Lake-Porter-Noble County IN Archives Biographies.....Van DeWalker, James 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 26, 2006, 7:27 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

DR. JAMES GILBERT VAN DeWALKER.

    Dr. James Gilbert Van DeWalker, a prominent and well known physician and
surgeon residing at 712 Johnson street, Hammond, Indiana, has been numbered
among the popular practitioners of this city for over twenty years, and has been
engaged in professional work for nearly a half century. His long life has been
full of useful activity, and he has been identified with many enterprises both
public and private during his career. He is a man of breadth and harmony of
character, and his energetic disposition and large intelligence have brought him
into relationship with all kinds of people and with various activities. He is
one of the veteran soldiers of the republic, and has also been a lawyer of no
mean ability, and has taken his full share in the social, fraternal, political
and public affairs of the various communities where he has had his home.

    Dr. Van DeWalker was born in Otsego county, New York, January 31, 1831. He
is a descendant of one of three brothers who settled in New York during the
early Dutch colonization of that state, and the family has been numbered among
the Knickerbocker houses of New York. Martin Van DeWalker, the grandfather of
Dr. Van DeWalker, was a native New York farmer, and several of his brothers were
Revolutionary soldiers. He—and the same has been true of the family in
general—lived to an advanced age, dying when he was ninety-five years old, and
his wife, whose maiden name was Christina Flansbury, lived to be still older.

    John Van DeWalker, the father of Dr. DeWalker, was a native of New York
state, was a farmer there, and about 1842 came west and settled in Pleasant
township, LaPorte county, Indiana, where he bought a farm and lived until his
death, in 1889, at the age of eighty-one years. He and his wife, who died in
1880, at the age of seventy-seven, were both members of the Methodist Protestant
church. His wife's maiden name was Nancy Thompson, a native of New York and a
daughter of Robert Thompson. The latter was a New York farmer, and for a short
time was a soldier in the war of 1812. He married Elizabeth Hull, an own cousin
of General Hull, who surrendered at Detroit, and also a cousin of General Stark,
who fought at the battle of Bennington, Vermont, where she was born. Robert
Thompson died at the age of forty-five, and his wife lived to be eighty years
old. They had three sons and three daughters. Robert Thompson's father was known
as Colonel Thompson. He was the founder of the family in America, having come
from the north of Ireland and settled in Cherry Valley, New York, a short time
before the Indian massacre. John and Nancy Van DeWalker had six sons and three
daughters, and the three now living are Dr. James G.; Emma Jane, the widow of W.
T. Horine, of Washington, D. C.; and Elizabeth, the wife of Preston Green, of
Lapaz, Indiana.

    Dr. James G. Van DeWalker was about eleven years old when he left New York
state and came to Indiana with his father, and he grew to manhood on the farm in
LaPorte county. He attended the district schools, and later studied by the light
of a tallowdip, and in the main he is a self-educated man, having gained by hard
efforts all the advantages for education and intellectual development. After
leaving home he studied with an uncle, Dr. Pierce, of Momence, Illinois, and up
to the time of the Civil war did a small practice. He enlisted in 1862 in
Company B, Twelfth Indiana Infantry, and served till the close of the war. He
was in the battle at Richmond, Kentucky, in the siege of Vicksburg, at Jackson,
Mississippi, at Missionary Ridge, and all the fifteen engagements of the
Fifteenth Army Corps during the Atlanta campaign. He was then with Sherman to
the sea, thence up through the Carolinas, the last battle being at Bentonville.
In 1863 the officers had learned that he was a physician, and put him on duty as
hospital steward, and he was assigned to General John A. Logan's, Fifteenth Army
Corps headquarters, where he served till the close of the war in 1865.

    After the war he practiced medicine at Lisbon, Noble county, Indiana, until
1868; from then until 1875 was at Lafayette; until the fall of 1878 was at
Medaryville, Indiana; then moved to Davenport, Nebraska, and practiced until
1882, in which year he took up what has proved his permanent location at
Hammond, where he has carried on a successful practice ever since. Right after
the war he also studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Pulaski county,
Indiana, in 1876, and practiced that profession there until 1878, and also in
Nebraska. He had served as marshal of Valparaiso in 1856.

    March 22, 1856, Dr. Van DeWalker married Miss Mary Beattie, who died January
21, 1891. On March 31, 1892, he married Mrs. Jennie Simpson, the widow of Robert
Harrison Simpson and a daughter of Daniel and Ann (Shannahan) Foley. Dr. Van
DeWalker is a member of the First Congregational church. He affiliates with
Calumet Lodge No. 601, I. O. O. F., and John A. Logan Encampment No. 95. He
belongs to the Colonel Robert Heath Post No. 544, G. A. R., of the Department of
Indiana. He is a member of the Lake County Medical Society, an honorary member
of the Nebraska Eclectic Medical Association, and a charter member of the
Indiana State Eclectic Association. In politics he is a Republican. He was
secretary of the board of health of Hammond for eight years, was county
physician twelve years and county coroner two years. He has also been pension
attorney for a number of years. He bought his present home and added
improvements, and also built his office on the same lot.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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