Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 738
W. H. VAN SLYKE

W. H. VAN SLYKE, City Marshal at Dunlap, has been a resident of Harrison County since 1872. He is a native of western New York and was born in 1841. His parents were Henry and Sally (FOLTS) VAN SLYKE, who were of German extraction. Our subject was reared in the Empire State and when twenty-one years of age, enlisted (August 12, 1862,) as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Sixteenth New York Infantry, and was discharged June 26, 1865, at Buffalo, N. Y., having served until the close of the war. He left the service as Orderly Sergeant and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in 1863,but never served as such. He was wounded at the battle of KOCH'S Plantation in Louisiana, July 13, 1863, and came very near being taken prisoner by the rebels on that day. Among the engagements he participated in were Store Plains, Louisiana, May 21, 1863, Ft. Hudson, May 27, 1863, and was under almost constant fire for fifty-four days, during which time they were without relief. He was also engaged at the battle of Sabine Crossroads, Louisiana. The day following the battle of Pleasant Hill his command was ordered to Washington, and was sent from there by "forced march" to Shenandoah Valley and was placed under SHERIDAN'S command during the balance of the war, taking part in the battles of Cedar Creek, Fishers' Hill and Winchester, and from the date of President Lincoln's assassination they were held in Washington to guard prisoners. Our subject's company was one that stood well to the front for bravery, and the matter of endurance of hardships, always being ready for active duty.

In 1866, after the close of the war, Mr. VAN SLYKE worked in a cheese factory in New York, in which he had an interest and remained there until 1871, and then engaged in the furniture business for a short time in Jamestown, N.Y. He then came West, visiting several points, and in 1872 came to Dunlap, where he engaged in various pursuits until the spring of 1874, at which time he went on the merchant's police force for two years, but resigned that position and engaged in the manufacture of barbed wire with COLWELL, THOMPSON & Co., with which company he was associated for five months, and then returned to the police force and has acted in that capacity ever since. He has been City Marshal of Dunlap for nine years. He is a rock-rooted Republican and a member of Shields Post, No. 83, of the G.A.R., and was Quartermaster of this post from the time of its organization until 1891, when he was elected Post Commander but refused to accept the position. He is also an honored member of Hospitable Lodge, No. 244, of the A. F. & A.M. and member of Acorn Camp, No. 325, M. W. A.

Our subject was married August 1, 1866, to Miss Ermina R. COLWELL, born in Sardinia, N. Y. April 24, 1844. Mr. and Mrs. VAN SLYKE are the parents of six children: Bert C., located at Tacoma, in the employ of a surveying party; Carl H., telegraph operator in the employ of the North Western railway; Ada, deceased; Frank L., a book-keeper and expert penman in a bank at Manilla, Iowa; Lew S., deceased; Katie, deceased.

The father of our subject was Henry VAN SLYKE, born in Schoharie County, N. Y., in 1811, died at Ashford, Cattaraugus County, N. Y., about 1845. He was the son of Augustus and Betsy VAN SLYKE, who were descendants of HOLLANDERS but were natives of New York. The great-grandfather of our subject was Nicholas VAN SLYKE, who came direct from Holland. He carried a musket in the Revolutionary War and died in New York State. His son, the grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the War of 1812 and carried the same musket which his father had used in the Revolutionary War. Augustus VAN SLYKE was a farmer by occupation and died in 1865, at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, the grandmother of our subject, died in 1868. They were the parents of the following children: David, a resident of Galesville, Wis., who is a Methodist minister; Andrew, a farmer of Chautauqua County, N.Y.; Henry, deceased; Nicholas, of Springville, N. Y., a brick-mason and plasterer by trade; Augustus, deceased; Orlena, wife of John NYE, deceased, a resident of Ashford, N. Y., Polly, deceased wife of John OYER, also deceased.

Henry, the father of our subject, was a farmer early in life but subsequently engaged in the hotel business. He married Sallie FOLTS, who was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., and is now living in Sardinia, Erie County, N.Y. She was the daughter of Joseph and Betsy FOLTS, who were also natives of the Empire State, and he was in the War of 1812 and was of Holland descent. They had a family of eight children: Timothy, deceased; Hyrum, deceased; William, a farmer residing near Mansfield, N. Y.; Oliver, proprietor of the hotel at Ashford, N. Y.; Sallie, the mother of our subject; Mary, deceased, in 1889; Margaret, wife of Morris WOODRUFF, a resident of Little Valley, N. Y.; Elizabeth, wife of Justin MUNGER, a resident of Olean, N. Y.

The parents of our subject had a family of three children�Joseph, deceased at the age of four years; William, our subject, and James, a resident O Sardinia, N. Y. By her second marriage our subject's mother had three children: Amelia, wife of Lewis SOULE, a resident of Collins Center, Erie County, N. Y.; Horace, a bridge carpenter of Springville, N. Y., and Eugene, a farmer living near Sardinia, N. Y.

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