----Source: 1918 History of Clark County, Wisconsin, pg. 392 - 393.

                                       John Vandeberg & Family

JOHN VANDEBERG, a well-known farmer of York Township, residing in section 21, was born in Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 4, 1858. His father was Chris Vandeberg, and his mother's maiden name was Johanna Wilhelmina Beyers. Both parents were natives of Holland, where they were married, coming to the United States as a young married couple. On landing in this country after a nine weeks' voyage, they proceeded to Milwaukee, where Chris Vandeberg worked at whatever he could find to do. After a while they went to Fond du Lac County, where they rented a farm, but later they bought a tract of land four miles west of Waupun, on which Mr. Vandeberg built a log stable and a board shanty, and in time he cleared up his place and erected good buildings on it.

His wife died, leaving six children-John, Garrett, Abram, who died at the age of six years, Abram (second), Johanna and Dina-and he married for his second wife Wilhelmina Terbeest, also a native of Holland. Of this union there were seven children, William, Herman, Chris, Wilhelmina, Cynthia, Christina and Jennie. John Vandeberg acquired his education in the district school and gained a knowledge of agriculture on his father's farm, subsequently working for two years on a farm in the vicinity of the Vandeberg homestead. At the end of that time he came to Clark County, where he found employment in the woods at lumbering from February to May, afterwards buying his present farm in section 21, York Township, which consisted of sixty acres of wild land on which there were no buildings.

In July of the same year he was married to Lillie I. Lawrence, daughter of Horace and Lorinda (Windsor) Lawrence, who were pioneers of York township. For a residence Mr. Vandeberg built a frame shanty, 14 by 16 feet in size, which he has since remodeled into a good farm house of nine rooms, but the first year he and his wife lived in a rented log house in the vicinity. He has cleared the farm by his own labor and made various improvements on it, having erected, besides his dwelling, a basement barn, 36 by 70 feet in size, and a silo, 16 by 24 feet. When he began the work of cultivation he cradled his grain by hand and exchanged his labor for the use of a team. He first raised Durham cattle, which he has now crossed with Holsteins, also raising full-blooded Poland-China hogs and a good grade of horses. He has increased the size of his farm to 140 acres and has helped to establish his children in homes of their own.

Mr. Vandeberg has served as treasurer of York township and as supervisor, and has also been a member of the school board for twenty-four years, during twenty-one of which he served as treasurer and three as clerk. He is a member of the Lynn Fire and Tornado Insurance Company and was treasurer of the local telephone company. He and his wife have had five children: Alvin, residing in York Township, who married Julia Ziemba, and has two children, John and Chester Horace, who married Fern Alton, also resides in York Township, and has two children, Bernice and Harold Manley, now deceased Ida, the wife of Edward Voigt, and residing on the home farm, who has one child, Mervin and Ruth, also residing on the home farm. Mrs. Lillie Vandeberg was born in Sheboygan County, Wis., Jan. 11, 1867, the scene of her birth being a log house on the farm of her parents, Horace and Lorinda (Windsor) Lawrence. Her father died in York Township, Clark County, May 22, 1889, at the age of 51 years, Lorinda, his first wife, having died at the age of 33 years, in York Township , May 8, 1875. He had been a farmer in Sheboygan County, and he and his wife had five children, born in that county, George, Ida, Burton, Lillie and Melvin. After coming to Clark County the family located in section 21, York Township, where Mr. Lawrence took up a tract of wild land, building a log house and barn. There he subsequently erected good buildings and passed the rest of his life. After the death of his first wife be married for his second, Edna Smithers, of which union ten children were born: William, Lois, Orin, Roy, Floy, Earl, Ethel, Olive, Carrie and Horace. Mr. Lawrence was a member of the Methodist Church. His daughter Lillie (Mrs. Vandeberg) went to live with her uncle and aunt, George and Sarah Lindsley, in whose home she grew to womanhood. She attended school in Fond du Lac and Clark counties.