Isaac W. Van Schaick

Isaac Whitbeck Van Schaick (December 7, 1817 – August 22, 1901) was an American businessman, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. He also served six years in the Wisconsin Senate and two years in the state Assembly. As a legislator, he was noted for almost never making speeches in the legislative chamber, preferring to operate in individual conversation with his peers.

His nephew, Aaron Van Schaick Cochrane, was also a member of Congress and a judge in New York.

Early life Van Schaick was born in Coxsackie, New York, on December 7, 1817. He was educated in the common schools there and worked on his father's farm. He engaged in the manufacture of glue in New York. He moved to Chicago in 1857, and to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1861, where he was in the flour-milling business with his wife's family. After the American Civil War, Van Schaick traveled to Arkansas and worked for in the cotton industry. He returned to Milwaukee three years later.

Politics Van Schaick was elected to the Milwaukee Common Council in 1871. He served as member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1873 and 1875. He served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1877 to 1882.

Van Schaick was elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth Congress in 1884 as the representative of Wisconsin's 4th congressional district. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1886, and was succeeded by Henry Smith of the Union Labor Party.

Van Schaick defeated Smith for election to the 51st United States Congress in 1888, receiving 22,212 votes to 20,685 for Smith (running on the Democratic and Labor tickets), 527 for Socialist John Schuler and 302 for Prohibitionist George Heckendorn. He was not a candidate for renomination to Congress in 1890, and was succeeded by Democrat John Lendrum Mitchell. In 1892 he ran unsuccessfully for State Senator from the 4th district, losing to Democrat James W. Murphy.

Late life Van Schaick was financially ruined in the Panic of 1893, and never recovered; his health began failing around the same time. He moved briefly to New Orleans, Louisiana, before settling permanently at the home of his adopted daughter in Catonsville, Maryland. Isaac Van Schaick died at Catonsville on August 22, 1901; he was interred in Athens Cemetery, Athens, New York.

Personal life and family Isaac Van Schaick was the only surviving son of the 12 children born to Aaron Van Schaick and his wife Helena ( Witbeck) of Greene County, New York.

Isaac Van Schaick married Eliza Sanderson in 1842, at Athens, New York. His wife was the eldest sister of his longtime business partner Edward Sanderson. They had no biological children, but adopted his wife's niece, Margaret Pierce, when she was an infant.

Electoral history Wisconsin Assembly (1872, 1874)

Wisconsin Senate (1876, 1878, 1880)

U.S. House of Representatives (1884)

U.S. House of Representatives (1888)

Wisconsin Senate (1892)