928
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
and Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Chicago. He was successively merchant, farmer and stock-raiser, and then became interested in the manufacturing enterprises of which his father was the leader in Batavia. He was officially connected with various corporations in Batavia, where he resided until 1891. That year he removed to Appleton, Wis., to take charge of the large paper manufacture and water power interests still owned by the Van Nortwicks at that point. He married Miss Bina Totman, of Batavia, in 1875.
JOSEPH S. VAN PATTEN, druggist, St. Charles, Ill.; born in Cortland County, N. Y., July 12, 1823; came to Illinois in 1854 and purchased an interest in the pioneer drug-store of which he is now the owner. Mr. Van Patten was first married in New York in 1846, his wife dying in 1853, and in 1857 he married his second wife-Jane A. Clark, of Michigan.
WILLIAM VAN NORTWICK, pioneer manufacturer, Batavia, III. (now deceased), was born in New Jersey in 1778, and died in Batavia, Ill., Sept. 19, 1854. He removed from his native State to New York in early manhood, and there aided in the construction of some of the noted public works of the latter State, at one time being State Superintendent of Canals for Northern New York. He came to Kane County, Ill., in 1835, and made his home on the site of the present city of Batavia. Here he built a dam across Pox River, acquired valuable water-power, and engaged actively in milling and manufacturing. He was widely known among the pioneers of this region, and was prominent in the laying of the foundations of Batavia. His wife's maiden name was Martha Flack. She died in Chicago in 1879 at the advanced age of ninety-three years.
WILLIAM M. VAN NORTWICK, civil engineer and manufacturer, Batavia, Ill., was born Nov. 8, 1836, in Hammondsport, N. Y., a son of John and Patty (Mallory) Van Nort-wick, and ten years later was brought by his parents to Illinois. Here he was educated in Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris. He became a civil engineer, and in his earlier years was connected with the Galena Air Line Railway Company and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. In 1870 he became interested in the Batavia Paper Company, and later became associated with other large paper-manufacturing enterprises in Wisconsin, and it was said that the Van Nortwicks were for a long time the largest manufacturers of paper in the West. As a result of the consolidation of paper-making interests a few years since, Mr. Van Nortwick embraced the opportunity to retire from active business, although retaining his interests. He married Miss Louise J. Towner, of Geneva, Ill., in 1861.
GEORGE C. VAN OSDEL, lawyer, Aurora, Ill., was born at Hughsonville, Dutchess County, N. Y., Dec. 13, 1842, son of James M. and Margaret (Bates) Van Osdel, and coming west with his parents in 1864 settled near Sandwich, Ill. He was educated in public and private schools, and when twenty-one, intending to turn his attention from farming to commercial business, he became a student in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Chicago. In June, 1864, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry for the 100-days' service, the regiment being mustered out October 10th following. He arrived in Aurora in 1865, and for a time clerked in a dry-goods store and later taught school in La Salle and Kendall Counties. For two years he was in charge of the Commercial Department of Fowler Institute at Newark, Ill., and for ten years officiated as a Baptist minister, but failing health having compelled his retirement, for the next twelve years was in business as a photographer at Toulon, Ill., meanwhile serving for eight years as a Justice of the Peace. These associations turned his mind to the law, for which he prepared under Hon. B. F. Thompson as his preceptor, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State in 1888. Two years later he established an office in Aurora, where since 1895 he has been Justice of the Peace, and also Public Administrator of Kane County. Mr. Van Osdel was married in 1868 to Miss Clara A. Bibbins, of Newark, Ill., who died in 1883. The children of this marriage are Winifred W. and G. Ernest (both in New York) and Mrs. Grace (Van Osdel) Cook, of Kendall County, Ill. Miss Isabel Stuckey, of Washington C. H., Ohio, became Mr. Van Osdel's second wife in the fall of 1884.
ARTHUR P. VAUGHAN, Civil War veteran, was born in Essex, Chittenden County, Vt, son
