My Genealogy Hound

HON. ALMON A. VAN DUSEN, judge of the courts of Chautauqua county, New York, is the eldest son of Benjamin F. and Mehitable (Lovell) Van Dusen, and was born in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, Jan. 3rd, 1843. The family of Van Dusen in New York, is descended from ancestors who were anciently established in Holland, and came to New York, then New Netherlands, sometime during the early part of the seventeenth century. They settled at Claverick, in what is now Columbia county, and in 1720 Abraham Van Dusen, a descendant of one of these Van Dusens, removed to Connecticut where he settled at Salisbury. In lineal descent from him was John Van Dusen, the father of John Van Dusen, Jr., whose son, Benjamin F. Van Dusen, is the father of Judge Almon A. Van Dusen. John Van Dusen, Jr. (grandfather) resided during the latter part of his life-time in Michigan where he died about 1875. He married Mary Forbes, by whom he had thirteen children; Alonzo, Marshall, Harry, Elizabeth, Benjamin F., Mary, Rachel, Charlotte, Emily, Theodore, Eliza, Charles, and Edwin, who was killed while serving as a soldier in the late civil war. The second son, Benjamin F. Van Dusen (father), was born in Locke, Cayuga county. New York, June 4th, 1817, and learned the trade of cabinet-maker. In 1841 he removed to Jamestown where he now resides and where he was successfully engaged for many years in the cabinet-making business. He is a member of the Baptist church and a republican in politics. He married Mehitable Lovell. They are the parents of three children; Judge Almon A., Theodore F., a successful business man of Jamestown and George C., a well-known lawyer of the same city. Mrs. Van Dusen is a daughter of Jonathan Lovell (maternal grandfather), who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in Jamestown, N. Y. in 1854, at eighty-five years of age. He was a democrat in politics and married Mehitable Knight, who bore him seven children: Mary, Moses, Jonathan, Cyrus, David, Eliza and Mehitable.

Almon A. Van Dusen was reared at Jamestown and received his education in the Jamestown, academy and Chamberlain institute at Randolph, Cattaraugus county, this State. Having made choice of the legal profession as his life vocation he commenced the study of law in 1863 with Alexander Sheldon, of Jamestown and completed his course with the firm of Alexander and Porter Sheldon, the latter of whom afterwards served as a member of Congress. He was admitted to the bar on November 19, 1866. Shortly after this he was admitted and licensed to practice in the United States District court for the Northern District of New York. After admission to the bar he opened an office at Mayville and soon obtained a respectable clientage which increased in numbers as long as he was in practice at the Chautauqua county bar and in the United States District court. The Democratic party made him their nominee several times for county Judge but in the face of an adverse majority of from four to five thousand votes, his election upon each occasion that he ran, was an impossibility although he always reduced the republican vote. In 1890, Judge Lambert, county judge of Chautauqua county, was elected as a justice of the Supreme Court of New York and for his position as county judge many of the ablest lawyers of the bar were applicants. Judge Van Dusen was nominated by the democratic party of this county as their candidate for county judge in October, 1890, to succeed him, and although the county has a republican majority of from 4,000 to 6,000, he was elected over Jerome B. Fisher, republican, by a plurality of 899, for the term of six years.

In February, 1871, he united in marriage with Juliet E. Merchant, daughter of William G. Merchant, of Boone, Iowa. They have one child living, a son: Vernon, who is eighteen years of age.

During the short time Judge Van Dusen has been on the bench, he has discharged the many important duties of his responsible position in a manner that has been acceptable to the members of the bar and the general public. He has presided over the few courts which he has held with ability, impartiality and faithfulness. As a lawyer he has met with good success in both the county and the supreme court of the State, and at the present time is a retained attorney for the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad company. He takes an active interest in educational matters and has served for several years as president of the Sherman and Mayville Boards of Education. Socially Judge Van Dusen is affable and approachable alike to high or low, yet reserved and dignified when the occasion requires. He has been a democrat in politics since 1876. In addition to his profession and work in educational matters, he has taken a deep interest in the history of the State and is a member of the ancient and well known Holland Historical Society of New York.