My Genealogy Hound

John H. Van Dyck is a well-known citizen of Nashville, Ark., but was born in Warren County, N. C, in 1822, being the eldest of a family of three children born to John and Elizabeth M. (Sledge) Van Dyck, who were Virginians but removed in their youth to North Carolina. The paternal grandfather, John Van Dyck, was killed in the battle of Bunker Hill, and at the close of the Revolutionary War his widow removed to Georgia, and was married there to Gen. John Greene. On the paternal side the subject of this sketch is descended from the Randolphs and Bullocks. His maternal ancestors were from England, and settled in the colonies before independence was declared, and made their home on the Tar River in North Carolina. John Van Dyck, our subject's father, was a merchant and farmer by occupation, and in 1840 removed to Tenn. dying in Henry County, eight years later. His wife also died there January 8, 1884, at the age of eighty-seven years. John H. Van Dyck spent the most of his youth in his father's mercantile establishment, entering the same when ten years of age, and remained there seven years, and from 1840 to 1849 he was in business for himself in Nashville. His marriage, which occurred in 1842, was to Miss Elizabeth E. Smith, a daughter of John T. and Elizabeth Smith, and in 1849 he settled with his family in Paris, Tenn., where he was engaged in planting and merchandising very extensively, his farm comprising 2,250 acres. In 1861 he raised the first company of cavalry from his county, and upon its organization was elected to the captaincy. After the fall of Fort Donelson he was with Gen. Forrest, and with him participated in the battle of Belmont, Fort Henry, Chattanooga, and in Mississippi. Prior to the war he was a strong Union man, and made many speeches in Tennessee, in its favor, and met William L. Yancey, of Tennessee, at Memphis, in a joint debate. However, when the war became an assured fact, he cast his fortunes with the South, and served the Confederate cause faithfully and well until the final surrender. He returned home to find himself a bankrupt, and as “misfortunes never come singly” he was called upon to mourn the death of his wife in July, 1865. After remaining a widower until June 4, 1868, he married Miss Alice A. Arnold, a great-niece of President James K. Polk. He had moved to Louisville, in September, 1865, and become a traveling salesman for a boot and shoe firm, a calling he continued to follow until 1873, after which he moved to Arkansas, and settled in Ouachita County, west of Camden, where he began tilling the soil and preaching. He was unfortunate enough to lose his second wife here, December 19, 1876, she having borne him the following five children: Hope (who died in Nashville, Ark.), Mary Polk (who is attending school at Nazareth University, Arkansas), Annie M. (also at the same school), and Harris B. and Fannie O. (who died in infancy). The first union resulted in the birth of the following family: Reuben S. (who was killed in battle), John S., W. O., Charles D., Washington A., Alice A., (wife of Albert Franklin, of Sumner County, Tenn.), Lizzie M. (deceased wife of a Mr. Fort), and an infant that died unnamed. In 1879 Mr. Van Dyck removed to Union County, where he remained one year, and after a short residence in Prescott, Nevada County, Ark., they resided until 1882, in Centre Point, Ark., but have since been residents of Nashville. Mr. Van Dyck has been engaged in the insurance business ever since, and is one of the most successful fire and life insurance agents in the county. He represents the Fire Association, the American Fire Association of Philadelphia, the Phoenix of Hartford, the Orient of Hartford, the Union of California, the Southern of California, the East Texas of Tyler, the Hartford of Hartford, the Imperial of Hartford, and several others. In 1889, he wrote $350,000 worth of policies. He became a minister of the Christian Church in 1842, and since that time has assisted in the organization of many churches.