VanArsdale-L Archives

From: NArendsee <>
Subject: [VanArsdale-L] Isaac VanArsdol of Page Co. IA
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 19:51:41 EST

>From History of Page County (Iowa), by W.L. Kershaw 1909

Among the honored and venerable citizens of Page county is numbered Isaac Van
Arsdol, who has now reached the age of eighty-nine, his birth having occurred
in Delaware cunty, Indiana, August 3, 1820. He is a son of Cornelius and Jane
(McClellan) Van Arsdol, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of
Pennsylvania. The paternal grandfather, John Van Arsdol, was born in Holland
and his wife was a native of Germany. Coming to America, he served in defense
of colonial interests in the Revolutionary war, while his son, Cornelius Van
Arsdol, was a soldier of the war of 1812.

Although born in the east the parents of our subject were married near
Cincinnati, Ohio, and in April, 1820, removed to Indiana, spending their
remaining days in Delaware county. The father was a local minister of the
Christian church and a man who exerted a widely felt influence for the moral
development of the community. He gave his early political allegiance to the
whig party, afterward became an abolitionist and when the republican party was
formed to prevent the further extension of slavery he joined its ranks and
continued to follow its banners until his death, which occurred about 1869.
His widow long survived him and died at the very advanced age of ninety-eight
years. They were among the first settlers of Delaware county, Indiana, and
Cornelius Van Arsdol there established one of the first blacksmith shops in
the county, doing all of his own work. He likewise engaged in farming and
then as occasion required he preached the gospel on Sunday. His wife had been
previously married prior to the time when she became Mrs. Van Arsdol and by
her first marriage had a son, Thomas Hackett, who died at the very advanced
age of ninety years. The other members of the household were: Mary, who is
the wife of William Brown and lives in Delaware county, Indiana, at the age of
ninety-nine years; John, who married Lois Paton, but both are now deceased;
Ellen, who became the wife of Henry Mulkins, both now having passed away;
Martha, the deceased wife of Christopher Ribble, who lives in Delaware county,
Indiana, at the age of ninety-three years; Isaac, of this review; Cornelius,
who is married and lives in Delaware county, Indiana, at the age of eighty-
seven years; Mrs. Jane Wilkins, deceased; Mrs. Lucretia Hollis, deceased; and
Rachel who is the widow of John Wolverton and lives in Seymour, Indiana.

Isaac Van Arsdol was the first white child born in Delaware county, Indiana,
at which time his parents were living on an Indian reservation. He was there
reared amid the wild scenes and environments of pioneer life, sharing in the
privations and hardships incident to settlement on the frontier. His
education was acquired in a subscription school and he worked in his father's
blacksmith shop during the winter season and on the farm in the summer months.
He continued his residence in Delaware county until 1853, when he made his way
to Polk county, Iowa, where he spent one winter looking over the county for
good farm property. The journey from Indiana had been made by wagon and he
traveled over Iowa on a prospecting trip on horseback, eventually locating in
Page county, on a part of the present site of Clarinda in April, 1854. Then
land was then all wild prairie and he purchased five hundred acres, for which
he gave a yoke of cattle and eight hundred dollars in gold. Mr. Van Arsdol
improved most of this property and remained upon the farm for about forty
years or until 1893, when he erected the residence in which he now lives at
No. 206 Garfield street in Clarinda. With the growth and development of the
city his farm was included within the corporation limits and he disposed of
much of it in town lots at a good figure. He disposed of all but two lots
and the house, the remainder of his acres being now built upon as good
residence property.

Mr. Van Arsdol was married in Delaware county, Indiana, in 1844 to Miss
Margaret Ribble, who was born March 9, 1822, a daughter of George and Sarah
(Surfus) Ribble, the former a native of Montgomery county, West Virginia, and
the latter of Virginia. Mrs. Van Arsdol had twelve brothers and sisters and
the family record is as follows: Emeline, who is the widow of Samuel Weidener
and resides in Clarinda; Mrs. Van Arsdol; Harriet, living in Indiana; Mrs.
Eliza Hutchings, deceased; Mrs. Sarah Stouder, who has passed away; Mary, who
is the widow of Gilbert Lyons and resides in Clarinda; Arbelia, who is the
widow of Samuel Furlow, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman and resides in
Indianola, Iowa; Nancy, who is the widow of Ross Henchman and is living in
Tacoma, Washington; Henry, a Civil war veteran, who resides in Pasadena,
California; and three children who died in infancy.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Van Arsdol has been blessed with six children: Mary,
who is the widow of Wilson Woods and is living in Clarinda with her parents;
Luther, of Kansas City, Missouri, who married Cynthia Connor and has two
children, Mrs. Grace Gay and West; Cassius, who is married and is a civil
engineer working in Canada; George, who is married and lives in Waterloo,
Iowa; Sallie, the wife of Robert Burrell, of Nebraska; and one who died in
infancy.

Mr. Van Arsdol not only followed agricultural pursuits, but has built and
plastered many houses in Clarinda, burning his own lime for the mortar. He
burned the first lime ever used in Page county and he built and plastered the
first Methodist Episcopal church of Clarinda. He has helped to pay for and
build three churches and three parsonages in Clarinda and in many other ways
has been closely associated with the substantial development and progress of
the community. He had one of the first farms in the county, upon it built an
octagonal barn and engaged extensively in cattle raising. In his buisness
life he was progressive, enterprising and persistent and the same qualities
have been manifest in his citizenship, making his work in behalf of the public
good one of far-reaching and beneficial importance. He has lived to witness
the many great changes which have transformed this county form a wild and
unimproved district into one of rich fertility, dotted here and there with
fine homes, excellent school buildings, churches and business enterprises. As
the years have passed he has rejoiced in what has been accomplished and he
continued as an active factor in the world's work until the weight of years
neccessitated his retirement. He is now almost a nonogenarian and his memory
goes back to the time when there were few railroad lines throughout the
country and when the telegraph and telephone were unknown. He has always
believed in progress and improvement and has, therefore, rejoiced in what has
been accomplished as the years have gone by.

This thread:

• [VanArsdale-L] Isaac VanArsdol of Page Co. IA by NArendsee <>