~ John Vandermast ~

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. Page 476.

~ John J. Vaughan ~

John J. Vaughan, a successful grain merchant of Newton, and one of the most influential citizens of this place, was born in New York October 2, 1834. His father, whose name was also John, was the son of one Micajah Vaughan, who was of English ancestry, with perhaps a tinge of Welsh blood in his veins. The father of our subject was a blacksmith by trade and also owned a farm and kept a hotel in the state of New York, where he died in 1842. His wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Maxson, was a direct descendant of one of the royal families of Holland.

In the parental family of eleven children, six sons and five daughters, the late William Vaughan, of Newton, was the eldest. In an early day he came to Newton, where he amassed a fortune in the mercantile business and also engaged in the banking business, becoming one of the foremost men of the city. After the death of his father, John, then about eight years of age, came west with his mother and the remainder of the family and settled near Jackson, Mich., where the eldest brother, William, had come some years before. Later, John removed to Clinton, Mich., where he worked in the store of his brother, William.

In the year 1853, at the age of nineteen years, Mr. Vaughan crossed the plains to California, going from Salt Lake City to Sacramento on foot, and without shoes, his feet becoming blistered and bleeding by the eight hundred miles trip over the mountains. Arriving in the Golden State, he and his brother Samuel D., in whose company the journey had been made, engaged in placer mining, in which the latter accumulated a fortune. John J. remained in California until 1856, when he returned to Michigan via the Isthmus. Soon afterward he married Cornelia Piper, a native of Michigan, and a descendant of German ancestors.

In the spring of 1858, Mr. Vaughan came to Iowa, where for a time he resided on a farm near Newton, but soon afterward went into a store as a clerk. In 1861 he was appointed deputy County Treasurer of Jasper County, in which position he served for eight years, retiring from it to enter the insurance business. After the great Chicago fire, he located in that City and engaged in the commission business on the Board of Trade, but after spending two years In that place he returned to Newton and embarked in the grain business for a number of years by himself, but is now connected with the firm of Councilman & Co., of Chicago.

During the entire period of his residence in Newton, Mr. Vaughan has been one of the fore-most citizens of this place. From the organization of the Jasper County Fair until the present time, he has been one of its leading spirits, and has served as its Secretary from the first. He and his wife have one child, a daughter, Florence, who was educated in New York. She has a fine musical talent. For many years Mr. Vaughan was the leader of the church choir in Newton, and his services have been in frequent demand for entertainment. Page 353.

~ William Vaughan ~

William Vaughan, the subject of this sketch, was born August 30, 1817, at Varysburgh, N. Y., being the eldest of eleven children. His father was John Vaughan, and the mother's name was Hannah Maxon. April 16, 1844, he was married to Cynthia Morehouse. She died October 16, 1844. April 16, 1846, he was married to Myra, daughter of Frederick A. Seymour, who still survives to be a comfort to their sons, Fred W., now in San Francisco, Cal.; Henry M., now filling the father s place in the hardware business; and one daughter, Ella V., who married D. J. Eberhart April 9, 1878, and resides in Newton, Iowa.

When about eighteen years of age, William Vaughan went to Clinton, Mich., and through the influence of his old townsman, John A. Fulsom, readily obtained a clerkship in the dry-goods house of J. W. King. In a few years, with S. B. Rose, he bought the business. In 1856 he removed to Newton, Iowa. Here he engaged in the hardware and implement business, and continued therein until the time of his passing away, August 14, 1891. He was also prominently identified with the banking interests of the city. Mr. Vaughan was ever a public-spirited citizen, and greatly aided in the growth and prosperity of Newton. Having reached it in its mere infancy, he lived to see and enjoy its growth into one of the most prosperous towns of central Iowa. An intelligent, courteous, Christian gentleman, he was influential in the diffusion of sentiments of true, pure morality. Being a consistently practical temperance man, he labored quietly, yet persistently, against the use of liquor and tobacco in every form. Uniting with the Congregational Church with his wife in 1857, at its beginning, he labored for its up building and always bore a heavy share of its financial burdens and his full share of its labor. He was a friend to its Sabbath school, teaching its classes and serving for years as its Superintendent. As a businessman he was successful, always maintaining the confidence of his fellow-citizens.

The social nature of Mr. Vaughan won for him hosts of friends, who mourn the loss of his genial presence. Few men have lived in any community who would be so much missed, as is Mr. Vaughan by so large a circle of friends and citizens. He was universally loved, and is universally mourned. Businessmen most respectfully closed their houses during the burial services. Page 501.

~ Walter J. Vinal ~

Among those who have immigrated to this country from the Old World is the gentleman of whom we are about to give a brief history. He is actively engaged in general farming in Richland Township, Jasper County, and was born in Sussex County, England, October 15, 1846, to Henry and Matilda (Read) Vinall. The parents were born in the same place as was their son, and immigrated to the United States in 1849, locating near Cincinnati, Ohio, where the father worked out by the month until able to rent a place, finally purchasing near Davenport, Iowa. He now lives in that city free from the toils of life, aged seventy-five years. The mother is also seventy-five years of age.

The grandparents of our subject were George and Sarah Vinall, and in his native country the grandfather was a sawyer by occupation; they both died in England. They were the parents of seven children, five boys and two girls, of whom Henry is the only survivor. The mother of our subject was one of fourteen children, seven boys and seven girls, all reaching mature years. She bore her husband fourteen children, ten of whom grew to manhood and womanhood and are all yet living.

Walter J. Vinall was the recipient of a common school education, and at an early age manifested a lively interest in educational matters and an amount of industry and integrity of purpose that could but result in success. Following the footsteps of his father, he has always devoted his attention to farming, with the exception of seven years, during which time he taught, school in the winter months. At the age of twenty-six he commenced to make a business record for himself and is now the owner of a valuable estate and also of a comfortable home. His farm comprises two hundred and eighty acres of excellent land in a body, all of which is in a perfect state of cultivation. The original estate was eighty acres, on which our subject erected all the buildings himself. Prior to coming to this county, which he did in the fall of 1880, Mr. Vinall rented land for six years in Scott County, Iowa.

The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was married November 19, 1872, to Miss Emily Vinall, a cousin. She was born May 19, 1850, to Thomas and Mary Vinall, natives of England, who spent their entire days there, dying when quite old. Mrs. Mary Vinall was one in a family of seven children, three of whom are living. Some of the Vinall family were seamen, some were employed by the Government, and the rest were farmers. Our subject's wife when fourteen years old commenced working out in her native country, but when twenty-two years of she started for America, coming alone. She was nine days upon the water and landed at Quebec, Canada. Her marriage with our subject soon occurred, and has been blessed by the birth of four children: Ettie M., born October 22, 1873; Thomas H., December 18, 1875; John W., February 29,1884; and Samuel H., March 1, 1886. They are all at home and are receiving the best educational advantages within the grasp of their parents. The grandparents of Mrs. Vinall were William and Mary (Wood) Delves, and the father was steward of a large farm for fifty years in Sussex County, England. He and his wife lived to reach the advanced ages of eighty and ninety-one years, respectively.

Our worthy subject has been called upon to serve his township in various responsible offices and is now filling his second term as Trustee. He was President of the School Board and Treasurer for one term, and has held other minor positions. He is a stanch Republican in politics and cast his first vote for General Grant. When sixteen years old he united with the Christian Church and has ever been a valued and active worker in its faith. The honored office of Sunday school Superintendent has been his, he filling it efficiently and being well liked by all his scholars and teachers. A reliable, steady-going citizen, an industrious farmer and a good neighbor, he is looked upon with due respect, and his wife has also many friends. Page 468.