Peter Aaron Van Dorn

Peter Aaron Van Dorn (1773–1837) was an American lawyer, judge and plantation owner. He was one of the founders of Jackson, Mississippi.

Peter Aaron Van Dorn
BornSeptember 12, 1773
Peapack, New Jersey
DiedFebruary 12, 1837
Mississippi
Resting placeWintergreen Cemetery, Port Gibson, Mississippi
EducationPrinceton University
OccupationLawyer, planter
Spouse(s)2, including Sophia (Donelson Caffery) Van Dorn
ChildrenMary Van Dorn
Jane Van Dorn
Octavia Van Dorn
Earl Van Dorn
Aaron Van Dorn
Mabella Van Dorn
Sarah Van Dorn
Emily Van Dorn
Jacob Van Dorn
Parent(s)Aaron Van Dorn
Ghacy Schenck
RelativesClement Sulivane (grandson)

Early life

Peter Aaron Van Dorn was born on September 12, 1773 near Peapack, New Jersey.[1][2] He descended from the Van Doorn family. Members of this family were elevated to the Dutch nobility in the 19th century.[1][2] Emigrants to the New World became wealthy farmers, particularly in Monmouth County, New Jersey and Somerset County, New Jersey.[1] His father was Aaron Van Dorn (1744-1830) and his mother, Ghacy Schenck (1748-1820).[2]

He studied theology and law at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating in 1795.[1][2][3]

Career

Van Dorn first moved to Virginia.[2] After his first wife died, he moved to the Mississippi Territory at the age of twenty-one.[2]

He became a lawyer in Natchez, Mississippi.[1] In 1804, Territorial Governor William C. C. Claiborne appointed Van Dorn Marshal of Natchez.[2] Shortly after, he moved to Port Gibson, Mississippi, forty miles away from Natchez, a port city on the Mississippi River and on the Natchez Trace to what became Nashville, Tennessee. Van Dorn established a private practise in Port Gibson and served as clerk of the Circuit Court from about 1810.[1][2] In 1817, he became Clerk of the Mississippi House of Representatives.[2]

He was a proponent of establishing public schools in Mississippi.[1] In 1821, he served on a commission alongside Dr William Lattimore and General Thomas Hinds to decide upon the location of the future state capital, Jackson, Mississippi.[1][2] The new town's plan followed a 'checkerboard' plan suggested by Thomas Jefferson, whereby houses would be interspersed by parks and green spaces.[2]

He built the Van Dorn House in Port Gibson, now listed on the National Register of Historic places.[2] He also built another house in Grand Gulf, ten miles away from Port Gibson.[2] It was destroyed during the Battle of Grand Gulf in 1863 during the American Civil War; it stood where the Grand Gulf Military State Park now stands.[2] Additionally, he owned a plantation on the Yazoo River as well as African slaves.[1][2]

Van Dorn was a prominent freemason, in the Washington Lodge No. 3 of Port Gibson, Mississippi.[2]

The Van Dorn House in Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Personal life

Van Dorn's first wife, with whom he had no children, died when they were living in Virginia.[2] On August 18, 1811, he married Sophia (Donelson Caffery) Van Dorn, the granddaughter of explorer and revolutionary Col. John Donelson, who founded Fort Nashborough which later became Nashville, Tennessee.[1][2] She was also the niece of Rachel Jackson, President Andrew Jackson's first wife, Rachel.[3][4] They had nine children before her death in late 1830 or early 1831:[2]

  • Mary Van Dorn Lacy (1812-1837)
  • Jane Van Dorn Vertner (1815-1870)
  • Octavia Van Dorn Ross Sullivane (1816-1897). Her son Clement Sulivane (1838-1920), served in the Confederate States Army (C.S.A.) as aide de camp of his uncle Earl Van Dorn (below) and later in the Maryland Senate.
  • Sophia Mabella Van Dorn (1819-1836)
  • Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863) became a U.S. Army officer and C.S.A. general during the American Civil War.
  • Aaron Van Dorn (1822-1874)
  • Sarah Ross Van Dorn (1825-1828)
  • Emily Donelson Van Dorn Miller (1827-1909)
  • Jacob Van Dorn (1829-1837)

Death

Although Van Dorn wrote his will in 1830, he died on February 12, 1837 at his plantation near the Yazoo River.[1] He was buried with Masonic honors in the Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson, Mississippi.[2] Daniel Vertner was the sole executor of his will.[2]

References
  1. Arthur B. Carter, The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, C.S.A., pp. 1-2
  2. Ancestry.com: Peter Aaron Van Dorn, 1773-1837
  3. The Confederate General, National Historical Society, 1992, volume 6, p. 71
  4. Abraham Van Doren Honeyman, The Van Doorn Family (Van Doorn, Van Dorn, Van Doren, Etc.) in Holland and America, 1088-1908, Issue 764, p. 485
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