JAMES NAPOLEON VAN ALLEN

James Napoleon Van Allen, who has been engaged in the hay and feed business at Little Falls for more than thirty years, was born at Danube in Herkimer County, New York, October 3, 1855, and is a member of a family that has been represented in that locality for three generations. His grandparents, John F. and Katie (Covel) Van Allen, lived and died there. Their son, Aaron Van Allen, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Danube, in 1829, and died there in December, 1872. His wife (Edith Ann Dusler) was the daughter of Jonas and Marie Dusler. She was born near St. Johnsville and died at Danube at the advanced age of eighty-five.

James N. Van Allen attended the public schools and until he had attained his majority helped with the work on his father’s farm. He celebrated his coming of age by buying a farm of his own and marrying, and for the first nine years of their married life he and his wife lived on the newly purchased farm. Subsequently Mr. Van Allen traded his farm and located in Fink Basin, where he lived until his removal to Little Falls in 1893. At Little Falls Mr. Van Allan became associated with the late Jacob Zoller in the hay and feed business, under the firm name of the Valley Mills Company. As long as he lived Mr. Zoller was president of the company. After his death in 1912 the business was incorporated under the old name and continued under Mr. Van Allen’s management. In October, 1922, Mr. Van Allen bought out the other stockholders, so that now the business is entirely controlled by him and other members of his family. Mr. Van Allen has three farms in Herkimer County and a considerable amount of real estate in Little Falls. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and is a Republican.

In the village of Danube, on January 16, 1876, James N. Van Allen and Miss Ina Christina Harden were united in marriage. Mrs. Van Allen was born at Danube on December 4, 1856, daughter of Calvin and Catherine (Landt) Harden and grand-daughter of Jeremiah and Nella Eliza (Ostrander) Landt of that place. Her mother, who was born in Danube, September 12, 1831, lived to a good old age, her death occurring in Little Falls on February 5, 1922. Mrs. Van Allen’s paternal grandmother was Elizabeth (Dingman) Harden, of Dutch descent. Six children have been born to the Van Allens. Edwin Aaron Van Allen, born on June 5, 1877, is now associated with his father in the feed business as vice president and a director of the Valley Mills Company. He married Mary G. Draper, daughter of Charles and Lena Draper of Little Falls and had one son, James, who died in infancy. Lena Catherine Van Allen born on November 28, 1878, married Worthy Niver, Jr., of Schenectady, a son of Worthy Niver, Sr., and Anna Niver of that city. He is associated with the General Electric Company of Schenectady. Their only daughter, Barbara Louise, was born November 25, 1917. Miss Eva Christina Van Allen is treasurer of the Little Falls Hospital, a member of the board of health and an active worker among the women in civic matters. Miss Van Allen was born on December 2, 1880. William Calvin Allen, born on August 12, 1883, married Elizabeth Aurelia Baker, daughter of John and Julia Baker of Little Falls, and has two children: Virginia Annetta, born on September 4, 1919, and John Baker, September 23, 1923. Bessie Maude Van Allen, born on April 15, 1886, married Harry M. Champion, son of Frank and Emma Champion of Danube. Their tow children are Evelyn Ina, born on June 2, 1915, and David James, January 23, 1929. Harry James Van Allen is treasurer and a director of the Valley Mills Company. He was born on November 29, 1887, and married Jane Eleanor Shimmerman, daughter of Valentine and Carrie Shimmerman of Fort Plain. Mr. Van Allen has a brother, Daniel A. Van Allen, born in May, 1863, who lives in the town of Danube, where he has served as commissioner of highways and also as supervisor for the town of Danube. He married Miss Elma Shaw, daughter of Calvin and Mary (Robinson) Shaw. Mr. And Mrs. Daniel A. Van Allen have a son, Reed L. Van Allen. An only sister of Mr. Van Allen, Elizabeth C. Van Allen, died in 1861, and the ago of eight years.

Source: History of the Mohawk Valley – Gateway to the West, pp. 813-814.

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WILLIAM VAN ALLEN

William Van Allen (b. Brooklyn, New York, Aug. 10, 1882; d. 1954);s. Jacob and Eleda (Squire)Van Allen. While he attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he worked in the office of Clarence True. He also worked for several firms in New York, before he won the 1908 Lloyd Warren Fellowship which allowed him to study in Europe. In Paris, Van Allen studied in the atelier of Victor Laloux at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1911, Van Allen returned to New York, where he formed a partnership with H. Craig Severance. The partnership became known for its distinctive multistory commercial structures which abandoned the historic formula of base, shaft, and capital. Their partnership broke up under less than "happy" circumstances. H. Craig Severance went on to design the Bank of Manhattan Building in 1929 - to be the tallest in the world. William Van Allen went on to gain the Reynolds Building commission. Later, because of lack of money and interest, the Reynolds Building drawings were sold to Walter P. Chrysler. The building was renamed accordingly. Ultimately, Van Allen engaged his former partner in a "story by story" competition. He bested his former partner (with sweet revenge) by a swat with a stainless steel building top. He thus achieved the "short" distinction of being the architect of the "tallest" building in the world. Van Allen’s design of the Chrysler Building is often praised as the greatest example of Art Deco style skyscrapers and the perfect monument to American capitalism. He died in 1954.

JAMES ALFRED VAN ALLEN

James Alfred Van Allen, physicist, educator; b. Sept. 7, 1914 in Mt. Pleasant, IA, son of Alfred Morris Van Allen and Alma E. Olney. American space scientist who contributed to 24 satellite and space probe missions, including some of the early Explorers and Pioneers 10 and 11. His research focused on planetary magnetospheres and the solar wind. He began high-altitude rocket research in 1945, initially used captured V-2s, and is best remembered for his discovery of the radiation belts that were subsequently named after him (see Van Allen Belts). Van Allen received a BS from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1935, and a M.S. (1936) and Ph.D. (1939) from the California Institute of Technology. After a spell with the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where he studied photodisintegration, Van Allen moved in 1942 to the Applied Physics Laboratory at The Johns Hopkins University where he worked to develop a rugged vacuum tube. He also helped to develop proximity fuses for weapons used in World War II, especially for torpedoes used by the United States Navy. By the fall of 1942, he had been commissioned as an officer in the Navy and was sent to the Pacific to field test and complete operational requirements for the proximity fuses. After the War, Van Allen returned to civilian life and began working in high altitude research, first for the Applied Physics Laboratory and, after 1950, at the University of Iowa. Van Allen’s career took an important turn in 1955 when he and several other American scientists developed proposals for the launch of a scientific satellite as part of the research program conducted during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58. After the success of the Soviet Union with Sputnik 1, Van Allen’s Explorer spacecraft was approved for launch on a Redstone rocket. It flew on January 31,1958, and returned enormously important scientific data about the radiation belts circling the Earth. Van Allen became a celebrity because of the success of that mission, and went on to other important scientific projects in space. In various ways, he was involved in the first four Explorer probes, the first Pioneers, several Mariner projects and the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory. Van Allen retired from the University of Iowa in 1985 to become Carver Professor of Physics, Emeritus, after having served as the head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1951.

References

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1. Newton, David E. "James A. Van Allen," In Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, edited by Emily J. McMurray et al. New York: Gale Research, 1995, 2072-72.

2. Van Allen, James A. Origins of Magnetospheric Physics. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983.

HENRY AND CORNELIA (POTTER) VANALLEN

Henry Vanallen, one of the early settlers of Montcalm County, was born in Franklin, Vt., March 13, 1821. When he was six years of age his mother died, leaving a family of five children. At this event the family was broken up; the children scattered among the friends. Henry, having no permanent home, as soon as he was old enough went to work at such jobs as came his way until 1840 when he came to Michigan, stopping in Oakland County, where he married, April, 1848, to Cornelia A. Potter, from North Chili, N. Y., where she was born October, 1831. Soon after they were married Mr. Vanallen brought his wife to Eureka, where he had previously purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, upon which there was a small log house of the most primitive kind, with little or no other improvement. There were a few settlers in the neighborhood, and Mr. Vanallen hired his wife's board until fall, when they moved into the log house and commenced the arduous task of making a home in the wilderness. With no capital save their own energies, and by judicious management and untiring industry, they have made a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, under a good state of cultivation, with commodious buildings, and have raised a family of three children, two daughters and one son. The oldest daughter, Mary Melvina, married E. T. Miller. She died February, 1876. Leander L. occupies the old home and works the farm. Effie L. lives with her parents. Mr. Vanallen, wishing to be relieved from the cares of the farm, has erected a fine residence near the old home, where this pioneer couple propose to enjoy their well-earned competency. Mr. Vanallen is a man of strong common sense. In all the relations of life "honesty and economy" has been his motto. This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881. Page 402-3, Eureka.

JOHN EVERT VAN ALEN

John Evert Van Alen, (1749-1807) John Evert Van Alen, a Representative from New York, born in Kinderhook, Columbia County, N.Y., in 1749; completed preparatory studies; moved to De Freestville in 1778 and engaged in extensive farming operations; surveyed the town of Greenbush in 1790 and conducted a general store there; engaged in civil engineering and surveying; assistant court justice in Rensselaer County in 1701; elected to the Third Congress and reelected as a Federalist to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses and served fom March 4, 1793, to March 3, 1799; member of the State assembly in 1800 and 1801; died in March 1807.