VAN ALLEN, John D.

VAN ALLEN, RANSOM, HOLMES, BEVIER, MORRIS

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 1/29/2002 at 18:18:38

The Clinton Herald Wednesday January 2, 1929 John D. Van Allen, founder of the large department store in Clinton which is conducted under the name of John D. Van Allen & Son, company, was a direct descendent of Lorenz Van Allen who was born in Utrecht, Holland, in 1615 and who, emigrating to America, became one of those who purchased Manhattan island from the Indians for the sum of $24. It was by virtue of this ancestor that John D. Van Allen became a member of the Holland society. In the maternal line he descended from the Ransoms, who trace their ancestry to the Plymouth colony and to those who came over as passengers on the Mayflower in 1620, landing at Plymouth Rock. His parents were Abram and Olive (Ransom) Van Allen, who in 1845 removed to the middle west, settling in McHenry county, Illinois, where John D. Van Allen was born October 5, 1850. At the early age of thirteen years the latter started in business life for himself, working at a salary of $1.50 per week and from this sum saving $30 a year to send home to his mother. While yet a young man he went to New York city and for nineteen years he was employed by a Scotch linen importing house, learning every phase of the business and gaining intimate and valuable knowledge of c