John Van Der Poel, Sr., of 1260 West 15th Street, possibly the best known Dutchman in Chicago, died last Thursday at the age of 81, after having been overcome by the heat. In spite of his ripe old age, Mr. Van Der Poel was still active as Superintendent of files in the office of the County Recorder. He was said to be the oldest employee in the service of Cook County.

Only a couple of hours before his death he was seated at his desk in his office, but was forced to go home, because he was overcome by the tremendous heat of the afternoon. Only two blocks away from his home, he collapsed. He was carried to his home, but all efforts by physicians to revive him proved futile.

Mr. Van Der Poel was born on March 23rd at Rysoord, Province South Holland, in the Netherlands. He came to America in July of 1868, with a family of 210 children and established himself in the then rapidly growing City of Chicago.

He is survived by seven children. Two of them John Van Der Poel, Jr. and Miss Mathilda Van Der Poel, belong to the teaching personnel of the Art Institute of this city. The last mentioned was in Italy at the time of her father's death, and is expected to reach home next week. For this reason the corpse was not buried, but placed in the morgue of the Forest Home Cemetery, last Sunday.

Mr. Van Der Poel has for many years been in the service of the public. During the last forty years he was active in politics and prided himself on being a personal friend of Senator Lorimer, Joseph Bedivek, John M. Smyth and others.

He was formerly Chief Clerk of the probate court and later became postmaster of the Blue Island Avenue postoffice and for the last 4 years he was employed in the office of the County Recorder.