GEORGE P. VAN ORMAN - Ashtabula county has been the home of George P. Van Orman for many years, but he was born in Painesville, Ohio, August 25, 1836, the eldest son of Lyman S. and Mary (Falkenburg) Van Orman.  Lyman S. Van Orman came from Canada when a young man to Painesville, also in Chardon.  His father had lived for some years in the states, but eventually returned to Canada, and several of his daughters married Canadian officials.  In 1854 or 1855 Lyman S. Van Orman came to Rock Creek and accepted employment with the firm of Randall, Cook & Company, who conducted a large store and tannery here.  Mr. Van Orman was principally engaged in obtaining wool for them in exchange for pelts, and he continued with the firm for many years, or until they eventually retired from the business.  He spent the remainder of his life at Rock Creek and died in 1873, when he had attained the age of sixty-two years.  At Painesville he had wedded Mary Falkenburg, whose father, Charles Falkenburg, was a farmer for some time in Monmouth county, New Jersey, and also owned a coasting vessel which plied between the cities of Philadelphia and New York, while in 1797 he served as lieutenant in the state militia.  After a time he sold his old home to his brother, whose sons still reside there, and they are among the wealthy citizens of New Jersey, and during the war of 1812 he came to Ohio and settled in Lake county, a few miles south of Painesville, and he afterward lived at Concord and his son Samuel, and died when past eighty years of age.  His sons were Brown, Asa, James and Samuel, and he also had three daughters, Harriet, Nancy and Mary.  Mary was one or two years older than her husband, but she survived him for more than thirty years, and was past ninety at the time of her death.  Lyman S. and Mary Van Orman reared to maturity two sons, George P. and Howard, and the younger being a resident of Rock Creek.
     George Van Orman was a young man of eighteen when he became a resident of Rock Creek, and for a time he was employed by the same firm as his father, Randall, Cook & Company, but subsequently learning the carpenter's trade he worked at that occupation for some years, and in 1883 he started a saw mill.  This mill has continued in operation during all the intervening years, and Mr. Van Orman continued as its promoter for thirty-six years, or until April of 1909, when he sold his interest to his son and Ira Brown.  He resides on his farm near Rock Creek.  Mr. Van Orman married first in the fall of 1858, Lydia A. Covell, a daughter of Silas and Eunice Covell, who first secured the farm where Mr. Van Orman now lives.  Mrs. Van Orman died in 1880, leaving six children: Carlton, a resident of Rock Creek; Stanley, who operates a mill there; Alice, the wife of Allen Clark and a James Latimer, of Youngstown; Lyman, a policeman in Cleveland, who was quartermaster sergeant in Company E, Thirty-fifth Michigan Infantry, in the Spanish American war; and George, a traveling salesman.  In 1882 Mr. Van Orman wedded Villa Covell, a niece of his first wife and a daughter of Elijah and Salina (Bunnell) Covell.  The four sons of this union are Lee, whose home is in Rock Creek; Clair, a student in the Ohio State University; Ellison and Gerald.  Mr. Van Orman has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1861, and is now affiliated with Grand River Chapter, No. 104.  In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, Nineteenth Ohio Infantry, for three months' service, and on the 7th of November, 1862, he again enlisted, this time in Company E, Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, being transferred from that to the Veteran Reserve Corps.  He was mustered out June 26, 1865, as sergeant and returned home.
     Silas and Eunice (Latimer) Covell, the parents of Van Orman's first wife, were married in Connecticut, but came to Ohio during their early lives, and the farm which they secured in those early days is now the home of Mr. Van Orman.  Silas Covell became a wealthy citizen, and the house which he built is still standing, and there he died in about the year 1853, while his wife survived him about twelve years and passed away about 1865.  Their children were:  Herman, who was born in 1818, never married, and died at the age of seventy-three years; Elijah, a carpenter, married Salina Bunnell of Jefferson, and lived and died at Rock Creek, passing away at the age of seventy-three years; Mills was for many years president of the Rock Creek Bank, and he died at the age of seventy-six years; Alfred lived for many years in Trumbull township, Ashtabula county, and died at the age of eighty-one years; Eunice married Harvey Wilbur and lived in New York for twenty-five years, but returned to Rock Creek and died there; Ward died at Rock Creek at the age of seventy-two; Harvey served as a major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war, two terms as a county sheriff, and was a prominent local politician; and Lydia, who became the first wife of Mr. Van Orman. Elijah Covell, the second son and child of Silas Covell, married as above stated, Salina Bunnell, and she died at the age of sixty-two years.  They had three children:  Villa,  who became Mrs. Van Orman; Selden, a resident of Niles, Ohio; and Edith, who married Elson Wornald and lives in Conneautville, Pennsylvania.
Source: History of the Western Reserve By Harriet Taylor Upton And a staff of Leading Citizens collaborated on the Counties and Biographies - ILLUSTRATED - VOL. III - Publ.  The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago - New York - 1910 Page 1274