J. I. Van Doren, master mechanic on the staff of the great Remington Arms Company's plant at Ilion, is a native son of the old Empire state, in which he has lived all his life with the exception of a period during his young manhood, when he was attending college in Michigan. He was born in Victory, New York, June 12, 1854, and is a son of Garret Lansing and Harriet (Terpening) Van Doren, the latter of whom was born in the town of Ira, New York, December 19, 1836, and died in Meridian, New York, November 11, 1917. She was a daughter of John E. and Harriet (Hollister) Terpening. Garret Lansing Van Doren was born in Cato, New York, November 7, 1829, and his last days were spent in Rochester, where he died April 23, 1909. He was a son of Isaac and Gertrude (Lansing) Van Doren, the latter of whom was born in Charleston, New York, April 7, 1798, and died in Meridian on May 8, 1866. Isaac Van Doren was a son of William and Maria (Wyckoff) Van Doren, and was born in Charleston, February 10, 1795, and died in Meridian, New York, January 4, 1868. William Van Doren was born on June 11, 1765, and died on June 3, 1839. He was a son of William (I) and Catherine (Hoff) Van Doren, the former of whom served as a soldier of the Continental army during the War of the Revolution, a private in the Somerset county (New Jersey) militia. William Van Doren (I) was born in Middlebush, New Jersey, November 13, 1727, and became a substantial farmer. He died on August 9, 1786. He was twice married, his first wife, Catherine Hoff, who was born on April 12, 1740, died on August 18, 1779. He later married Marie Wyckoff, who was born on September 12, 1766.
There have been seven generations of the Van Dorens in America, J. I. Van Doren being of the seventh generation in direct line from Pieter Van Doorn of Gravenzande, Holland, the first of that name to come to America. He arrived in 1652, and is the common ancestor of all the Van Dorns and Van Dorens in this country, it is said. He resided in the vicinity of Gowanus, now within the borough of Brooklyn, and was married twice, his first wife having been Catherine Stelting and his second wife, Jannetje Rancken. He died about 1658. The accredited traditions of the Van Doorns and of those whose names are a variation of this familiar root name have it that as early as the year 1088, or more than eight hundred years ago, the name Van Doorn was in use in Holland, and, although there were slight variations in the spelling of this name through the Middle Ages, that form of the name is more general today in Holland than any other. The remote Holland family of the name of Van Doorn divided into various branches but were located chiefly in the provinces of Brabant and Utrecht. Many members of the family early rose to prominence, and some to distinction, being honored as part of the nobility, and granted coats of arms. Some of these went into Belgium when that country was part of the Netherlands and a few went to France and to Germany. The bulk of the stock, however, always remained sturdily Dutch. The House of Doorn, now owned and occupied by the former kaiser of Germany, (Emperor William II), was once the ancestral home of the Van Doren family.
J. I. Van Doren received his schooling in Phoenix, New York, and at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, and was graduated from the latter institution in 1874. He then became a clerk in the bank at Phoenix and later associated with the Oswego and Onondaga Fire Insurance Company, a concern with which he remained as head bookkeeper for five years. He then organized the Phoenix Manufacturing Company and established a foundry and machine shop in Phoenix, his connection with this concern being in the executive capacity of secretary and treasurer. Mr. Van Doren continued this connection until 1880, when he organized the Phoenix Cutlery Company, a concern of which he was the secretary for seventeen years, or until in 1897. In the early eighties he began to give his attention to the erection of local public service plants, in this connection erecting the waterworks and the electric light plants at Phoenix, which was the first village in the state of New York to install both an arc and incandescent lighting system. Mr. Van Doren was the chief stockholder in these companies and remained with the waterworks and electric light plants until 1904, when he resumed his manufacturing activities as the superintendent of the Woodbury Chair Company at Phoenix. In 1906 he went to Lititz, Pennsylvania, where he built and equipped the animal trap factory which later came into the ownership and under the operation of the Oneida Community, Limited, of Sherrill, New York. In 1907 Mr. Van Doren transferred his services to the Remington Arms Company, Incorporated, at Ilion, as master mechanic of the plant of that company there, and has since been engaged in this capacity, this period of service now covering more than seventeen years, and has thus long been recognized as one of the forceful figures in the industrial life of that village. Mr. Van Doren is a member of the Congregational church and is a republican. He is affiliated with the college fraternity Delta Tau Delta, a member of Kappa Chapter, class of 1874, Hillsdale College, and is also a member, of the Holland Society of New York.
Mr. Van Doren has been twice married. On June 17, 1876, he was united in marriage to Miss Hattie H. Somers, who was born on January 15, 1856, daughter of James and Mary (Knapp) Somers of Clay, New York, who died on September 30, 1890. To Mr. and Mrs. Van Doren were born two children: A daughter, Hattie May, and a son, J. Somers Van Doren, born on March 17, 1881, who is now a farmer at Phoenix, New York, and who married Freda C. Vickery, daughter of Clinton D. Vickery of Phoenix. Miss Hattie May Van Doren was born on January 14, 1880. Following her graduation from the Phoenix high school she spent two years at Wellesley College and then entered the university at Syracuse, from which she was graduated in 1902. On December 29, 1905, she married Galen Hamilton Nichols, an architect, of Albany, New York, and has the following children, Kathryn, Wallace J., Galen H., Jr., Ruth and Elizabeth. On October, 7, 1903, J. I. Van Doren was married to Miss Susie Irwin Dwyer of Syracuse, New York. Mrs. Van Doren is a member of St. Augustine Episcopal church of Ilion.