For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 680
JACOB E. VAN CAMP. Jacob E. Van Camp was one of Muscatine's popular and well known citizens who has recently removed to Punta Gorda, De Soto county, Florida. During his residence in Muscatine he was a traveling salesman and insurance solicitor and while business claimed much of his attention, he yet found time for social enjoyment and for the performance of his duties of citizenship. Thus his is a well rounded character and his good qualities commend him to the confidence and high regard of all.His parents came to Muscatine county at an early day and he was born on the old home farm in Sweetland township, April 11, 1867. His parents were Kiple and Ann Maria (Little) Van Camp, the former a native of Warren county, New Jersey, and the latter of Sussex county, that state. The Van Camps are of Holland Dutch descent. The grandfather, Isaac Van Camp, died before the birth of his son Kiple and the grandmother passed away when Kiple was but eleven years of age. He was the youngest of their family of four sons and a daughter, the others being James V., William, Nelson and Emeline. The maternal grandfather of Jacob E. Van Camp was Benjamin Little, who was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, and after arriving at adult age married Katherine Vass, who was born in Warren county, New Jersey. He went to the lake country in New York state and was never heard of again. His widow afterward came to Iowa with the Van Camp family in 1850 and died in Sweetland township a few days before reaching the age of eighty years. Ann Maria Little was their only child.
Kiple Van Camp, left an orphan at the age of eleven years, spent his youth in his native county and throughout his life followed the occupation of farming. In the spring of 1850 he came to Iowa and the unsettled condition of the country is indicated by the fact that he was able to purchase one hundred and sixty acres of land in Sweetland township, Muscatine county, for two dollars and sixty cents per acre. This same property is today worth a hundred and fifty dollars per acre. He improved the place, converting it into a nice farm, and all of his children were born and reared thereon. Prospering in his undertaking, he became the owner of several farms but disposed of all of them but the old home place, on which he spent his last years. He was born September 15, 1823, and died on the 23rd of November, 1903, his death resulting from pneumonia. His widow, who still survives him, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, January 17, 1828, and is therefore eighty-three years of age. She was a resident of Warren county, New Jersey, between the ages of seven and twenty years and has been a resident of Muscatine county for more than sixty years, having arrived here on the 16th of May, 1850. She holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, to which Kiple Van Camp also belonged. They were the parents of ten children: Andrew N., of Highmore, South Dakota; Abram E., of Highmore; William O., of Villisca, Iowa; Mary E., the wife of Isaac Longstreth, of Sweetland, Iowa; James H., operating the old homestead in Sweetland township; George W., of Greenfield, Iowa, now representing Adair county in the state legislature; James E., of Muscatine; Frank K., of Denver, Colorado; and two who died in infancy.
Jacob E. Van Camp was reared upon his father's farm in Sweetland township, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He attended the district schools and also the normal school conducted by Professor Leverich. He continued to assist his father in the cultivation of the home farm until he attained his majority and then rented some of his father's land, which he cultivated until 1894, when he removed to Bates county, Missouri, investing in a sixty-acre farm near Butler. A year later he sold that property and went to Crawford county, Missouri, where he purchased eighty acres of land. After disposing of that tract he turned his attention to the hotel business at St. James, Missouri, where he suffered heavy losses through fire on the 6th of January, 1897. A month later he returned to Iowa, where he made his home until his removal to Florida. During the past twelve years he has been largely upon the road as a commercial traveler and was for a time a representative of the German American Insurance Company of Burlington. For the four years he made his home in Muscatine and was widely known and popular here.
On the 2d of January, 1890, Mr. Van Camp was married to Miss Minnie V. Norcross, who was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, a daughter of Jacob and Emeline (Taylor) Norcross. Her father was born in Warren county and her mother in Connecticut. They came to Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1881 and purchased a farm in Sweetland township, where Mr. Norcross died on the 11th of August, 1910, at the age of seventy-nine years. Her mother is still living at the old home. They were the parents of two children: Charles J. and Minnie V. Two children have been born unto Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp, Anna B. and Roy K. The latter has attended high school, and the former is a graduate of the Muscatine high school and also pursued a teacher's course in the State Normal School and engaged in teaching.
Mrs. Van Camp belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Van Camp holds membership with Iowa Lodge, No. 2, A. F & A. M. His political indorsement is given to the democratic party but he does not seek nor desire office preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs. A social nature has made him widely known in the districts to which his business has taken him and he possesses qualities which business men appreciate and commend.
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