together they hold membership in the Tribe of Ben Hur, a fraternal insurance order; the Knights and Ladies of the Golden Precept, and the Modern Brotherhood of America. Mrs. Van Demark has taken an active interest in lodge work, and has filled various office in these organizations, and is now vice-president in the Modern Brotherhood of America. Both she and her husband are quite prominent socially, and although their residence in Clinton has been of short duration, they have already made many warm friends.