One of the owners of extensive farming interests in Richland county is
the gentleman whose name initiates this sketch, who resides in Preston
township. His valuable property has been acquired through his own efforts -
his persistency of purpose and his determination, and the prosperity which
is the legitimate reward of all earnest effort is today his.
William
Van Alman was born in Switzerland, July 5, 1828, the son of Christian and
Anna (Milliman) Van Alman, also natives of Switzerland, where they lived and
died. The father of the subject was a farmer and died when the latter was
ten years old, and he was only three years old, when his mother died. They
were the parents of seven children, four girls and three boys, William being
the youngest. He was reared in his native land and received a common school
education. When nineteen years old he went through the regular drill
required of all able bodied young men. He had left home when sixteen, having
secured the required passport to leave his native section of Switzerland. He
worked on farms and at dairy work for several years. In the latter part of
1849 in company with two older brothers and a cousin, he came to the United
States in an old-fashioned sailing vessel, being fifty-four days making the
ocean voyage, landing at New Orleans, where he says he saw his first
"nigger." He came up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Louisville,
Kentucky, where he arrived January 1, 1850. He soon went to Ripley county,
Indiana, where his cousin lived, and in the following March went to Mount
Vernon, Illinois. That same spring he came to Richland county, and went to
work on a farm for seven dollars per month. He saved his money which he
added to what he had when he came to the United States. In 1852 he entered
one hundred and sixty acres of land in Preston township, eighty acres of
prairie and eighty acres of bottom land. He at once built a log cabin and
began improving his place, having bought a yoke of cattle and began breaking
the prairie land, and being a hard worker, he was not long in making many
changes on his farm. He bought more oxen and continued breaking land for his
neighbors for ten years - over one thousand acres in all. He operated a
threshing machine for thirty years, wearing out six machines during that
time, and doing a large and prosperous business in this line. He became
prosperous and at one time owned three hundred acres. He is at this writing
the owner of two hundred and fifty acres.
Olney was a hamlet of only
a few houses - mean wooden structures - when Mr. Van Alman came here.
William Van Alman was united in marriage October 7, 1862, to Elizabeth
Mattingly, who was born in Jasper county, Illinois, the daughter of George
and Elizabeth Mattingly. The subject and wife are the parents of thirteen
children, six of whom grew to maturity. They are, Matilda, Stephen, died
when thirty-two years old; Charles, Emma is the wife of William Lamkin, who
lives in Louisville, Kentucky; Fred W. is a farmer in Preston township;
Louise is the wife of Ed. Williams, living on the old homestead.
Politically Mr. Van Alman is a Democrat, having always supported the
principals of that party. He and his wife are members of the German Reformed
church in Preston township.
Mr. Van Alman was the first person to
break the banks of the Ambrose river to cross with a wagon in this section.
He was the first person to subscribe fifty dollars for the construction of a
bridge across this stream, where a ferry used to be maintained. He built the
first ferry across the Ambrose river in the pioneer days; in fact, he built
four ferries before a bridge was constructed. His name is associated with
progress in the county of his adoption and among those in whose midst he has
so long lived and labored, he is held in the highest esteem by reason of an
upright life of fidelity to principles.
Extracted 26 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 335-336.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
 |
Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
