Isaac Van Zandt (July 10, 1813 – October 11, 1847) was a political leader in the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. Van Zandt County, Texas, was named in his honor.

Early life

Van Zandt was born on July 10, 1813, in Franklin County, Tennessee, to Jacob and Mary Isaacs Van Zandt. The Van Zandt family had migrated to America from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

prior to 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 ...

.K.M. Van Zandt, ''Force Without Fanfare: The Autobiography of K.M. Van Zandt'' (Fort Worth: Texas Christian Univ Pr, 1995), p. 1.

Career

Van Zandt went into a joint business venture with his father by opening a store. Van Zandt later moved to Coffeeville, Mississippi, where he opened his own store. After experiencing financial difficulties after the depression of 1837, Van Zandt became interested in a debate society which enabled him to use his natural talent for

public speaking Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

. This spurred an interest in law and within a year he was a member of the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

bar. Van Zandt came to the

in 1838 and settled in Elysian Fields in what was then Panola County. In 1839 he moved to what is now

Marshall, Texas Marshall is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Harrison County, Texas, Harrison County and a cultural and educational center of the Ark-La-Tex region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population of ...

. Van Zandt was the representative of Harrison County in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas from 1840 until 1842, when

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...

appointed him Republic of Texas Chargé d'Affaires in Washington, D.C. In 1841 Van Zandt donated land, along with Peter Whetestone, to create a

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

for Harrison County. Van Zandt named the new city in honor of the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remai ...

. As the Republic of Texas

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the United States Van Zandt was instrumental in crafting the

Annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...

Treaty of the Republic of Texas to the U.S. Van Zandt returned to Texas in 1845 to serve as a delegate to the Texas state constitutional convention.

Personal life, death and legacy

Van Zandt married Frances Lipscomb in 1833. Van Zandt died during a yellow fever epidemic in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

while campaigning for governor in 1847. The Van Zandt family donated their

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

as the site for the College of Marshall (now East Texas Baptist University) in 1912. In 1936, a memorial was constructed in Canton, the seat of Van Zandt County. Van Zandt was the father of Texas politician and businessman K. M. Van Zandt, and his sister Ida Van Zandt Jarvis, a generous benefactor and the first female trustee of Texas Christian University (TCU). Isaac was also the 2x great grandfather of Meredith Attwell Baker, and the 3x great grandfather of

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

songwriter and performer Townes Van Zandt.

External links

Papers, 1774-1953 and undated, of son Khleber Miller Van Zandt in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Zandt, Isaac 1813 births 1847 deaths Deaths from yellow fever People from Marshall, Texas Infectious disease deaths in Texas People from Franklin County, Tennessee People from Coffeeville, Mississippi American city founders Political office-holders in the Republic of Texas American politicians of Dutch descent