Peter Aaron Van Dorn

Peter Aaron Van Dorn (1773–1837) was an American lawyer, judge and plantation owner. He was one of the founders of Jackson, Mississippi.

Early life[]

Peter Aaron Van Dorn was born on September 12, 1773 near Peapack, New Jersey.^[1][2] He descended from the Van Doorn family. Members of this family were elevated to the Dutch nobility in the 19th century.^[1][2] Emigrants to the New World became wealthy farmers, particularly in Monmouth County, New Jersey and Somerset County, New Jersey.^[1] His father was Aaron Van Dorn (1744-1830) and his mother, Ghacy Schenck (1748-1820).^[2]

He studied theology and law at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating in 1795.^[1][2][3]

Career[]

Van Dorn first moved to Virginia.^[2] After his first wife died, he moved to the Mississippi Territory at the age of twenty-one.^[2]

He became a lawyer in Natchez, Mississippi.^[1] In 1804, Territorial Governor William C. C. Claiborne appointed Van Dorn Marshal of Natchez.^[2] Shortly after, he moved to Port Gibson, Mississippi, forty miles away from Natchez, a port city on the Mississippi River and on the Natchez Trace to what became Nashville, Tennessee. Van Dorn established a private practise in Port Gibson and served as clerk of the Circuit Court from about 1810.^[1][2] In 1817, he became Clerk of the Mississippi House of Representatives.^[2]

He was a proponent of establishing public schools in Mississippi.^[1] In 1821, he served on a commission alongside Dr William Lattimore and General Thomas Hinds to decide upon the location of the future state capital, Jackson, Mississippi.^[1][2] The new town's plan followed a 'checkerboard' plan suggested by Thomas Jefferson, whereby houses would be interspersed by parks and green spaces.^[2]

He built the Van Dorn House in Port Gibson, now listed on the National Register of Historic places.^[2] He also built another house in Grand Gulf, ten miles away from Port Gibson.^[2] It was destroyed during the Battle of Grand Gulf in 1863 during the American Civil War; it stood where the Grand Gulf Military State Park now stands.^[2] Additionally, he owned a plantation on the Yazoo River as well as African slaves.^[1][2]

Van Dorn was a prominent freemason, in the Washington Lodge No. 3 of Port Gibson, Mississippi.^[2]

The Van Dorn House in Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Personal life[]

Van Dorn's first wife, with whom he had no children, died when they were living in Virginia.^[2] On August 18, 1811, he married Sophia (Donelson Caffery) Van Dorn, the granddaughter of explorer and revolutionary Col. John Donelson, who founded Fort Nashborough which later became Nashville, Tennessee.^[1][2] She was also the niece of Rachel Jackson, President Andrew Jackson's first wife, Rachel.^[3][4] They had nine children before her death in late 1830 or early 1831:^[2]

• Mary Van Dorn Lacy (1812-1837)
• Jane Van Dorn Vertner (1815-1870)
• Octavia Van Dorn Ross Sullivane (1816-1897). Her son Clement Sulivane (1838-1920), served in the Confederate States Army (C.S.A.) as aide de camp of his uncle Earl Van Dorn (below) and later in the Maryland Senate.
• Sophia Mabella Van Dorn (1819-1836)
• Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863) became a U.S. Army officer and C.S.A. general during the American Civil War.
• Aaron Van Dorn (1822-1874)
• Sarah Ross Van Dorn (1825-1828)
• Emily Donelson Van Dorn Miller (1827-1909)
• Jacob Van Dorn (1829-1837)

Death[]

Although Van Dorn wrote his will in 1830, he died on February 12, 1837 at his plantation near the Yazoo River.^[1] He was buried with Masonic honors in the Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson, Mississippi.^[2] Daniel Vertner was the sole executor of his will.^[2]

References[]