Isaac Van Horne (January 13, 1754,

Solebury Township, Pennsylvania Solebury Township is a Township (Pennsylvania), township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. Solebury Township is located in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. The population was 8,709 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

– February 2, 1834,

Zanesville, Ohio Zanesville is a city in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking and Muskingum River, Muskingum rivers, the city is approximately east of Columbus, Ohio, Columb ...

) was a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Early life

He was the eldest son of Bernard Van Horne and his first wife Sarah Van Pelt. He is descended from several Dutch families that came to America when New York was a Colony of the Netherlands. His father's family, sometimes spelled "van Hoorn", had earlier been identified with the European Noble Family of that name. His paternal immigrant ancestor Christian Barentsen van Hoorn had a house lot at Wall Street and Broadway which is now part of Trinity Churchyard, and was Fire Marshal of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

in the 1650s before moving to the area of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

. His grandmother, Alice Sleght Van Horn, may have been descended from Catherine Trico Rapalgie, one of whose daughters was reputed to be the first white child born in

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. He was also the 3x-great grand nephew of

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant ( – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as the Directors of New Netherland, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was pro ...

(c.1612—1672).

Career

He apprenticed as a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

and

cabinetmaker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (solid ...

and served was justice of the peace for Solebury Township in

Bucks County Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

of Pennsylvania for several years as well as

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

of Bucks County four years.

Military career

In 1775, he was elected ensign of a company of

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

, and appointed ensign in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

by the committee of safety in January 1776, assigned to Capt. John Beatty's Company in Col. Magaw's Regiment. He was taken prisoner at the fall of Fort Washington and held as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

from November 1776 to May 1778 when he was exchanged. He served as first lieutenant, captain lieutenant, and captain until the close of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Van Horn was also a founding member of the

Society of the Cincinnati The Society of the Cincinnati is a lineage society, fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of milita ...

. From 1808 until 1810, he was Lt. Col. Commanding 1st Reg. 2nd Brig. of the Ohio Militia. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, he served as Adjutant General of the Ohio Militia from 1810 until 1819.

Political career

From 1796 to 1797, he was a member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

. Immediately following his term in the Pennsylvania House, he was elected as a Republican or Jeffersonian, to the Seventh and Eighth United States Congresses. In 1805, he moved to

, after President Jefferson appointed him receiver of the land office at Zanesville. He held that office until December 1826 when he resigned in favor of his son Bernard. After he moved to Zanesville his first residence was a white Clapboard house on Pine St., built for him by his nephew, which was locally known as "the White House." He was involved in a number of early Zanesville businesses, was a large landholder and served as President of The Second Federal Bank of Zanesville. He also served as head of a political faction in the 2d Capital of Ohio.

Personal life

He married Dorothy Marple, the widow of Isaac Marple with whom she had already had two sons: John J. Marple and David J. Marple. Dorothy had 11 more children with Isaac: *Dorothy Jane Van Horne, who married Peter van Woglom and later Isaac van Horne (a cousin) *Sarah Van Horne *Mary "Polly" Van Horne, who married Jeffrey Price, a widower with a daughter *CPT Isaac Van Horne Jr., 2d Battle of

Fort Mackinac Fort Mackinac ( ) is a former British and American military outpost garrisoned from the late 18th century to the late 19th century in the city of Mackinac Island, Michigan, on Mackinac Island. The Kingdom of Great Britain, British built the f ...

during the

*Samuel Van Horne *Eliza Nann Van Horne, who married Dr. John E. Hamm (1776–1864), Marshall of Ohio during War of 1812, who with Isaac Van Horne, founded the White Glass Co. of

in 1815, of which Isaac Van Horne was President. *Patience Van Horne, who married Harry Safford (a silversmith in Putnam, OH) *Cynthia Van Horne *Bernard Van Horne, who was his successor as receiver of public monies at Zanesville in 1826 *Benjamin Franklin Van Horne * Bvt. Maj. Joseph Jefferson Van Horne, who fought in the U.S.-Mexican War. Van Horne died February 2, 1834, in Zanesville, Ohio. One of the bequests in his will was a donation to the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

References

The Political Graveyard
* Our Van Horne and Culbertson Forebears. William R. Van Horne, Lancaster, PA, 1983. * Y Bridge City "The Story of Zanesville and Muskingum County, Ohio". Norris F. Schneider, The World Publishing Co., 1950. *"a Brief Memoir of the Life of General Isaac Van Horne". Zanesville Ohio, (undated) privately reprinted several times. {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Horne, Isaac 1754 births 1834 deaths Politicians from Bucks County, Pennsylvania People from colonial Pennsylvania American politicians of Dutch descent Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Politicians from Zanesville, Ohio Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by Great Britain 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 18th-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly