Pg. IX

Joseph Vanden whose correct name is Vanden-bemden, was born in Amsterdam, Holland, April 1st, 1787. When four years of age he came to Philadelphia, and after a two years’ residence in that moral city, he landed in the aggregation of log-cabins known then as Gallipolis. The heavy primeval forest encircled the clearing, and the new Dutch arrivals found themselves among French, who had deserted their trans-continental homes for the same reasons – political unpleasantness.

The little colony was not quite three years of age when he came, and he lived to see the iron rail wind down the beautiful valley of the Chicmauga, and the iron horse puff and blow where the deer had lived a retired life in its sylvan home, and the Indian held undisputed sway. Three of his father’s brothers had leaned on the block, and their gory heads been carried off in baskets, and here he had cast his lot in a country where the law has never claimed but one neck in its whole history, that of James Lane in 1817.

In the war of 1812, Joseph Vanden placed himself at the head the first company of patriots that volunteered in defence [sic] of liberty and independence. Not until the last clash of arms had echoed did the active young Dutchman come home and hang up his rifle and pouch over the broad mantlepiece [sic]. On June 15th, 1815, he wedded Mary Randall, the lassie of his choice, and merry flew the feet over the puncheon floor in honor of the occasion; and it was the day when Blucher and Wellington became heroes and Napoleon met his defeat at Waterloo.

His life from this time was peaceful in the pursuit of home comforts. He was an intimate friend of Col. Robert Safford, the subject of a former sketch. He stood upon the bank and hailed the first steamboat that appeared upon the Ohio river, with gaping wonder. He was deputy-sheriff in 1817, at the time when James Lane, the only man ever executed in the county, was hung. The first president who obtained his vote was James Madison, and the last was the lamented James A. Garfield. He died Monday evening, may 16th, 1881, aged 94 years, and left a large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.