JOHN HENRY VANNUYS was born in Shelby County, Ky., August 16, 1820, being the
tenth in a family of fifteen, born to Tunis [sic Teunis] and
Catherine Demaree) Vannuys, and is of Holland-Dutch extraction. His
father was a native of Somerset County, New Jersey, born in 1772,
and died in Johnson County, Ind. in 1847. His mother was born in
Pennsylvania, and died in this county, in 1844. The family came to
Johnson County in 1836. The subject of this sketch received a good
common school education, having attended school in Kentucky, and
afterward, the public schools and Baptist College of Franklin. In
the fall of 1847, Mr. Vannuys settled on his present farm, which
consists of 175 acres of valuable land. Since 1878, he has been
engaged in dairy business, and now has fifty head of jersey cattle,
and during the year 1887, sold to the Gualt House at Louisville,
6,500 pounds of choice butter. Mr. Vannuys was married April 15,
1840 to Miss Caroline Ditmars, a native of New Jersey, born in
1821, and died in 1872. Of five children born to this union, three
are yet living: John D, Charles C. and Mollie Kate. The eldest
child, Samuel W., born January 22, 1841, was a soldier in the late
war, enlisting in the fall of 1861, Company F, Indiana Volunteer
Infantry. He was first made a captain, and at the time of his
death, which occurred September 29, 1864, while making a charge at
the battle before Richmond, held the rank of assistant adjutant
general. He was a true and brave soldier, and a man of rare
attainments. The second marriage of Mr. Vannuys occurred in 1874 to
Mrs. Nannie E Voris, whose maiden name was Ritchie. Mrs. Vannuys is
a native of Jefferson County, Ind., born December 25, 1832.
Politically, our subject was formerly a whig, but is now a member
of the republican party, and has been a justice of the peace. In
1835 he united with the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, with which
denomination he has since been a leading and consistent member, and
since 1872 has been an elder in the church at Hopewell. Mrs.
Vannuys is a member of the same church.
Transcribed by Lois Johnson
Banta, D.D. History of Johnson County, Indiana. Chicago, IL: Brant & Fuller, 1888. page 667