John Milton Van Meter

JOHN MILTON VAN METER was born June 21, 1842, in Clark County, Ky., and in 1862 enlisted in Company B, Eighth Kentucky Confederate Regiment, Morgan's command; was captured on the Ohio raid, and remained a prisoner of war at Camps Chase and Douglas until the close of the war. His father, Isaac Van Meter, a native of Hardy County, Va., removed to Clark County, Ky., when a young man, where he engaged in farming and stock breeding, and was among the first to introduce shorthorn cattle into the State. He was for many years a deacon in the Presbyterian Church, an old line Whig, and died about 1855, at the age of sixty-four years. He married Rebecca, daughter of Capt. Isaac and Sarah (Harness) Cunningham, of Clark County (born in 1800, died in 1804) and their union resulted in the birth of Solomon, Isaac C., Jacob, Susan (Allen), Sarah A. (Hall), Rebecca (deceased), Eliza C. (deceased), Amanda B. (deceased), Benjamin F., Thomas C., William (deceased), Abram, Lewis M. and John M. On March 20, 1800, John M. Van Meter was married to Miss Alice, daughter of Rev. Stephen and Amanda (Lovell) Yerkes, of Boyle County (born in. Maryland, August 10, 1848), and to them have been born Ama Y., Susan A., Adie L. (deceased), John M. (deceased), Lizzie S. and Alice Y. In 1862 Mr. Van Meter graduated at Centre College, Danville, and in 1868 in the law department of the Kentucky University at Lexington, and practiced law two years in partnership with Judge Murton of Lexington. In 1870 he located on a farm in Woodford County, where he remained until 1883, when he sold the farm for $120 per acre, and purchased 437 acres of land in Boyle County, three miles south of Danville, where he now resides. His farm is in good condition, well improved, and in a fine state of cultivation. He has a nice herd of shorthorn cattle on the place; considerable space has been devoted to fruit culture, and he has one of the most extensive and thrifty vineyards in the vicinity. For sixteen years Mr. Van Meter has been an elder in the Southern Presbyterian Church. In politics he is a Democrat. His grandfather, Capt. Isaac Cunningham, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and represented Clark County in the Legislature. Isaac Cunningham has entertained Henry Clay and Daniel Webster at his house.

Copied from: "Kentucky: A History of the State" by Battle-Perrin-Kniffin, 1866.

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