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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 585-586]

    MORDECAI VANDERCOOK, deceased, was one of the early settlers of
    Cherokee County, and was one of the most active business men con-
    nected with its history.  He was born in Rensselaer County, New
    York, January 5, 1823, and was a son of HENRY and MARGERY (LESTER)
    VANDERCOOK, who were members of old New York Hollandish descent.
    When our subject was nine years of age his parents removed to San-
    dusky County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood.  He was trained to
    agricultural pursuits, and obtained his education in the district
    school.  When abut sixteen years old he went into his brother's
    store, where he received a thorough training in mercantile busi-
    ness. At the age of twenty-three he concluded to try his fortunes
    in the West, and removed to Wisconsin, engaging in the mercantile
    trade in Janesville for one year.  At the end of this time he went
    to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he was successfully engaged in
    business until his removal to Cherokee in 1870.  Mr. VANDERCOOK
    was united in marriage in Beaver Dam, October 3, 1847, to Miss
    JENNETTE VAN EPPS, a native of Genesee County, New York, and a
    daughter of JOHN and HULDAH (SMITH) VAN EPPS, who came to New
    York with the Mohawk settlement.  Thirteen children were born of
    this union, five of whom are living: EMMA J., the wife of A. L.
    PORTER, of Norwood Park, Illinois; CORDELIA LORETTE, the wife of
    C. F. FOUS, of Cherokee; NELLIE, the wife of F. J. STANOSHECK,
    of Cherokee; HENRY, of Tacoma, Washington Territory, and INEZ,
    of Cherokee.  Mr. VANDERCOOK was a man who attended strictly to
    his own business, and although frequently solicited by his friends
    to accept public office, he always declined the honor.  After he
    came to Cherokee he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law,
    WILLIAM VAN EPPS, who had come to the place one year previous.
    This partnership continued one year, when Mr. VAN EPPS withdrew
    from the business, and removed to Sioux Falls, Dakota.  Mr. VANDER-
    COOK remained in business, which he carried on with more than an
    ordinary degree of success, until the spring of 1882.  Besides his
    prosperous mercantile business he accumulated a large landed estate.
    Politically he cast his suffrage with the Democratic party.  He was
    a member of the Masonic fraternity.  Religiously he believed fully
    in the Golden Rule, that of doing to others as he would that they
    should do by him.  That was his rule and guide of faith in the
    future for himself.  He exacted the same principle of others, and
    when he found that person worthy he always found in him a warm,
    obliging friend.  When he found him otherwise, he was decidedly
    the opposite, having no patience with dishonesty.  During the great
    grasshopper scourge in this country for several years, many then
    living in the counties of O'Brien, Clay and Cherokee found in him
    a true, kind friend in their time of need.  In his family he was a
    kind and loving husband and an indulgent father.

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