Andrew Nelson Van Camp Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1240-1241 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ANDREW NELSON VAN CAMP. 

	Andrew Nelson Van Camp is now devoting the greater part of his 
time and attention to the management of the business of the telephone 
company at Highmore, South Dakota, but has been a prominent figure in 
political circles of the state, his opinions carrying weight in 
republican councils, while his efforts have been productive of 
beneficial results along political lines. Mr. Van Camp is a native of 
the neighboring state of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Muscatine 
county, December 18, 1850. Mention of his family is made in connection 
with the sketch of A. E. Van Camp, which appeals on another page of 
this work. 

	After attending the public schools of his native state Andrew N. 
Van Camp continued his education in the Wilton (Ia.) Academy and in the 
Iowa State University at Iowa City, in which he pursued his law course, 
being graduated in 1871. He also pursued a commercial course before he 
entered upon preparation for the bar. He had completed his education 
before he attained his majority and had tried some cases before he 
reached the age of twenty-one years. Following his admission to the bar 
he practiced in Iowa until 1882, when he came to Dakota territory, 
settling on government land which at that time had not been surveyed. 
His place was a mile from the present site of Highmore and he still 
owns the land. He resumed the practice of law in Highmore and continued 
the cultivation of his farm until 1903, when he removed his family from 
the farm to the town. In 1907 he erected the Telephone Exchange 
building, which would be a credit to a city of much larger size. It is 
a brick veneer, two-story structure with basement and its dimensions 
are forty by forty eight feet. In 1902 he organized the Hyde County 
Telephone Company, of which he is now a stockholder and the secretary 
and general manager. He rents his farm lands and is devoting the 
greater part of his attention to the telephone business. 

	On the 22d of July, 1873, Mr. Van Camp was married to Miss Kate 
Allen, a native of County Tipperary, Ireland. Her father came to 
America in early manhood and died in Boston before the arrival of his 
family in the new world. Mrs. Van Camp with her mother removed from the 
east to Rock Island, Illinois, and later came to South Dakota, Mrs. 
Allen spending her last days at the home of her daughter, where she 
passed away in 1895. 

	To Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp have been born nine children: James K., 
who is district agent at Yankton for the De Laval Separator Company, 
married Marguerite Mulvey, by whom he has two children, Cyril and 
Marguerite. William N., residing in Highmore, is engaged in educational 
work in Hyde county and for two terms was county superintendent of 
schools. He was a member of the lower house of the state legislature 
for one term and secretary of the state senate during the sessions of 
1913 and 1915. During the last three or four years he has been special 
traveling salesman for the American Book Company, having charge of the 
territory of North and South Dakota. He married Marie Quirk, of 
Highmore, and their children are Fred, Florence, Howard and Royal. 
Francis Joseph, the third of the family, died in Wilton, Iowa, in 
infancy. Harry Theodore died in 1895, at the age of fifteen years. John 
Edgar, residing at Fort Dodge, Iowa, is district agent for the Free 
Sewing Machine Company, having charge of several counties. He married 
Miss Georgia Thompson of Canton, South Dakota, and they have five 
children. Allen A., born in Hyde county, is now residing in Highmore 
and is assisting his father in the telephone business. He married Edith 
McKillip and they have one child, Philip. Ella Ann is the wife of J. H. 
Quirk, a stockman and real-estate dealer of Highmore. George is now ill 
the moving picture business at Los Angeles, California. For a number of 
years he was connected with the Sioux City Journal and was secretary of 
the senate in 1911. Kathryn B. completes the family. 

	Mr. Van Camp is a member of the Masonic lodge at Highmore and of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen and holds membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal church. His political endorsement has always been 
given to the republican party, which recognizes in him one of its 
prominent supporters in this state. He served as the first county 
superintendent of schools of Hyde county, was district attorney in 
territorial days, was states attorney for two terms and was assistant 
chief clerk of the house during the session of 1893. He also served on 
the board of education in Bramhall township, Hyde county, for about 
fifteen years. At the convening of the special session of the first 
state legislature under the constitution October 15, 1889, in the 
transition from territorial to state government, at which time the 
first state officers were sworn in and the first United States senators 
were elected, he acted as assistant to Secretary of the Senate F. A. 
Burdick and for him wrote the records of the session in the great book 
in the office of the secretary of state, and also at the dictation of 
State Senator A. B. Kittredge, afterward United States senator from 
this state, wrote the certificate of election of one of the newly 
elected United States senators, Moody and Pettigrew, to the United 
States senate. During the regular session which convened January 7, 
1890, Mr. Van Camp acted as legislative reporter for the Sioux Falls 
Daily Press and The Deadwood Pioneer-Times and made what is termed a 
newspaper scoop by discovering and exposing a movement on the part of 
some of the members to dissipate and waste the large patrimony given 
the state by congress for educational, charitable and other general 
state purposes, to accomplish which purposes and to boost favored 
localities, as well as to draw away as much opposition as possible from 
a permanent location of the capital at Pierre, the combination sought 
to locate an additional agricultural college at Aberdeen, another state 
university at Huron, another reform school at Watertown, another normal 
school at Forest City and various other institutions at different 
places in the state. His early exposure of the plot in the columns of 
the Press resulted in arousing the friends of the institutions already 
located to action and caused the bills, which had been referred to a 
special committee, composed of friends of Mr. Van Camp, named by 
Lieutenant-Governor Fletcher, to never be reported for action. The 
value of the services thus rendered can never be estimated. With him 
patriotism has ever been before partisanship and the public good before 
personal aggrandizement. He has worked earnestly and effectively to 
advance the best interests of the state along many lines and the value 
of his services places him among the substantial honored residents of 
South Dakota.