John N. Van Deman
John N. Van Deman, lawyer (firm of Van Denian & Russell), Washington; son of John L. and R. P. (Wilson) Van Deman; born January 5, 1845, at Washington; lived there, and attended village school, until February, 1858; then removed with his father to Frankfort, Ross County. They lived there two years, and then returned to Washington, where they have since resided. At the age of twelve he began to assist his father (who was a merchant) in the store, and very early acquired a taste for the mercantile business. At the age of seventeen he attended and graduated at Duff's Commercial College, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the following year went to Miami University, where he remained until twenty, then left college, in the middle of his senior year, to accept the offer from his father of a one-third interest in his dry-goods business and he then began business for himself, March 1, 1865, becoming at once the buyer for the new firm. The business was rapidly extended, and a wholesale trade established, until their annual sales (which had been about $25,000) were increased to $85,000.
In 1872, he began to read law in his leisure hours, not then with the intention to practice, but for information. He had also received a course of lectures on commercial law while at Duff's College. As he advanced in the study it became more and more attractive, until, in 1876, he decided to, and did, quit the dry-goods business to enter the profession, and was admitted by the supreme court of the state to practice law, in about three months after leaving his mercantile pursuits. He immediately opened an office in Washington, and at once acquired a good business; and has since that time been actively and successfully engaged in the practice.
In 1873-4, he was a member of the city council. Is a Republican in politics, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been for years a worker in the Sunday-school, and in the temperance cause. Is also an active member of the order of Odd-fellows, in which he is prominently and favorably known throughout the state. He was married, May 14, 1867, to Lizzie Nash, daughter of William and M. G. Nash, of Clermont County, who was born September 12, 1847, and who died March 15, 1881. She was the mother of six children, who survive her.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County