Sonoma-Nevada-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Van Doren, John Suydam 1836 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2006, 5:43 pm Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. (1880) Van Doren, John Suydam. The subject of this sketch is the second child of William L. and Sarah Van Doren, and was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, April 29, 1836. At the age of eight years he moved with his father's family to St. Louis, Missouri, and in April, 1850, accompanied his father to California, arriving in the Territory of California before it was admitted into the Union as a State. He first settled in Nevada City; attended school for three months in 1851 in Sacramento, and for a like period at Marysville during the Summer of 1852. From 1852 to 1856 he followed mining in Nevada county, California, until November of the latter year, when he moved to Petaluma, where he still resides. Engaged in the hotel business with his father until January 27, 1861, and in the following June rented the Eureka Hotel at Santa Rosa, which he kept until April 24, 1862, when a disastrous fire left him to recommence his business career. In June, 1862, he was appointed by County Assessor Alonzo Walker, Deputy, to assess Santa Rosa township, a duty he completed in the month of August. In September of the same year he assisted Hon. W. A Eliason, United States Assessor, to organize the Fifth Internal Revenue District of this State, as Assistant Assessor of the first division, which embraced Sonoma and Marin counties. This position he resigned in December, and in January, 1863, was elected Minute Clerk to the State Senate, again filling the same appointment for the session of 1863-4. In September, 1864, he was once more appointed United States Assistant Assessor, on this occasion to take charge of the second division of the Fifth California District, comprising Marin county, and Sonoma, Vallejo and Petaluma townships of Sonoma county, which office he filled until April 28, 1868, when he was elected Cashier of the Bank of Sonoma county, in Petaluma, in the place of E. Sprague, who was compelled to. resign from ill health. Mr. Van Doren married, first, Martha, second daughter of the late Alexander W. Barnes, on January 27, 1861, who died January 29, 1873, leaving one daughter, Mary Frances; married, January 2, 1877, Frances Maria Rawson, daughter of Roswell and Loretta Rawson, of Galesburgh, Michigan. Additional Comments: Petaluma Township Extracted from: HISTORY —OF- SONOMA COUNTY, -INCLUDING ITS— Geology, Topooraphy, Mountains, Valleys and Streams; —TOGETHER WITH— A Full and Particular Record of the Spanish Grants; Its Early History and Settlement, Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources; the Names of Original Spanish and American Pioneers; a full Political History, Comprising the Tabular Statements of Elections and Office-holders since the Formation of the County; Separate Histories of each Township, Showing the Advancement of Grape and Grain Growing Interests, and Pisciculture; ALSO, INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE; THE RAISING OF THE BEAR FLAG; AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN; —AND OF ITS— Cities, Towns, Churches, Schools, Secret Societies, Etc., Etc. ILLUSTRATED. SAN FRANCISCO: ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1880. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sonoma/bios/vandoren825bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/