My Genealogy Hound

James Hayden Van Hoose, mayor of Fayetteville, was born near Paintsville, in Johnton County, Ky., January 8, 1830, the son of John and Lydia (Lewis) Van Hoose, grandson of John Van Hoose, and great-grandson of John Van Hoose, who was a native of Holland. The Van Hoose ancestors, from far back, were large of stature, long lived and were of the Baptist faith, and were honest, God-fearing people. Valentine Van Hoose, brother of John Van Hoose, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and rendered honorable service under Gen. Marion. John Van Hoose, father of subject, was a native of Montgomery County, N. C., and his mother, Mrs. Lydia (Lewis) Van Hoose, was also native of North Carolina. Her father, Zachariah Lewis, was a native of Orange County, N. C., and died when a young man. His widow then married Peter Mankins, who was a native of the District of Columbia, and who, when a lad, saw the American army in its march to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown, and he, with other lads, followed the army some distance out of the city. He was a member of the Baptist Church and died December 31, 1881, at the great age of one hundred and eleven years, three months and ten or eleven days, and had been a deacon in his church for over seventy years. James Hayden Van Hoose came to Arkansas from Kentucky, May, 1839, and grew to manhood in what is now called White River Township. He followed agricultural pursuits until his twenty-first year, when he went to Ozark Institute, and worked for Robert W. Macklin, founder of that institute, for $13 a month, to pay for his education, which had been sadly neglected. March 8, 1852, he came to Fayetteville, and began clerking for James Sutton, with whom he remained until Sutton quit business and sold out to McIlroy in November, 1855. August 9, 1855, he married Melinda Ann, only daughter of William McIlroy (whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work), and after the bank failure of D. D. Stark & Co. in 1875, Mr. Van Hoose, with Mr. McIlroy, took charge of that business, which he continued until 1877, after which he resumed merchandising, and continued this business alone until 1882, when he abandoned it, and has since engaged in the insurance line, severing his connection with the bank of William McIlroy, of which he had been cashier for two years previous to 1876. In September, 1864, Mrs. Van Hoose died, and Mr. Van Hoose afterward married Miss Martha W. Skelton, daughter of William Skelton, Esq. Mr. Van Hoose has reared two orphan girls: Mary Eaton, whom he educated at the university, and who is now the accomplished wife of Samuel Jarman, of Barton, Ark., and Minnie Brooks, who is now at home. In 1880 Mr. Van Hoose was elected mayor and served until 1881. In 1888 he was elected to the same position, and is now filling it. He has always entertained liberal views, and has acted as correspondent for several papers outside of his home­town, and never failed to say something good for Fayetteville and for Washington County, in fact for all of Arkansas, and contributed largely toward inducing immigration into his State and county. In politics he is a Democrat; in religion a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He has written many sketches of early history, and graphically portrayed some of the scenes of pioneer life in Arkansas. He was a friend of education, and, although having no children of his own, he willingly paid his school tax, that the rising generation might be educated. As there were no schools in the early days, when he was a boy growing up in the backwoods of Arkansas, he knew how to appreciate the need of them. He is the oldest notary public in this county, having been appointed by Gov. Conway in 1857, and has held the position ever since. He was made a Mason in 1853, and has since passed all the chairs in the several grand bodies in Arkansas. Mr. Van Hoose is a man noted far and near for his many charitable deeds, and an appeal to him is never in vain. As one example of his many benevolent actions and of his goodness of heart, the following may be mentioned: Sometime in January, 1884, he received a letter from a little orphan girl living in one of the Southern counties in the State of Arkansas, of which this letter is a perfect copy, name and address only omitted:

Arkansas January 18, 1884.
Master of the granD lodg of Arkansas.
Dear Sir, I thought I would write and see if there wasent School funs to edgCate Massons offens that was not able to edgCate theirselves, if so I wousht you would try and help us, there are 3 of us an nun of us has any edgCation.We all hafter work in the field to make a livin. I hav a Brother he is 15 years old, and a sister 17 I am 13 years old. If we had a edgCation we could make a livin without any help. I have Sumpthen to Show that my father was in good Standen and if it is nesesery to send it you can write and I will send it to you. I think we oughter be helped for we are young an cannot help ourselves. We are the orphens of John T---he was in Good Standen till death
please write Sune
I remain your Young frien
Minnie--.

Mr. Van Hoose, whose kind heart was not proof against appeals far less touching than this, did “write sune” and gave her all the encouragement he could, but was compelled to tell her that there were “no funs” set apart by the Grand Lodge to educate Masons’ orphans. He, however, corresponded with the girl for some time, and soon learned her family history. She was the youngest of three children, was born in Louisiana, and her father died when she was a babe. The widowed mother then moved to Southern Arkansas, where she died in 1881 of pneumonia. The children were then thrown upon their own resources, and struggled long and hard to pay doctors’ bills and funeral expenses. Mr. Van Hoose was anxious to see this little girl, who was ambitious to learn, to receive a good education, and wanted to do something practical in the way of assisting her to gratify her laudable ambition, and wanted it done in the name of Masonry. He therefore appealed to every lodge in Arkansas, to every true Mason, to their wives and daughters, to only give 10 cents each, and succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations. The little girl was sent to school and received the much longed for education. When it became certain that Gen. Harrison had been elected President of the United States, Mayor J. B. Van Hoose wrote him a letter of “best wishes,” and received by return mail a kind and courteous reply. This congratulatory note of Mayor Van Hoose was spoken of in the dispatches sent out from Indianapolis as one of the most highly prized Gen. Harrison received, and its sincerity is the more appreciable as it comes from a Democrat, the mayor of a Democratic city, in a Democratic State, and from one who (as Mayor Van Hoose himself says) is “not an applicant for office.”