Vandermast, John

VANDERMAST, CHAMPION, IESELAAI

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/15/2009 at 18:30:05

John Vandermast is the able editor of the Monroe Mirror, a breezy sheet, which enjoys a good circulation and is published in the interests of the community, especial attention being paid to local affairs, making it a history of the events that transpire in this locality. Moreover, it reviews most intelligently the public issues of the day, and its advertising columns are well filled, and show that the businessmen of Monroe appreciate it as a medium for making themselves known to the people at large. The intelligent and capable editor of this paper was born in the Netherlands, October 13, 1848, and is the eldest of several children born to the marriage of Walter Vandermast.

The father was a notion dealer in the Old Country, but in 1854, when our subject was six years of age, the family came to this country and settled in Pella, Iowa, where the father died ten years later. The family was left in destitute circumstances, and John, then a boy of sixteen years, became the main support of the family. He left school and began working to supply his widowed mother, brothers and sisters with the necessaries of life, first entering a printing office to learn that trade. Finding that as an apprentice he did not earn sufficient to support the family, he worked at odd jobs during spare moments, and to his credit be it said that he never let the family come to want. Often the struggle was a hard one, but he fought the battle bravely and surmounted all difficulties.

While serving his apprenticeship on the Pella Weekblad, he attended night school, and in this way obtained a fair education. From the first he showed a marked taste for newspaper work, and subsequently became editor for tile Pella Weekblad, holding that position for three years. After this, for ten years, he was correspondent for the Iowa State Register. He is a versatile writer, decidedly original, sometimes unique, and always interesting and entertaining. In 1880 he came to Monroe, Iowa, and purchased the Monroe Mirror, which he has carried on with marked success ever since, and has now one of the best local papers in Jasper County.

In his political views, Mr. Vandermast has ever been a stanch Republican, and under President Harrison's administration he was made Postmaster at Monroe, a position he held for four years to the satisfaction of all parties, his appointment being put through by J. S. Clark, who was a personal friend of his. Mr. Vandermast has also served two terms as City Recorder, and has held other local positions. On the 2d of October 1872, he was married to Miss Martha Champion, of Allegheny City, Pa. Two interesting children bless this union, John and Joseph, both young men and both associated with their father in the newspaper business.

Socially, our subject is a member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, being great workers in the cause of Christianity. All his life Mr. Vandermast has been prominent in Sunday-school work, and no one in Monroe takes a greater interest in it than he. He has a pleasant life. He is a good type of the self-made and self-educated man. His younger brother Asa, whom he helped to educate and support while the latter learned a trade, is now a wealthy merchant of Prairie City, and another brother, Elisha, is a farmer in the state of Washington. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 476.
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Vandermast, John

Although born under another flag, in a country of widely different customs and surrounded by environments to such as we of America are unused. John Vandermast, the well-known, popular and enterprising publisher of the Monroe Mirror, has been true to the duties of citizenship, faithful to every trust reposed in him and well worthy of the high regard in which he is held. A plain, straightforward, unassuming gentleman who, as a newspaper man, has sought to make his paper one of the most reliable, newsy, instructive and readable in this section of the Hawkeye State, and one would judge from the ever increasing circulation, the steady growth of his business in a general way and from the many laudatory statements of his hundreds of patrons that he has succeeded admirably well. He seems to have ever had the good of this locality at heart and has advocated and supported every movement calculated to benefit the same in a material, civic or moral way, and he therefore enjoys the good will and esteem of all classes.

Mr. John Vandermast was born in the Netherlands on October 13, 1848, and he is the son of Walter and Joanna Hermina (Ieselaai) Vandermast, both born in Holland. The family traces its lineage back for seven hundred years. On the walls of the ancient walled city of Gouda may be seen to this day the name Vandermast. Certain chronicles of the twelfth century tell of a Vandermast, a great magician, who was able to materialize the departed.

Back in Holland the father of the subject was proprietor of a supply house. He brought his family to America in 1855 when his son John, of this review, was seven years old; the trip was made in a sailing vessel, Ocean Home, making her first voyage. On her second voyage she sank with all on board. Landing at New Orleans, the family ascended the Mississippi River by steamboat to Keokuk, and from there they journeyed by wagon to Pella, the father walking all the way. He could not speak a word of English. Arriving in Pella, the elder Vandermast began gardening. His death occurred when the subject was sixteen years old, leaving him with the entire care of the mother and four children beside himself, he being the eldest of the five. He assumed his responsibilities manfully and although the experience was hard for one of such tender years it fostered in him such principles and qualities as made for large success in subsequent life. By selling papers, gardening and working at anything he could find to do he kept the family from want. When he was twenty-one years of age his mother married again, and then the subject secured employment with the two newspapers at Pella. Proving apt to learn and taking a deep interest in this line of endeavor, he soon advanced and in due course of time became local editor of the Blade, which position he held with satisfaction for three years. Of his brothers and sisters, Joanna and Jane are deceased; Elisha is a farmer in the state of Washington, and Asa is a merchant in Santa Ana, California.

On the day of President Garfield's election, Mr. Vandermast moved into Monroe, Jasper County, having purchased the Mirror, which he has owned and edited ever since. It is one of the best-equipped offices in the County for job printing and a large amount of work is done in this department. He has a modern and thoroughly equipped plant and only high-grade service is recognized here. The Mirror, conducted as a Republican paper, is one of the oldest in the county and for years has been one of the influential molders of public opinion in this section of the state.

On October 2, 1872, Mr. Vandermast was united in marriage with Martha Champion, of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Champion, both now deceased. This union has resulted in the birth of three children, namely: John Q. is connected with his father's paper; Joseph Walter lives in Buffalo, New York; Leon died in infancy.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Vandermast are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Monroe. He has been either a teacher or superintendent in the Sunday school here for the past thirty years. He is a trustee in the church. He has been a member of the town council and was formerly town recorder also. Under Harrison's administration he served four years as postmaster. He takes a keen interest in politics and has been a member of the Republican County Committee several times and he has frequently served as a delegate to county and state conventions. He never loses an opportunity to make his influence felt for the good of his party. Fraternally, he belongs to Fairview Lodge No. 194, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and both he and Mrs. Vandermast are members of Fairview Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, at Monroe, of which he is past worthy patron. For a number of years he has been prominent in local fraternal circles. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 966.