BIOGRAPHIES:  Clarence J. VAN TASSEL, Hale Township, Trempealeau Co., WI

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Submitted by: Nance Sampson, Trempealeau Co. WIGenWeb CC  19 February 2005
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**Posted for informational purposes only. I am not related to the subject 
of this biography, nor do I have any further information on this family.

Clarence J. Van Tassel, civil engineer, is having an important part
in the road work which is giving to Trempealeau County its justly-
famed system of public highways.  The new roads over some of the most
difficult ridges in the county owe their location and grades to his
skill, and his efficiency is highly praised throughout the state,
being in constant demand over a wide territory.  His work in locating
the route of the new Ettrick & Northern Railroad has permanently
established his record among the successful engineers of the state.
Mr. Van Tassel is a native of this county, having been born in Hale
Township, July 5, 1879, son of James and Clara (Wegner) Van Tassel.
James Van Tassel was born in Kenosha, Wis., came to Trempealeau
County with his parents in 1863, married Clara Wegner, and devoted
the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits, dying in 1898,
since which time his wife had made her home in a comfortable
residence in Whitehall.  Clarence J. Van Tassel was reared to farm
pursuits and received a solid foundation for an education which he
has since supplemented by wide reading and close observation.  For
several years he was a teacher, after which he was a successful
photographer.  But he was a man of resource and ambition, and
determining to become a professional man he took up the study of
civil engineering at home, and found it not only to be an occupation
which he found congenial, but one for which he had great natural
aptitude.  He devoted a part of his time to this profession for
several years, and in 1912 adopted it as his life work.  For several
terms he has been county surveyor.  A popular genial man of many
friends, Mr. Van Tassel has allied himself with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, in the local lodge of which he has passed through all
the chairs.  Mr. Van Tassel was married Nov. 1, 1899, to Anna Stanley
of Onalaska, Wis., daughter of Lyman and Diana Stanley, a former
school teacher, and a gracious lady of many accomplishments.  Their
pleasant and hospitable home is blessed with the presence of four
children:  Thurman, Howard, Gerald and Olive.  The family has a wide
circle of friends and is highly regarded and respected. 

-Transcribed from the "History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin,
1917," pages 799-800.

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