is every possibility of exaggeration. The article starts with a Nebraska businessman attending a Broadway play in which Van was a star. He recognizes him as William Vandegrift who had spoken at a Nebraska agricultural school. He goes backstage and learns that Van has a second career, which he seeks to keep apart. The reporter states that when Van goes on the stage somewhere around the country, he tries to find an agricultural college or society to speak at too. Van's agricultural credentials traced back to his Dutch ancestors, and also practices his grandfather had which were not accepted at the time but Van was promoting now. Van could of course draw on his own experience as a dairy farmer in New Hampshire. The Times article also discusses other experiences of Van including being an advisor on usefulness for dairy purposes of a large lot of land in the San Joaquin Valley. The Times article also contains a long discussion of a plan Van had of opening up retail butter stores in New York and elsewhere. It seems that he had invented a new method to make butter quickly and sell it at stores. His first store was planned to be opened soon in a wealthy section of Manhattan. People could bring in their own milk and leave with butter or cheese. There is no evidence that this venture ever got off the ground, and possibly Van was playing the reporter for a fool. Life in Newport, New Hampshire Van moved to Newport, New Hampshire around 1915, then a town with about a 4000 population. Newport was and is a small town in the western third of the state, with a long history. He built a large home and also barns and other outbuildings, on a site behind what is now the Hilltop Hotel on the north side of current Route 11. He bought the Cutting Farm, which was on the south side of Route 11, which he used as a pasture. Van married Grace Walsh in 1922. Grace, who was from Syracuse, had a career on the stage, which is no doubt where Van met her. She is listed as being in five performances, running from The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer in 1906 to Virginia in 1927. She played Rio Rita Girl in Tin Pan Alley. Grace lived in Newport, with Van doing a lot of traveling, and one article