Alameda County Biographies

William N. Van De Mark

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
 
        William N. Van De Mark has been a resident of California for a period covering four 
decades and has ably served as deputy county assessor of Alameda county for the past twenty 
years. He makes his home in Oakland and here established and still conducts the Dramatic 
Institute and School of Oratory. His birth occurred in Albany county, New York, on the 23d of 
October, 1843, his parents being John E. and Julia A. Van De Mark, nee Vanzandt. The Vanzandts 
and Stanfords lived on adjoining farms. Hon. Leland Stanford was a warm friend of the mother of 
Mr. Van De Mark.
        In 1844 the family home was established in Rochester, New York, where our subject 
attended the graded and high schools until the age of fifteen years, while subsequently he 
spent a year as a student in St. Lawrence University of Canton, New York. In 1862 he enlisted 
in the Union army and served as chaplain during the remainder of the period of hostilities 
between the north and the south, being honorably discharged by reason of resignation in 1865. 
During the latter part of his army service he acted as general superintendent of colored 
education for the Department of the Gulf. His service in this position was highly satisfactory.
        Mr. Van De Mark was then elected to the pastorate of the Universalist society in 
Churchville, New York, for one year and was next transferred to Lockport, New York, where he 
preached for three years. On the expiration of that period he went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
there following his calling until 1873, when he came to California and for two years served as 
minister of the Universalist church in San Francisco. He then resigned his pastorate and became 
a teacher of elocution in Oakland and San Francisco, opening the Dramatic Institute and School 
of Oratory, which he has successfully conducted to the present time. He has graduated a large 
number of pupils, among whom are some of the most prominent men in San Francisco and Oakland. 
In addition to his work in this connection Mr. Van De Mark has also done public service, acting 
as assistant weigher in the United States customs house from 1891 to 1894. Since the latter year 
he has held the position of deputy county assessor of Alameda county, proving an able and 
highly satisfactory incumbent. During the past three years he has had full charge of war 
veterans' exemptions for Alameda county. He has traveled largely, having been twice in Europe 
and completed the round of the States, the West Indies and Mexico.
        Mr. Van De Mark has been twice married and by his first wife has one son, Clarence R., 
who is forty-two years of age and is engaged in the men's furnishing business in Denver, 
Colorado. For his second wife he chose Miss Mary A. McDonald, whom he wedded in Oakland on the 
2d of March, 1884. They have two children: Lester W., who is twenty-eight years old and is a 
manager in the employ of the Taylor & Spottswood Company of San Francisco; and Lucy M., a 
soloist in the First Church of Christ, Scientist. The latter has a pure contralto voice and is 
studying for grand opera.
        Politically Mr. Van De Mark has always been a stanch republican, supporting the men and 
measures of that party at the polls. He is a member of the Christian Science church and still 
maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in the Grand Army 
of the Republic and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Mr. Van De Mark 
has recently passed the Psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten but is still an 
active factor in the world's work and has long been numbered among the most highly esteemed and 
best known citizens of Oakland.
 
Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 118