John Baptist Vanvorst

In 1816, Peter Van Slyke came to Indiana from New York and bought 1000 acres of land in what became Greene County, paying $2 per acre in gold. But he then returned home to New York. The country in this vicinity was at that time without an inhabitant. It was home only to panthers, wolves and other wild animals.

Before Van Slyke returned to Indiana, he first sent his son-in-law, John VanVorst, to Indiana in 1817 to the land that Van Slyke had purchased.

John Baptist Vanvorst was born on August 3, 1788, in Schenectady, Albany County, New York, of Dutch ancestry, and he had married Catharina Van Slyke, the oldest daughter of Peter Cornelius VanSlyke, who also was Dutch.

Then, in 1818, Peter VanSlyke moved by wagon to Indiana, bringing his own wife and unmarried children as well as his son Cornelius Van Slyke and his family. On November 15, 1818, traveling from Washington, which then consisted of a few cabins, a mill and fort which had been used in the War of 1812, they found John Vanvorst on his farm beating and sifting corn for meal, since he was out of flour. The only source of flour was at Vincennes or Washington. The Vanvorst family provided a delicious supper for the new arrivals of pumpkin, bread, potatoes and fresh game.

By the time VanSlyke moved to Greene County, John Vanvorst had built south of the “burial mound” at the “big spring.” This may be near what we now know as Bloomfield High School.

VanSlyke built south of the Vanvorst homestead, where they lived several years. Then VanSlyke built not far west of where A.G. Cavins later lived, perhaps west of where Red Oliphant lived on the corner of Davis and Seminary Streets.

The country at that time consisted of forest with but little underbrush. The few children were dressed in deerskin garments. If shoes were worn, they were made of deerskin also.

We know that the VanVorst family was a religious family. In 1823, it was John Vanvorst who invited people in the community and the Reverend Andrew Downing, a circuit-riding Presbyterian pastor, to a spring on his farm to discuss organizing a church. The meeting on the Vanvorst farm was near a spring, and we think it was near what we now know as the intersection of Spring Street and Seminary Street.

It was there on August 9, 1823, at an outdoor meeting on the farm of John Vanvorst, the congregation now known as the First Presbyterian Church of Greene County was organized. The meeting was held in a grove near what we now know as Spring and Seminary Streets in Bloomfield. But at this time the Town of Bloomfield did not exist. Just north of the meeting site, at that time and for many years after, there was a spring that provided abundant water. The church was organized by the Reverend Andrew W. Downey, and the first ruling elders elected and ordained were John Vanvorst, Carpus Shaw, Daniel Wasson, William Roach and John Benham.

John VanVorst continued to be a leader in the small church congregation. In April, 1928, VanVorst traveled from Bloomfield to Lebanon in Daviess County to attend a meeting of the Indiana Presbytery.

John Vanvorst died in Greene County, Indiana, in 1855. He is buried in the VanSlyke Cemetery in Bloomfield.

“Footprints” is a series of stories about the people, places and circumstances that make up the history of the Town of Bloomfield on the occasion of Bloomfield’s coming bicentennial. David Holt has researched extensively to write these stories we share with you, and we thank him for that.