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JOHN WILLIAM VANDERVORT.  In the early days the Middle West was often a tempting field to energetic, ambitious, strong-minded men, and Ohio was filled with them during the time she was struggling to a respectable position in the sisterhood of states.  Many of the families whose progeny has since become prominent in the life of this state were founded in the broad fields and great promise which this newer region presented to activity and which attracted many men, inducing them to brave the discomforts of the early life here for the pleasure and gratification of constructing their fortunes in their own ways and after their own methods.  It is this class of men more than any other which has given shape, direction and character to the great state of Ohio.  J. W. Vandervort, formerly a well-known farmer of Clinton county and a member of the board of county commissioners for two terms, is a member of one of the families which had to do with the early history of this county.
     John William Vandervort, who is now living retired in Wilmington, was born near New Antioch, in Green township, this county, on July 21, 1850, the son of Paul H. and Matilda (McKenzie) Vandervort, the former of whom was born near Starbuck, in Clinton county, on Jan. 1, 1815, the son of Jonah and Jane (Tibbs) Vandervort, and the latter of whom was the daughter of John and Isabelle McKenzie.
     The ancestry of the Vandervort family goes back to Michael Paulus Van Der Voort, who came from East Flanders, region of Dendermonde, prior to the year 1640 and located in New Amsterdam, now New York.  The records show that Michael Paulus Van Der Voort was married to Marie Rapalye on Nov. 18, 1640, their marriage being the fifth recorded in New Amsterdam.  Among their children was Paul Van Der Voort, baptized on Jan. 3, 1649, who married Lysbeth Paulus Dincksen¸to which union was born a son, called Paul, who was born at Bedford, Long Island, and was baptized in 1681.  He married Nultze Staats, and they had a son, Nicholas, born at Bedford, Long Island.  Subsequently, the family moved to Orange county, New York, where Nicholas married Abigail Halstead, to which union six children were born, John, Martha, Paul, Peter, William and Jonah, the latter of whom was the grandfather of J. W. Vandervort, the subject of this sketch.  Jonah Vandervort settled in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1810, the year in which the county was organized.  He was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, on May 30, 1765, and was married to Jane Tibbs on Mar. 29, 1796.  They moved to the Northwest Territory in 1800, and located at Columbia, which is now within the city limits of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Later, in 1810, they came to Clinton county. 
     Nicholas and Abigail (Halstead) Vandervort, both of whom were natives of New York state, became residents of Virginia after their marriage and emigrated from Virginia about 1800, the objective point being Green river in Kentucky.  On their way down the Ohio river, upon arriving at Columbia, near Cincinnati, they anchored their boat for the night.  A large limb from a tree overhanging the boat broke and fell, damaging the boat so much that it was unfit the further travel with safety.  After some investigation of the surrounding country they became so well pleased with it that they concluded to settle there and it is believed that Nicholas and Abigail (Halstead) Vandervort spent the rest of their lives there.  Jonah Vanderfort’s wife, who before marriage was Jane Tibbs, was the daughter of John and Mary Tibbs, natives of Ireland.  The latter, when a girl, was kidnapped and taken on board a vessel and brought to America, where she grew to womanhood and was married, subsequently becoming a resident of Vriginia, whence she emigrated to Columbia, Ohio, where she died.  Jonah and Jane (Tibbs) Vandervort resided at Columbia until 1809, when they came to this county, locating on Todd’s fork, where they lived for six years, at the end of which time they removed to near New Antioch, where they spent the remainder of their lives.  They were among the earliest settlers in that region and assisted in the organization and establishment of the first Christian church at Antioch, in which they were leading members and in the good works of which they assisted with their purses and with their influence.  Johan Vandervort became of great strength to the church and was a very upright Christian man.  He was a man of good judgment and one of the first jurymen of Clinton county.  Jonah Vandervort and his wife were the parents of six sons and five daughters.  He died in Jan., 1842, and his widow died three years later, in 1845.
     Paul H. Vandervort, who was one of the six sons and one of the eleven children born to his parents, was two months old when his parents moved to the farm near New Antioch.  It was there he was reared and grew to manhood and spent his entire life until Aug., 1879, when he retired from the farm and located in New Antioch.  He was one of the most prominent and useful citizens of that community and served as commissioner of Clinton county for twelve years.  He was also one of the managers of the Clinton County Agricultural Society for thirteen years and served as president of the same for many years.  He also held other minor offices and was a leading member and supporter of the Christian church.  At the death of his father he was elected to fill the latter’s place as deacon in the church, which office he held for a quarter of a century and was then made elder.
     On Oct. 19, 1896, Paul H. Vandervort was married to Matilda McKenzie, the daughter of John and Isabelle McKenzie, natives of Kentucky, who became residents of Ohio, and who died in Clinton county and were interred in the old burying ground at New Antioch.  To this union four children were born, namely: Mary Emily, the wife of E. W. Marble; Alpheus, who served three years and three months in the Civil War, enlisting in Company B, Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in December, 1861, and was engaged in the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and others, and served under Gen. Garfield in his celebrated conquest of the Big Sandy and through eastern Kentucky; Samantha, who married Dr. W. W. Canny and with him removed to Camden, Preble county, Ohio, where he died, and J. W., the subject of this sketch.  MRs. Matilda (McKenzie) Vandervort died on June 20, 1876, and three years later, on Aug. 26, 1879, Paul H. Vandervort married, secondly, Mary Ann Mitchell, daughter of James and Mary (Fleming) Mitchell, natives of Pennsylvania, but who, in 1828, settled near Wilmington, in Clinton county, where he died in 1836, his widow living to be eighty years old.
     J. W. Vandervort attended the public schools at New Antioch and subsequently was a student for one year at the Normal school at Lebanon, Warren county.  In the meantime he was engaged in assisting his father on the farm and after his marriage lived on the home place until he retired in 1905, he having purchased the interest of the other heirs when his father died.  He still owns the farm, the farm which his grandfather reclaimed from the wilderness.  It now consists of one hundred and fifty-one acres.  Upon his removal to Wilmington, Mr. Vandervort purchased a home at the corner of Mulberry and Vine streets, where the family now lives.
     On September 24, 1874, J. W. Vandervort was married to Maria E. Walker, who was born in Green township, this county, the daughter of Nathan and Jane (Phillips) Walker, the former of whom was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on February 26, 1806, and died on Sept. 1, 1876, and the latter of whom was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, July 21, 1816, and died on Feb. 8, 1866.  Nathan Walker’s parents were Robert and Nancy Walker, early settlers in Kentucky, who reared a large family.  Jane (Phillip) Walker parents were Joshua and Lucinda (Irvin) Phillips, who were farmers by occupation and early settlers in Bourbon county, Kentucky.  Nathan Walker married in Kentucky and came to this county, locating in Green township, where he owned a farm.  He belonged to the Christian church, and was a Republican in politics.  He had a family of three daughters and two sons.
     To J. W. and Maria E. (Walker) Vandervort four children have been born, as follow:  Paul H., Jr., who was born on Sept. 10, 1876, teller in the First National Bank of Wilmington, married Mary A. Robbins, and has three children, Mary, Anna and Eleanor; Ada E., Apr. 25, 1881, who died on May 5, 1904; Arthur W., June 20, 1883, a minister in the Christian church at Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June23, 1915, married Anna R. Robinette, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Robert D., Dec. 27, 1895, who died in Aug., 1896.
     J. W. Vandervort is a Republican and served two terms as a member of the Clinton county board of commissioners, having been elected on the Republican ticket.  All of the members of the Vandervort family are actively identified with the Christian church.  Mr. Vandervort was identified officially with the church at New Antioch and later with the Central church at Wilmington.  No one can deny that Mr. Vandervort has worthily upheld the traditions of his family, or that, in both public and private life, he has discharged every duty which may reasonably be expected by the public at large.  He is highly respected in Clinton county, where he is well known, having a host of friends in this section of the state.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Indianapolis, Ind. :: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1915 - Page  587

LORIN A. VANDERVORT.  It is an axiom demonstrated by human experience that a man gets out of this life what he puts into it with a reasonable interest on his investment.  The individual who inherits a large estate and adds nothing to his fortune cannot be called a successful man.  The man who starts in the world unaided and by sheer force of his will, forges ahead and at length attains a position of honor among his fellow citizens, is a success which can hardly be appreciated.  To a considerable extent Lorin A. Vandervort is a creditable example of the man who has succeeded by his own unaided efforts.
     Lorin A. Vandervort was born on Dec. 14, 1860, in Greene twp., Clinton Co., Ohio, and is the son of Thaddeus H. and Minerva (Noble) Vandervort, the former of whom was born on Oct. 30, 1830, in Greene township, near New Antioch and died on July 5, 1900, and the latter of whom was born in 1836, in Greene township, and died in June, 1911.  Thaddeus H. Vandervort was the son of Nicholas and Nancy Vandervort.  Nicholas Vandervort was born at Columbia, near Cincinnati, in 1803, and his wife was born in Warren Co., Ohio, where he grew to manhood and married.  He was an earnest worker in the Christian church and lived a most useful life, at his death having been a resident of Clinton county for sixty-four years.  He passed away on June 23, 1876, and his wife on Jan. 11, 1873.  They had seven children besides Thaddeus H., the father of Lorin A., as follows:  James M., John M., Nicholas W., Jonah S., Paul C., William V. and one unnamed.  Paul C. and William V. were soldiers in the Civil War, having been members of the Company B, Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  The former died of Typhoid fever at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Feb. 8, 1862.  The latter became a drummer boy and served throughout the war, being discharged at Atlanta, Georgia, in Dec., 1864.  He came home, was married and died on Apr. 14, 1880.
     The ancestry of the Vandervort family goes back to Michael Paulus Van Der Voort, who came from East Flanders, the region of Deudermonde, prior to 1640 and located in New Amsterdam, now New York.  The records show that Michael Paulus Van Der Voort was married to Marie Rapalye on Nov. 18, 1640 and located in New Amsterdam, now New York.  The records sow that Michael Paulus Van Der Voort was married to Marie Rapalye on Nov. 18, 1640, and their marriage is the fifth recorded in New Amsterdam.  Among their children is one son, Paul, who was baptized on Jan. 3, 1649.  He married Lysbeth Paulus Deickson and they had one son, who was called Paul and who was born at Bedford, Long Island, and baptized in 1681.  He married Nultze Staats and they had a son, Nicholas, born at Bedford, Long Island.  Subsequently, the family moved to Orange county, New York, where Nicholas married Abigail Halstead and they had six children: John, Martha, Paul, Peter, William and Jonah.
     Jonah settled in Clinton county and sat on the first jury impaneled in Clinton county in 1810.  He was born at Shepherdstown, Virginia, May 30, 1765, was married to Jane Tibbs, Mar. 29, 1796, and moved to the Northwest Territory in 1800, locating at Columbia, now within the city limits of Cincinnati.  He died at New Antioch in 1842 and she died in 1845.  Jonah had eleven children, six sons and five daughters, among whom was Nicholas, the father of Thaddeus and grandfather of Lorin A.  The descendants of Jonah now number about four hundred souls scattered over eight different states.
     Mr. Vandervort’s maternal grandfather, Elisha Noble, who married a Miss Matthews, was one of the contractors who assisted in the erection of the present courthouse at Wilmington, about 1838.  He lived on a farm near New Vienna, in Green township.  Minerva Noble was one of eight children born to her parents: Elisha and John M., the two eldest, now deceased; Mrs. Vandervort; Mrs. Melinda Elliot; Mrs. Emily Slocum; Mrs. Spear; Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Bowers.  When a child Minerva Noble made her home with Doctor Runnells at New Antioch and was living with them at the time of her marriage to Thaddeus H. Vandervort.
     Thaddeus H. Vandervort grew up on a farm in Green township and attended the public schools at New Antioch.  After his marriage he drove a huckster wagon for Wilson’s store at New Antioch, but subsequently rented a farm at Snow Hill.  Later he purchased a farm two and one-half miles north of New Antioch in Green township, where he lived until his death.  He added to his farm from time to time until he owned two hundred acres.  He was a Republican and served several years as township trustee.  He was well known in Clinton county as a hog raiser.  Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus H. Vandervort belonged to the Christian church at New Antioch.  They had eight children: Andrew R., who married Alice Devers and lives on a farm in Washington township; William, who lives in Trumbull county, Ohio, where he is a farmer; Lorin A., the subject of this sketch; Nannie J., who married B. B. Vandervort, a distance cousin, and lives near Jamestown, Ohio, where he is a fruit grower; Mary E., who married Frank Hare, and lives on a farm in Jefferson township; E. Bert, who lives on his father’s place, in Green township; James S., who is a farmer in Trumbull county, Ohio; and Nettie who married Samuel Traum, a minister in the Christian church at Meadville, Pennsylvania.
     Lorin A. Vandervort was educated in the public schools of Green township, assisting his father on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, at which time he was married.  After his marriage he lived on his father-in-law’s farm in Union township for ten years, and, in 1892, purchased one hundred acres of land from the Catherine Glass farm.  Since that time he has added fifty-one acres, the farm now consisting of one hundred and fifty-one acres altogether.  The house in which Mr. and Mrs. Vandervort live was built in 1891.
     On Dec. 29, 1882, Lorin A. Vandervort was married to Alice C. Wilson, a native of Union township, daughter of James and Mary (Custis) Wilson, both of whom are deceased.  Mr. and Mrs. Vandervort have had two children, Lloyd and Augusta.   Lloyd, who was born September, 1883, died on Apr. 25, 1899.  Augusta, who was born in October, 1890, married M. R. Snyder and lives on the James Wilson homestead in Union township.
     Mr. and Mrs. Vandervort belong to the Walnut Street Christian church in Wilmington, where Mr. Vandervort has served as a deacon.  Mr. Vandervort is a Republican.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Indianapolis, Ind. :: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1915 - Page  433