Individual Details

FRED F. VAN BOSKIRK, a progressive farmer and stock-grower of Midland township, has an attractive homestead of one hundred and sixty acres — the northeast quarter of Section 8. He was born at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 15, 1881, a son of Lincoln and Celia (Freer) Van Boskirk, of whose four children he is the youngest; Mae is the wife of C. R. Munford, who is individually mentioned in this history ; Daisie is the wife of Curtis C. LaForge, of Midland township ; and Frank O. is another of the prosperous farmers of this township.

Lincoln Van Boskirk was born in Pennsylvania, January 15, 1826, and his death occurred July 15, 1905. He was a pioneer of the state of Iowa and there operated sales stables first in Cedar Rapids and later at Iowa City, giving much attention to buying horses for the government and also dealing somewhat extensively in mules. In 1885 he came with his family to Gage county and here he traded horses for a section of land in Midland township, the property having been unimproved. He developed a fine farm property and the present homestead of his son Fred, of this review, is a part of the same. Mrs. Celia (Freer) Van Boskirk was born in Ashland, Ohio, April 18, 1849, and passed to the life eternal on the 2d of August, 1910.

Fred F. Van Boskirk was about four vears old at the time of the family removal to Gage county, where he was reared on the pioneer farm of his father and duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools. He was, however, only thirteen years old when he began to assert his youthful independence and provide for himself. He traveled about and for four years he was employed in a meat-packing plant in Kansas City, Missouri. His father then gave to him his present farm, upon which he has erected a modern house and made other good improvements, and he is alert and progressive in his activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower, in which latter department he gives special attention to the raising of Hereford cattle. He is independent in politics and his wife is a member of the Presbyterian church.

August 25, 1905, recorded the marriage of Mr. Van Boskirk to Miss Ella Dole, who was born at Milford, Seward county, Nebraska, a daughter of Josiah and Sophia (Hooker) Dole, the family being definitely represented on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Van Boskirk became the parents of five children, all of whom are living except Ruth, the firstborn ; Lauretta, Katharine, Venita, and Harold lend joy to the pleasant home.

Mr. Van Boskirk is a successful breeder of fine Belgian draft horses, as well as trotting and saddle horses and mules, his boyhood experience having been such as to give him special predilection for enterprise along this line. In the early frontier days his father was a freighter from Iowa to Colorado. This sterling pioneer received deed to his land in Midland township from President Andrew
Jackson, and he was one of the venerable pioneer citizens of Gage county at the time of his death.

Birth	15 Mar 1881	Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa
Census-shared	5 Jun 1900	(Celia Freer) Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska
Marriage	25 Aug 1905	Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska - Ella Sophia Dole
Census (family)	16 Apr 1910	Midland, Gage County, Nebraska - Ella Sophia Dole
Draft registration	12 Sep 1918	Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska
Census (family)	1 Feb 1920	Midland, Gage County, Nebraska - Ella Sophia Dole
Census (family)	5 Apr 1930	Midland, Gage County, Nebraska - Ella Sophia Dole
Census	23 Apr 1940	Midland, Gage County, Nebraska

Spouse	Ella Sophia Dole (1877 - )
Child	Ruth Van Boskirk (1906 - )
Child	Lauretta Van Boskirk (1907 - )
Child	Eveline Katharine Van Boskirk (1908 - 1991)
Child	Venita A. Van Boskirk (1912 - )
Child	Harold L. Van Boskirk (1917 - )

Father	Caleb Lincoln Van Boskirk (1831 - 1905)
Mother	Celia Freer (1849 - 1910)
Sibling	Mae Van Boskirk (1877 - )
Sibling	Daisy Grace Van Boskirk (1878 - )
Sibling	Frank Oliver Van Boskirk (1877 - )

Notes