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VanEPS, William. A clerk of the writer was sent to interview William VanEps in regard to his early history and his connection with Sioux Falls, and it is given below, in his own language:
“I was born in Fox Lake, Dodge county, Wis., July 20, 1842. In 1858 I left that country and went west into Minnesota, where I worked on a farm for $12 a month during the summer of 1859. From there I went to Brighton, in southern Iowa. I walked the entire distance, about 350 miles, and carried with me everything that I had, including the little I had accumulated by my work on the farm. I engaged in the grocery business in a small way, and stayed in Brighton that winter. In the early spring I went to Richland, where I met a friend, W.A. Jordan. He proved to be a very good friend indeed, and gave me such endorsements as enabled me to buy goods in much larger quantities in the eastern markets. I staid in Richland engaged in a general mercantile business for about three years. Then I sold out and went to Denver, Colorado in the spring of 1863, where I engaged in various enterprises and speculations. From there I went down into Mexico and then back to Beaver Dam, Wis., where my parents resided. I spent a few weeks visiting them, and then went to Milwaukee, where I took a course in the Bryant & Stratton commercial college. I then went to Minnesota in search of a business location, and finally settled in the town of Manderville, Dodge county, where I continued in business for some three years. I then received letters from my former friend, W.A. Jordan, asking me to sell out there and engage in business with him at some point that we might decide upon. We finally settled upon the town of Eddyville in southern Iowa, and entered into copartnership under the firm name of Jordan & VanEps. After running the business for about a year we concluded that we had better seek a place where we could occupy our time and capital to better advantage. I started out in search of a location in northwestern Iowa, Nebraska, or some point in Dakota, and finally radiated back to Cherokee, which was a place in name if not in population, there being only two or three houses there then. We ascertained that the Dubuque and Sioux City road, which is now the Illinois Central, was about to be extended westward to Sioux City, and we concluded to locate and engage in the mercantile business in Cherokee. Two years later, I ascertained that the military reservation at Sioux Falls was about to be raised, and I decided to locate there. I came to Sioux Falls August 14th, 1870, to look the ground over, and became infatuated with the country and what I then considered the site for a prospective city on the plains of Dakota Territory; retuned to my home in Cherokee and completed arrangements for locating in Sioux Falls in the spring of 1871. At that time the nearest railroad point was LeMars, Iowa, a distance of 75 miles from Sioux Falls and 100 miles from Sioux City. I set out to purchase lumber and erect my building, for a residence and for business—combining the two in one—the store below and residence in the upper rooms. I went to Minneapolis in search of lumber, and purchased my first bill of lumber for the erection of my old building, which now stands on Main avenue, of W.D. Washburne, who is now United States senator from Minnesota. He waited upon me in person. After ascertaining where I was to take the lumber, he seemed to become very much interested in me, so much so that in something like ten days or two weeks, I received a package of the Pioneer Press, published in St. Paul, setting forth the fact that a certain young man named Wm. VanEps, seeing the importance of an early location in what was then called the wilds of the great West, had located in the mercantile business at Sioux Falls, and that in his (Mr. Washburne’s) judgment, he had selected a location, which in a very few years would grow into a prosperous and wonderful frontier city, and would be paying tribute both to St. Paul and Minneapolis wholesale and manufacturing interests. All of which has proved that Senator Washburne was a true prophet.”
Since coming to Sioux Falls Mr. VanEps has been one of the most active and energetic business men that ever resided in South Dakota, as well as one of the most successful. He has figured extensively in real estate transactions, erected a large number of buildings and has done a large and profitable mercantile business. At the present writing he is occupying one of the most attractive and commodious stores that can be found in the Northwest, and it is filled with an elegant class of goods. What is better still, the building in which he is doing business was built by him and is one of the largest and handsomest business buildings in the state. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and as the county and state have been strongly Republican he has not held many official positions. He was elected one of the trustees when the village of Sioux Falls was incorporated, was a member of the city school board from 1889 to 1893 and an influential member of the state constitutional convention of 1889. He has been a delegate to the national Democratic conventions, and at the last convention was prominent among the members from the Northwest. He has always been a strong man in the councils of the Democratic party, and is recognized as one of the Democratic “war horses” of the state. While enterprising, he is conservative, and in all matters in which he engages is persistent and independent, working out his plans in his own may. He has accumulated a fortune by his industry, sagacity and hard work, and has a good title, legal and equitable, to every dollar of which he is possessed. He is the peer of any business man in the state.

VanEPS, Mrs. Inez C., nee HERRICK, was married to William VanEps October 14, 1867, at Manderville, Minnesota, and has resided at Sioux Falls since 1871. She was a fine singer, and her cultivated voice was one of the attractions on many public occasions in the little village. She has always been greatly respected by the residents of Sioux Falls for her many womanly qualities, and her exemplary life, and no one is more gracious in manner and kindlier of heart than Mrs. VanEps, as many of the poor and needy in the city know best.

VanSLYKE, Charles H., was born April 26, 1836, in Oneida county, New York; was educated in the public schools, and worked on a farm until about twenty years old, when he entered his father’s shoe store and remained until August 8, 1862. At that time he enlisted in Company B, 157th New York Infantry, and served until July 10, 1865. October 2, 1862, he was made Second Lieutenant, and the following March was promoted to Captain, and served on the Division Staff as Provost-marshal. Upon his return from the war he engaged in shoe manufacturing at Utica, New York, until 1882, when he returned to Springfield, Dakota, and engaged in farming. In November, 1887, he removed to Sioux Falls, where he has since resided. For a few years he engaged in painting, but in 1890 was appointed messenger in the United States courts by Judge Edgerton, which position he held until 1896. Since that time he has been engaged in the pension and patent business. The Captain is a highly respected citizen.

VINCENT, Charles Herbert, better known as “Charley Vincent,” was born in Jefferson county, New York, December 14, 1847. His father was a dairyman on quite an extensive scale. He removed to Calumet, Wisconsin, in 1856, and, of course, Charley accompanied him, and at the age of eleven years commenced business as a newsboy on a train; was brakeman, baggageman and conductor before he was seventeen years old, and at the age of eighteen was conductor on a passenger train running between Milwaukee and Sun Prairie in Wisconsin, and remained in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway company as conductor for thirteen years. In March, 1877, he came to Sioux Falls and entered into a copartnership with T.F. Leavitt, and engaged in the hardware business, under the firm name of Leavitt & Vincent, but after a few years he bought out the interest of his partner and carried on the business three years alone; then he formed a partnership with W.D. Roberts, under the name of Vincent & Roberts, which firm existed for two years and a half, when it was dissolved, Mr. Vincent continuing the business, and is, at this writing, at the old stand, getting his share of the trade.
He is a good business man, and recognized as “one of the best fellows” in the city of Sioux Falls. Public-spirited, without a trace of a “kicker” in his whole make-up, it is unnecessary to add that he is well liked and popular with his neighbors and the business community. He is a Sir Knight, Shriner, Elk, and ready for anything else that may come his way.

VOORHEES, John H., was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, February 20, 1867. During his minority he spent most of this time in obtaining an education, attending the public schools, and Rutgers college at New Brunswick, N.J., where he was graduated in 1888. The same year in October, he came to Sioux Falls, and entered the law office of C.O. Bailey. In September, 1889, he was admitted to the bar. He remained in the office of Mr. Bailey, and Bailey & Stoddard, and at the dissolution of that firm October 1, 1891, he entered into a copartnership with Mr. Bailey under the firm name of Bailey & Voorhees, and the firm is still practicing law in Sioux Falls. He is conceded to be one of the best office lawyers in the city of Sioux Falls, and has earned this reputation by a course of careful study. Well educated, industrious, and believing that nothing is worth having until earned, he bids fair to become one of the most thoroughly equipped lawyers in the state. He is known as a young man of worth and integrity.

VREELAND, Robert E., was born in Tama county, Iowa, December 27, 1854; was reared on a farm, and attended the common schools until 1874, when he commenced work for Daniel Glidden in a store, and removed with him to Sioux Falls, where he arrived Nov. 4, 1878, and remained employed in Mr. Glidden’s shoe store until he went out of business; he then clerked for Morstad & Christopherson in their clothing store for five years; in 1891, formed a copartnership with Nels Arnston under the firm name of Bob & Nels, and engaged in the clothing business on Phillips avenue in Sioux Falls, in which they still continue, and are doing a good business. Mr. Vreeland is a good business man, energetic and enterprising, and is well liked as a neighbor and citizen.