Van Vleck, John

Van Vleck, John a Reformed (Dutch) minister, was born at Shawshank, N.Y., in 1828; graduated at Rutgers College in 1852, and at the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, N. J., in 1855. Immediately he became principal of Holland Academy, which in 1866 was incorporated as "Hope College." It is located at Holland, Mich. and was begun as a parochial and civil school at a very early period in the large colony of Hollanders which settled on Black Lake in 1847-48, under the leadership of the Rev. A. C. Van Raalte, D.D. As a missionary of the Reformed Church, Mr. Van Vleck was the first to preach in English in the colony, and thus laid the foundation of the flourishing-Second Reformed Church in that city. In 1859 he became principal of the Academy at Kingston, N.Y.; and in 1862 assumed the pastoral charge of the churches of Middleport and Wawarsing, in Orange Co. He died March 15, 1865, of consumption, which had been long preying upon, his constitution. He was amiable, greatly beloved, thoroughly trusted, conscientious, spiritually minded, a true scholar, and a Christian of exemplary character and high attainments in the divine life. He was a superior classical scholar and teacher. In. the sacred languages, especially in Hebrew, he was not only a hard student, but an accomplished exegetical writer and instructor. He prepared a valuable critical work on Gethsemane, and another was far advanced upon the Song of Solomon at the time of his death. But he did not live to complete them for publication. See Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Church in America, s.v. (W..J. R. T.)