Born: Lafayette, Indiana, 1846.
Died:
Was brought to McLean County, Illinois, in 1849. His early life was spent on the farm. He attended the public schools, developed a hunger for the knowledge of good things and has kept company with many books. In 1864 he took a turn at military service in Company B, 150th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. In 1867 he entered the ministry, and during the next eighteen years preached for most of the Christian congregations--often two or three at a time--in McLean County outside of Bloomington. He served Stanford five years.
Besides one short period in Missouri and Kansas each, he has worked for churches in Adams, Green, Hancock and Morgan Counties. Then he has done not a little evangelistic work. During the forty-three years of his continuous ministry, he took only one month for a vacation. In Mr. Van Dervoort the finer elements of Christian manhood are united. The results of his ministerial work are of the best.