Sometimes, like Icarus, we fly too close to the sun. John Post was born in Holland, Michigan, in 1854, the son of , pioneer Holland merchants. John married Kate Garrod, and the couple had five children.
Holland’s premier builder, , built them the beautiful Queen Anne-style house at 70 W. 13th St. In 1883, it was one of the first homes in Holland to have a telephone.
As a realtor, Post benefitted from Holland’s Gilded Age, an immigration-fueled real estate boom. In March 1887, he published this advertisement in the Holland City News: Post also had other interests: In 1887, he, Henry Post, and others repurchased the Waverly Stone Company from . Meanwhile, Post served on the board of education alongside , , , and Dr.
Oscar Yates. In 1889, he partnered with Isaac Marsilje, and others to co-found First State Bank. In 1890, Post served as Leendert Mulder’s editor of the Holland City News.
Mulder’s intent was to make the organization a Republic newspaper (in contrast to his smaller De Hollander, a Democratic sheet.) In 1892, Post was a founding partner in the Holland and Chicago Transportation Company, along with , W.B.
Griffin of Saugatuck, Cornelius De Roo, Isaac Cappon, and . Also in 1892, representing the Wolverine Light and Power Company, Post wrote a petition to stop Holland from forming its own electricity-generating plant (present-day Holland Board of Public Works). In 1895, Post co-founded a trust called the Holland Improvement Company for industrial and residential.