vanmarters  
 
 

Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",  published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.


     SYLVESTER L. VAN MARTER is a truck and drayman of Lind, Washington.  He was born in St. Clair county, Michigan, March 24, 1863, the son of George W. and Jane (Hitchcock) Van Marter, natives of Pennsylvania, and Holland, respectively, and of Scotch-Irish and Dutch descent.  They removed to Michigan in an early day when the state was new, and the mother died there.  The father is now living in Grinnell, Gove county, Kansas.  They were parents of eleven children, seven of whom now live, Mrs. Mary Cutler, Mrs. Alvy Colman, Mrs. Sarah Mullholland, Mrs. Jane Moore, Henry, Mrs. Elvira Solein, and the subject of our sketch.
     Sylvester L. remained at home and attended school until sixteen years of age, when he took his destiny into his own hands.  He first procured work on farms both in his native and Oakland counties, then entered the lumber woods in Roscommon county.  Here he remained until coming to Adams county in 1886.  He located at Lind and took employment with the Northern Pacific, with which company he remained one year, when he took a homestead, purchased a section of land seventeen miles west of Lind and farmed until 1899.  He also engaged quite extensively in the stock business.  His homestead corners with the town of Lind, and a portion of it he has platted and has sold fourteen blocks of town lots.  He makes his home on this tract, and lives in a handsome stone house.
     Mr. Van Marter belongs to no political party.  He is a member and officer of the I. O. O. F. fraternity, and belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America.  During the year of 1902 he was a member of the city council, and has been a member of the school board of his city.
     When Mr. Van Marter first came to Adams county, in fact for seven years after coming, he found extreme difficulty in gaining a start.  He now, however, is well-to-do and is doing a good business, the results of his pluck and determination to win.
 
 

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