BIOGRAPHIES: Robert VAN TASSEL, Sumner Township, Trempealeau Co., WI ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. Submitted by: Nance Sampson, Trempealeau Co. WIGenWeb CC 19 February 2005 ************************************************************************ **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. Robert Van Tassel, an enterprising and successful farmer of Sumner Township, having a fertile farm of 185 acres in section 3, was born in Adams County, Wisconsin, near Kilbourn, June 18, 1861. He is a son of Jacob and Harriet (Bradford) Van Tassel. Jacob Van Tassel was born in New York state in September, 1821. Mrs. Harriet (Bradford) Van Tassel died in 1863, and three years later Jacob Van Tassel married Catherine Costello, who now resides at Madelia, Minn. They came to Trempealeau County in 1868, homesteading a farm in Hale Township, where Jacob Van Tassel spent the rest of his life. Robert Van Tassel was the youngest of the six children by his father's first wife. He acquired a knowledge of agriculture in his youth and early manhood and after his father's death rented the home farm in Hale Township for two years. He then went to Verdi, Minn., where he resided until 1888. Subsequently returning to Hale Township he rented farms until 1898, in which year he bought the old home farm in Hale Township. There he remained until 1913, after which he sold it and bought his present farm, which is a well improved piece of property. The residence is a good two-story frame structure, with basement, and containing nine rooms. The barn measures 34 by 64 by 20 feet, with cement floors and steel stanchions, and in addition there is a stave silo, 12 by 32 feet, and a machine shed, 22 by 40. The property was purchased from E. J. Matchett and is well fenced with woven wire. Mr. Van Tassel was married March 31, 1889, to Dora Bailey of Verdi, Minn., who was born near Melrose, Jackson County, Minn.*, Jan. 4, 1871, daughter of Zaccheus W. and Catherine (House) Bailey. Her father, born in New York state in 1842, died Sept. 9, 1902; his wife Catherine died Dec. 19, 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Van Tassel are the parents of seven children: Ethel, born March 17, 1891, who married Elmer Wood, railroad agent at Alma Center, and has one child, Muriel; Vern, born Aug. 30, 1893; Ruth, born March 26, 1897, and now a teacher; Bessie, born Sept. 2, 1899; Cecil, born May 30, 1902; Alfred, born Dec. 19, 1909; and Dolores, born Sept. 4, 1914. * - could this be Wisconsin instead of Minnesota? -Transcribed from the "History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917," page 801. © All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm