James Walter Van Blaricum

JAMES WALTER VAN BLARICUM, M. D. A successful physician and surgeon at Minneola, Dr. Van Blaricum has been a resident of Clark County since 1910. For a number of years he has devoted his best energies to his profession, but has also interested himself in other affairs, especially in the prosecution of war activities at Minneola, and is one of the men looked upon as leaders in that community.

Mr. Van Blaricum was born in 1874 and has lived in Kansas since he was five years of age. He is of an American family of three generations in this country. His grandfather, William H. Van Blaricum, came to the United States from Holland. Dr. Van Blaricum's father, a veteran of the Civil war, is still living at McPherson, Kansas, at the advanced age of eighty-three. His name is William Harrison Van Blaricum. He was born in Pratt County, Illinois, in 1835 and grew up on a farm. He lived in Illinois until the outbreak of the Civil war and in 1861 enlisted in the Union army in the One Hundred and Sixth Illinois Infantry. He saw active and strenuous service until the close of the war. He was in General Grant's army during the magnificent Mississippi Valley campaign, beginning at Forts Henry and Donelson and continuing through to Vicksburg. He was always in the ranks as a private, and though countless times exposed to danger escaped wounds or capture. On coming to Kansas in 1879 he bought land near the county seat of McPherson County. He was content with the ownership of a quarter section and did general farming and fruit raising. He is now retired. He is active in the Grand Army of the Republic, is a republican voter and a member of the Baptist Church.

William H. Van Blaricum married in Illinois Sarah J. Verner. Her parents came from the British Isles to America and a few years after establishing their home in the United States they fell victims to an epidemic which carried them off, leaving three sons and a daughter, all small children. The brothers and sister were separated, and Mrs. Van Blaricum grew up at Springfield, Illinois, where she acquired a liberal education. She and her husband have two children, Dr. Van Blaricum and Anna, wife of George H. Sitts, of McPherson County, Kansas.

Dr. Van Blaricum acquired his primary education in the country schools of McPherson County and later attended school at the county seat. For a few years he was a teacher in that county and then took up the study of medicine in the Kansas City Medical College, where after four years of work he was graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1901. He practiced for a time at Moundville, Missouri, but the failing health of his wife caused him to seek another location for her benefit. After two years of prospecting he etsablished himself at Minneola in 1910. Dr. Vail Blaricum has always kept in close touch with advances in medical knowledge and facilities and has taken post-graduate work in the Chicago Policlinic, Illinois Post-Graduate School and the Chicago Post-Graduate School. He is active in the County and State Medical societies. He has identified himself with all the auxiliary movements in Minneola for the raising of funds and prosecution of war work. Dr. Van Blaricum is affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities and in politics is a republican. He was a supporter of Colonel Roosevelt in 1912.

At McPherson, Kansas, June 10, 1903, he married Miss Bettie Dean, daughter of Thornton and Hettie (Matthews) Dean. Her father came from Kentucky and was a pioneer settler in McPherson County, where he spent the rest of his days as a farmer. Mrs. Van Blaricum was born in McPherson County, Kansas, in June, 1877. She has a brother, Dr. George Dean, of McPherson, and a sister, Maggie, who died as Mrs. Charles Guy. Dr. and Mrs. Van Blaricum have two children, Gordon Dean and Bernadean.