From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
Publ. 1912 - Page 802-803
 
GEORGE W. VAN SLYCK.  No man who has lived in Walworth county became better 
known or more highly esteemed than the late George W. VAN SLYCK  His life was 
indeed a busy and successful one and fraught with much good to his fellow men, 
for, while laboring to advance his own interests, he was never neglectful of 
his larger duties to the public, and his record is eminently worthy of perusal 
by the student who would learn the intrinsic essence of individuality and its 
influence in molding public opinion and giving character and stability to a 
community.
 
George W. VAN SLYCK was born in Lyons, Walworth county, Wisconsin, January 25, 
1486.  He is the son of Peter and Caroline (HEAD) VAN SLYCK.  The father came 
from Pennsylvania with his parents and his wife to Wisconsin about 1845.  The 
mother of the subject was from Kinderhook, New York.  The VAN SLYCK family 
located on a farm between the present towns of Lyons and Burlington, and there 
the subject of this sketch lived until he was ten or twelve years old, when 
his parents brought him to Lake Geneva.  Here his father, Peter VAN SLYCK, 
bought the Lake House in 1862 and managed it for a number of years, and here 
the father's death occurred on February 2, 1893.
 
George VAN SLYCK grew to manhood at Lake Geneva and there he received his 
education, later taking a commercial course at Bryant & Stratton's Business 
College in Chicago.  About 1869 he entered the dry goods business at Lake 
Geneva with Charles PALMETIER and continued in the same about two years, then 
he bought his partner's interest and took in his brother-in-law, Maurice A. 
MINER, as a partner.  They were in business about a year and a half, adding a 
drug business, Mr. MINER being an experienced druggist.  After they dissolved 
partnership Mr. VAN SLYCK continued alone for two or three years.  Then sold 
out and went into partnership with two other gentlemen and they built the 
steamer "Commodore," which plied on Lake Geneva.  The partnership continued 
until the death of Mr. VAN SLYCK in 1883.  He was a popular man on the lake 
and when he died the lake steamers carried their flags at half mast.  He was a 
straight-forward, sincere, industrious man, who would scorn to stoop to any 
paltry action and was generous to a fault.
 
George W. VAN SLYCK was married in 1868 to Mary Alice STAFFORD, daughter of 
Samuel and Eliza (GAY) STAFFORD, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this 
work.  Mrs. VAN SLYCK was born at Bloomfield, this county, and when four years 
of age her parents brought her to Lake Geneva, where she grew up and was 
educated.
 
Three sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. VAN SLYCK, namely: Harry S., who married 
Edith VAN VELZER, lives in Racine, where he has charge of the shipping 
department of a piano factory; they have two children, Neta and Alta Gay.  
Louis Hugh VAN SLYCK, who is now captain of a boat on the lake here, lives in 
Lake Geneva.  He was formerly a railroad fireman.  He married Frederetta SPOOR 
and they have two children, Wellington and Harold.  George Albert VAN SLYCK 
also lives in the city of Lake Geneva, operating a popular livery stable on 
Broad street.  He married Hallie HOWARD and they are the parents of four 
children, Clara Alice, Georgette Tapha and two little twin daughters, named 
Helen Gay and Hallie McLean.
 
George W. VAN SLYCK was a member of the Masonic order.  His widow has resided 
in the city of Lake Geneva ever since his death, and here she has a host of 
friends.
 
Submitted by Carol