THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 24. AUGUST, 1896. NO. 8. 



"15 



iograpl^y. 



H. E. VAN DEMAN, PARKSLEY, VA. 



I Seu f roiitispii-cu.) 



The subject of this sketch was born on a farm near Frankfort, 

 Ross County, Ohio, Nov. '.i, 18i5. His early education was received 

 in the public schools of that place, and later he attended an academy 

 at South Salem. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted as a soldier in 

 the War of the Rebellion, serving- as a private in Company A, in the 

 1st Ohio Heavy Artillery, his terin of service running from June 0, 

 ISiVA, to the close of the war in 18(35. After his discharge he resumed 

 his studies, but soon decided to follow fruit growing as a life work, 

 and gave up his plans of attending college and found work with a 

 practical fruit grower, in order to get the training he needed under 

 a competent preceptor. For a few months he worked on the famous 

 fruit farm of J. Knox, near Pittsburg, Pa., and afterwards, during 

 the years '(J and '(iS, under the personal supervision of the noted 

 pomologist, the late Dr. John A. Warder, at North Bend, Ohio. By 

 working with the other laborers in the orchards, vineyards and berry 

 lields, and by pursuing his studies of botany and scientific litera- 

 ture at night and as occasion offered, something like the same 

 end was reached as is now attained by those who take an agricul- 

 tural course. 



He spent the next two years helping a brother clear awaj' a forest 

 and planted a small fruit farm in the wilderness of northern 

 Michigan. Later he went to Kansa.s and bought an eighty acre 

 farm, which was afterwards increased to 240 acres, near Geneva, 

 Allen county. A portion of this he planted to fruits of all suitable 

 varieties. 



After seven years of pioneer life on the Kansas prairies, he re- 

 ceived a call to fill the chair of botany and practical horticulture in 

 the Kansas Agricultural College. He occupied this position during 

 the years 1878 and 1879 and then gave it up to renew active work on 

 his farm. 



Mr. Van Deman made it a practice to attend the various local, state, 

 national and international meetings and fruit shows, either as 

 member, exhibitor or awarding judge, as occasion recjuired. In 

 I8S0 he conceived the idea of the instituting a division of pomology in 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, and after its creation 

 in 18S6 was called to be its chief. This recjuired his removal from 

 the farm to a residence in Washington, D. C. He jilanned and 

 organized the jjomological division up to Secretarj- Morton's ad- 

 ministration of tlie Agricultural Department, which closed his con- 

 nection therewith. 



At {jrcsent Mr. VanDeman is conducting a fruit farm at Parksley, 

 Va. He is still in the prime of life, and with his <juaIifications and 

 experience has yet his best years and his best work before him. 



