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WILLIAM A. VANDEVER
Vol. 3, p. 1048-1049
Book has photo

Among the admirable contingent of aggressive and enterprising men
that the City of Tulsa has enlisted in the upholding of the
commercial prestige of the city is the president of the Vandever Dry
Goods Company, which is incorporated with a capital stock of $50,000,
and the well-equipped establishment of which is situated at 109-11
South Main Street, the metropolitan mercantile house being one of the
foremost in the retail trade in Oklahoma and its extensive and
substantial business being based upon effective service and fair and
honorable business policies. As president of this company William A.
VANDEVER has shown much progressiveness and initiative ability, and
he is consistently to be designated as one of the influential and
representative business men and public-spirited citizens of the
important and flourishing city in which he has established his home
and with the civic and material interests of which he has identified
himself in the closest way. Of the company Gary Y. Vandever is vice
president and Chares S. Vandever is secretary and treasurer, and in
addition to the three executive officers the directorate includes
Voris V. and Verne N. Vandever, the entire stock of the corporation
being held by members of the one family.

William A. Vandever was born at Irving, Montgomery County, Illinois,
on the 24th of May, 1874, and is a son of William C. and Sarah E.
(GRANTHAM) Vandever, the former of whom was born at Vandalia, Fayette
County, that state, in 1851, and the latter of whom was born at
Irving, Montgomery County, in 1853, being the daughter of Isaiah and
Margaret (MANN) Grantham, both families having been founded in
Illinois in the pioneer period of its history. He whose name
initiates this article was the second in order of birth in a family
of five sons and five daughters, all of whom are living and the five
sons constitute the constituent principals in the leading dry goods
establishment in the City of Tulsa. William C. Vandever is a son of
Dr. Aaron S. Vandever, who was born in Kentucky and who became a
pioneer physician at Vandalia, Illinois, when that place was capital
of the state. Contemporaneously with the removal of the seat of
government to Springfield, Doctor Vandever removed with his family to
that city, which then had no metropolitan pretentions, [sic] and in
the present capital city of the great State of Illinois he and his
wife, Isabella, passed several years of their lives, later moving to
Montgomery County, where they died. During the war Doctor Vandever
enlisted in the Thirteenth Missouri Regiment and served until he
received injuries from which he died.

William C. Vandever acquired his early education in the public
schools of Illinois and was there reared to maturity. In his youth he
learned the cooper's trade and with the same he continued to be
actively identified until his retirement from the control of a
profitable cooperage business, in 1905. He and his wife maintained
their home at Irving, Illinois, both being earnest members of the
Christian Church and Mr. Vandever having been aligned as a supporter
of the cause of the democratic party during his entire career since
attaining to his legal majority.

In his native town William A. Vandever of this review continued to
attend the excellent public schools until he had virtually completed
the curriculum of the high school. At the age of fifteen years he
gained his initial business experience by taking a position as clerk
in a dry goods store at Irving, where he remained thus engaged about
four years. He finally set forth to seek an eligible location in
which to establish himself in a broader field of mercantile business,
and he had the good judgment to fortify himself more fully by serving
some time as a salesman in dry goods firms in the larger cities. At
the age of twenty years he removed to the City of St. Louis, where he
became connected with the dry goods house of Grand Leader, engaged in
the retail trade. Later he held a similar position with the
establishment of D. Crawford & Co. of that city, and after a few
years of service in the silk and dress goods department he was
advanced to the position of buyer of linens, wash dress goods,
linings and other lines of staple goods. Of this responsible position
he continued the valued incumbent until 1903, when he severed his
association with that house and came to Indian Territory, where, on
the 10th of February of that year, he established his residence at
Tahlequah, the present judicial center of Cherokee County, Oklahoma.
There he became associated with Benjamin C. BEANE in founding and
opening the retail dry goods store to which they gave the title of
the Boston Store. In the following year (1904) the firm removed their
business to the ambitious young City of Tulsa, which at that time had
a population of 3,800. Here they effected the organization of the
Beane-Vandever Dry Goods Company. Business was here instituted upon a
somewhat modest scale and within a few years Mr. Beane sold his
interest to the Vandever Brothers, who have since remained in control
of a most substantial and flourishing business that is the most
important of the kind in Tulsa, the establishment of the Vandever Dry
Goods Company being thoroughly modern in all appointments, in the
scope and variety of stock in the various departments and in the
efficiency of its service to a discriminating and appreciative trade,
there being but few dry goods stores in the state that in the least
excel it, and these being in Oklahoma City, the capital and
metropolis of the commonwealth.

With secure vantage-place as one of the leading business men of
Tulsa, Mr. Vandever here has impregnable position in popular
confidence and good will and is influential in both business and
social circles. He is actively identified with the Commercial Club,
the Traffic Association, the Retail Merchants' Association and the
Rotary Club, and his influence and co-operation are earnestly given
in support of measures and enterprises advanced for the general
welfare of his home city and state. He is affiliated with Tulsa Lodge
No. 71, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Tulsa Chapter No. 52,
Royal Arch Masons. He and his brothers adhere closely to the
political faith in which they were reared and all accord staunch
allegiance to the cause of the democratic party.

On the 25th of July, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Vandever to Miss Marie C. DELMORE, who was born in Boone County,
Missouri, and who is a popular figure in the representative social
activities of Tulsa. They have no children.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy Marie Tenaza, December 10, 1998.