Biography of F. E. Van Liew

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1898. Page 395

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 


F. E. VAN LIEW, the able editor of the "Watertown Times," attorney-at-
law and a popular economist, who is now making his home at Watertown, 
Codington county, was born in New York state, December 9, 1851. His 
father, John Van Liew, was also a native of New York, and a tailor by 
trade. He went west in about 1858 and located in Bureau county, 
Illinois, and died in Dover, of that county, in 1879. He was of Holland 
descent. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Miss Lydia Smith, was 
reared in New York and is supposed to have been born there. She died in 
January, 1898. Her ancestors migrated to this country from England.

	Mr. and Mrs. John Van Liew were the parents of twelve children, 
five of whom are still living, and of whom our subject is the youngest. 
When he was seven years of age the family moved to Bureau county, 
Illinois, and there he grew to manhood and was educated in the public 
schools and at the Dover academy, and also at the Knox academy at 
Galesburg, Illinois, which he supplemented by a special course with 
Professor Bangs, of Princeton, Illinois. He was admitted to the bar of 
the supreme court of Illinois, at Ottawa, September 14, 1877, and 
practiced in Bureau county until 1882, when he moved to Watertown, 
Codington county, South Dakota, and continued his profession in that 
place. He was admitted to the bar before the supreme court of Dakota 
territory, May 9, 1888, and afterward by the supreme court of the state 
of South Dakota. He also served the citizens of his adopted county in 
the capacity of state's attorney for two terms, and as a member of the 
board of education one term, and police justice three terms. Outside of 
his public offices, also, Mr. Van Liew has taken a prominent part in 
local political and educational matters, and heartily seconds and gives 
material aid to worthy enterprises, and has frequently taken the stump 
in the interests of the Democratic party. Mr. Van Liew was engaged in 
teaching school from the time he was nineteen until he reached the age 
of twenty-seven, making his own living and paying his own expenses while 
reading law with John Herron, and Eckles & Kyle, of Princeton, Illinois. 
Since June, 1896, he has edited the "Watertown Times," and has ably 
conducted the various departments of his newspaper enterprises and has 
built up for himself an excellent reputation as an editor and a large 
patronage for the paper.

	November 26, 1873, Mr. Van Liew was united in marriage to Miss 
Marian F. Webb, a native of New York, and a daughter of Gilbert and 
Julia (Ingalls) Webb, and their wedded life has been blessed to them by 
the advent of three children, viz: Roy W., Cornelia and Victoria, all of 
whom are teachers in the public schools. The family are members of the 
Congregational church.