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G. W. Van Buren – G. W. Van Buren, formerly a wagonmaker and blacksmith of Victoria, now retired, was born February 15, 1831. A native of Delaware County, New York, he is the son of Peter Van Buren, a well known farmer of Victoria Township. Peter Van Buren was born in Delaware County, New York, in 1800, and was reared and educated there. He married in early youth CHARITY SORNBERGER, also of Delaware County, New York. She was the daughter of George Sornberger, who later was a resident of Knox County, where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Van Buren came to Illinois in 1838 and settled on a farm of one hundred and five acres, one and one-half miles south of Victoria, where they lived during the remainder of their lives, he dying at the age of fifty-six and she, at the age of sixty-five years. They are both buried in the Victoria cemetery. Mr. Van Buren was a very prominent man in his community and for ten and one-half years was the justice of the peace for Victoria Township. He was a democrat in politics and both he and Mrs. Van Buren were devoted workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which they were members. They were the parents of nine children, of whom G. W. was the third in order of birth. The others were: Ambrose; Benjamin, who lived and died in Oregon; Elizabeth who became the wife of Moses R. Aldridge and is now deceased; Katherine who married Franklin Force and is also deceased; Martha, now Mrs. John W. Harold, of Missouri; Mary M. who married Abraham Files, of Kewanee, Illinois; Helen, who is the wife of Novates Tiffany, of Nebraska; and John, who was murdered in Idaho.
     G. W. Van Buren was six years of age when his parents came to Victoria. He was educated in an old-time, rudely constructed log schoolhouse with the desks made of slabs supported by pegs that were fastened in holes bored into the wall, and with seats that were long wooden benches. After his school days he learned the carpenter trade, working for six years all over this part of the county. He then took up farming, managing and operating the old homestead until 1861, at which time he came to Victoria and began work of wagonmaking and blacksmithing, a business which for forty-seven years he successfully pursued, retiring in 1908.
     He was married in 1857 to EMMA J. FORCE, who came as a young girl with her parents, Thomas and Phoebe (WILEY) Force, from New York to Knox County. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Van Buren but the eldest, an infant girl, died at the age of six months. The second child, John, who is a resident of Victoria, is a carpenter and contractor, and in the strawberry business. He married LULU TRIPP and they are the parents of two children, Edna and Bessie. Arthur, deceased, married GRACE CUMMINGS, who is and has been for five years postmistress at Victoria. They have one child, Marie. Cora, the wife of William Hosford, of Michigan, has no children. Mary Emma, the wife of John Cooke, lives in Truro Township, Knox County, and has nine children, Bernice, Mabel, Sydney, Van, Calvert, Phyllis, Kenneth, Margaret, and Harlan. Alice, the wife of John Doak, resides in Copley Township, and has one son, Dale. Charles E. married ELLA RICE, a daughter of Amos Rice. Mrs. Van Buren, the mother of these children, a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died in July, 1904.
     Mr. Van Buren has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since he was twenty years of age and has given it faithful service having held almost all of the church offices. He is a republican in politics, has given much time to public service, and has at different times in his life held most of the town offices. Few men have had the opportunity to render to their community such long and efficient service as has Mr. Van Buren. Eighty-one years of age, having lived in the county for more than seventy-four years, he has seen its development from the formative to the present state and has rendered at all times whatever help he could bring about better conditions in the community.   (History of Knox County, Vol. II, by A. J. Perry, pages 547-548, submitted by J. Crandell)

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S. L. Vance - Farmer; Elba Township; born February 3, 1861, at Highland County, Ohio. Educated in the common schools. His father was Andrew Vance, born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania; his mother was Harriet Kibler of Highland County, Ohio; his paternal grandparents were David and Hannah Vance of Maryland. His great-grandfather, Thomas Vance, and his maternal grandmother, Margaret Strain, were from Ohio; his great grandfather was John Strain. Mr. Vance was married March 3, 1892, in Galesburg to LETTY RINER. She was born in Toulon, Stark County, August 22, 1870, and is the daughter of Mathew and Margaret Riner. They have one child, Carmon R. R., born March 19, 1896. The grandparents of Mrs. Vance were John and Elizabeth (Douglas) Wingader; the great grandfather came from Germany, and died January 25, 1894; the great grandmother came from Scotland and was born September 4, 1809 and died April 28, 1878. Her grandparents on the father's side were Peter Riner of Virginia, born March 8, 1803, and Margaret (Kelly) Riner, born October 8, 1808, died January 1, 1873. Mr. Vance came in 1868 with his father to Section 36, where they have a farm of two hundred and eighty acres. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, Lodge No. 301, Yates City. Mr. Vance is a democrat. (HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS AND KNOX COUNTY, Munsell Publishing Company, 1899, page 898, submitted by J. Crandell)

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John Gilpin Vivion - John Gilpin Vivion was at different times connected with commercial and financial interests in Galesburg and always maintained a prominent position as a citizen whose activity contributed to public progress while his personal worth gained for him the high regard and confidence of his fellow men. He was born in Fayette County, Missouri, July 18, 1853, a son of Dr. John B. Vivion. The first twelve years of his life was spent in the county of his nativity and in 1865 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Illinois, residing in Adams County until 1868, when he came to Galesburg and completed his education in the schools of this city. He started in the business world as an employee in the Murdock dry-goods store and from there changed to J. D. Colton, where he gradually worked his way upward, successive promotions at length bringing him to the position of credit man in that establishment. He enjoyed in the fullest measure the confidence and regard of his employer and at the same time well established himself in public opinion as a man of capability, resourcefulness and unassailable business integrity. At length he turned his attention to financial interests, entering the Second National Bank of this city, and after a few years he was made cashier of the bank, which position he continued to occupy until 1904, when the bank passed into liquidation. He has been acting as credit man in that institution for a number of years and when it passed out of existence he founded the People's Trust and Savings Bank, which he assisted in organizing and of which he was elected vice president. He also acted as their loans and credit man and it is said that none of the institutions with which he was connected ever lost a dollar on loans made on his recommendations. In 1909 he severed his connection with the bank and opened an office in the Carr building for the conduct of a general loan business. In this connection he secured a good clientage and had built up a substantial business when on the 15th day of April, 1911, he was called to his final rest.

In 1878 Mr. Vivion was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Lawrence, a daughter of Richard Austin Lawrence, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Both were well known socially, having an extensive circle of warm friends in Galesburg and in other parts of the county. Mr. Vivion was affiliated with the Baptist Church and was ever loyal to its teachings and helpful in its work, and his widow is now attending this church. He belongs to the Galesburg Club, the Business Men's club and two other commercial and social organizations. His political allegiance was given to the democracy but he never sought nor desired office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs which for capably managed, his well spent life gaining for him the regard and honor of all with whom he was associated. He was never neglectful of any duty, whether of a public or private nature, and ever held to high ideals of manhood and citizenship. (History of Knox County, Vol. II, by A. J. Perry, pages 66-69, submitted by J. Crandell)

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Samuel Vangilder, deceased, a pioneer of Knox County of 1936, was born in New Jersey in May 1800, and was a young man when his parents moved to Ohio, where he attained the years of majority. The maiden name of his wife was Nancy Stevenson, a native of Kentucky. After marriage they settled in Hancock county, Indiana, where the father purchased a tract of timber land and cleared a farm. In 1836, accompanied by his wife and five children, he started with an ox team to Illinois in company with several other families, camping on the way. He stopped a short time in Knoxville, where he rented a farm, after which he purchased land on section 1, Knox Township. This land was in a raw and unimproved state, and he erected a log cabin upon it, remaining there until the fall of 1857, when he removed to Sparta Township, at which place his demise occurred in September of that year. His wife died April 6, 1872. (Portrait & Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, pub. in 1886, page 902, submitted by Pat Thomas)

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